Line #31 Series/StrongMedicine


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/strong_medicine.jpg]]
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3	''Strong Medicine'' is a medical drama with a focus on feminist politics, health issues and class conflict, that aired on the Creator/{{Lifetime}} network from 2000 to 2006. The series was created and produced in part by comedian and activist Creator/WhoopiGoldberg, who made a couple of cameos in the series, and Tammy Ader. The series initially starred Creator/JanineTurner and Creator/RosaBlasi, however Turner decided to later leave the show and her position was later filled with Creator/PatriciaRichardson and later Creator/RickSchroder. Strong Medicine was highest-rated original drama on basic cable in 2001.
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5	Strong Medicine brings together the worlds of two completely different doctors, Dr. Luisa “Lu” Delgado (Rosa Blasi), and Dr. Dana Stowe (Janine Turner). Lu is a single mother running a free clinic in the inner-city. Dana is a Harvard graduate and top female health specialist. The two come together when Dr. Lydia Emerson wants to combine Rittenhouse Hospital’s practice with Lu’s financially failing clinic to provide the best care for the patients of both doctors.
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7	The staff and its visitors tend to be racially, politically, and economically diverse. A core class/political duality in the episodes' storylines tend to be driven by comparisons and contrasts (and often cooperation) between liberal Delgado, and her fellow women's health practitioner across the lobby, who sees paying patients and generally has more conservative values. When Dr. Dana Stowe leaves, Lu’s partners include Dr. Andy Campbell and Dr. Dylan West. The show often places the characters in ironic, soul-searching situations in which they are forced to question the solidity of their personal beliefs or else cause them to fight for what they believe in
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10	!!The show has examples of the following tropes.
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12	* AbilityOverAppearance: Inverted. In-universe, an overweight woman sues Dr. Jackson for weight discrimination, feeling that he didn't hire her as his new secretary because of her weight, despite her numerous qualifications.
13	* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: While counseling teenage girls about sex and birth control, Lu reveals, "I'm 30, and my son is 14", leaving them to do the math.
14	* AbuseMistake[=/=]CutHimselfShaving: Dana notices bruises on Dr. Jackson's wife. The woman's vague explanation makes her suspicious. When she's rushed to the hospital a few days later, having "fallen down the stairs", Dana is now certain that Dr. Jackson has been abusing her. . . [[spoiler: only for it to turn out that his wife really ''had'' fallen. She's developing multiple sclerosis.]]
15	* AesopAmnesia: Every so often, there would be an episode where Lu would learn that not all rich people and/or men were evil, only for her to go right back to hating them the next week.
16	* AndStarring: Rick Schroeder gets this distinction when he joins the cast in the final season.
17	* ArtisticLicenseMedicine:
18	** The episode "Type & Cross", has multiple violations of patient privacy that everyone involved would be fully aware of in RealLife--Dana is present while her date is being interviewed before he donates, Peter questions Dana and Lu simultaneously, and having discovered multiple health problems among a group of nuns who have come to donate, Dana reveals all of them to their Mother Superior. Additionally, Lana donates even though her history of prostitution would make her ineligible.
19	** Andy scrubs in on an operation before officially starting work at the hospital. It doesn't matter how qualified she is, doing anything without staff privileges at a hospital is a tremendous breach of regulations.
20	%%* BetaCouple: Kayla and Peter.
21	* BabiesEverAfter: Dana quits to be a full time mother to two girls that she's adopted and the series finale sees the birth of Lu and Jonas' baby.
22	* BitchInSheepsClothing: Dana is shocked when Lu accuses her friend Rand Kilner of rape, stating, "He's handsome, intelligent, wealthy, a doctor. . ." Lu freely admits that this is all true, but it doesn't change the fact that he didn't listen to her when she told him "No".
23	* {{BookEnds}}: The episode "Trauma" starts with Lu conducting one of her usual Q&A sessions with women from the community, only she's completely distracted due to her rape having happened in the previous episode. It ends with her in a similar session with her rape support group.
24	* BottleEpisode: "Wednesday Night Fever" and "Rape Kit" take place over only one night.
25	* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Jessica, though it's understandable due to some things--moving in the middle of the school year, her parents divorce.
26	* ButtMonkey - TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: As he dares to be a man and in an administrative position, Dr. Bob Jackson was ''always'' given the short end.
27	** Despite being female, the second trope often applied to Dana and Andy as well, should they dare to disagree with Lu. Dylan actually held his own pretty well, for a while.
28	* CelebrityParadox: Andy finds her daughter watching Creator/{{Lifetime}} and asks if there's anything good on.
29	--> "[[TakeThat You'd be surprised]]." [[note]] Ironically, this series came out ''before'' Lifetime fully devolved into the constant "woman in peril" fare it's known for. [[/note]].
30	* ChosenConceptionPartner: Dana asks Peter to be the father of her baby, having decided that he has all the qualities that she would want a child of hers to have. However, despite them sleeping together, they're not beginning a relationship, he just feels that the natural way to conceive a child is best.
31	* CityMouse[=/=]CountryMouse: Lu, who grew up in one of Philadelphia's poorer neighborhoods and has clearly been struggling all her life, now tending to the the people in that very neighborhood vs Dana, who clearly grew up wealthy. When the two are forced to merge their practices so that Lu doesn't lose funding for her inner-city clinic, Dana is initially very uncomfortable dealing with the influx of low-income patients and their related health issues. And then there's Lu's and her pathological hate of people who are richer than she is.
32	* ContrastingReplacementCharacter:
33	** Andy to Dana. The latter is a single, childless woman who evidently grew up wealthy and is a veteran of elite schools and debutante balls, while the former is a married mother of two and a MilitaryBrat who herself joined the army.
34	** Dylan to both for no other reason than that he's a man.
35	* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: Lu, a ''doctor''--and a women's health specialist at that--fails to realize she's experiencing pregnancy symptoms until Dylan gives her a verbal DopeSlap.
36	* CousinOliver: Kayla Thornton, despite being an adult, is clearly this, as a rookie physician as opposed to the more experienced ones.
37	** Dylan's college sweetheart reappears in his life--with the teenage daughter he never knew existed.
38	* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: When one of Andy's daughter's friends suffers an overdose, Andy has to talk her through performing CPR, which is a classic example of this trope. In fact, it even cuts to the girl being brought into the hospital just as she begins compressions.
39	* CreatorCameo: Creator/WhoopiGoldberg, one of the executive producers, made several appearances in the first season as a doctor who was both a colleague and friend of both Dana and Lu.
40	* CrusadingWidow: Dylan fell into such a HeroicBSOD after his fiancée's death that he nearly gave up his medical career. He snapped himself out of it and decided to honor her by switching to her specialty--women's health--and throwing himself into it.
41	* CunningLinguist: Andy. Being an Army brat has left her fluent in 6 languages. It pays off when there's a patient that speaks Tagalog (a Filipino language) and she's able to converse with her, and when another patient claims to be French, but her inability to understand Andy reveals that she isn't, just an actress pretending to be.
42	* DaddysGirl: Andy. It's very obvious that she took up a military and medical career in order to follow in her father's footsteps.
43	* DateRape: Of the "acquaintance" variety and related to the "RapeAsDrama" post. Dialogue makes it obvious that Lu and her assailant already knew each other from work, explaining why she was completely comfortable accepting a ride from him and allowing him into her apartment.
44	* DeadManWriting: Several weeks after Milo's death, Andy is in a especially abrasive mood, snapping at everyone and refusing to open an envelope that has arrived for her. At the episode's conclusion, she finally reveals what's in it--two tickets to Hawaii for a vacation they'd planned.
45	* DeadSparks: Dr. Jackson confides in Dana that his once [[HappilyMarried happy marriage]] has become this. This likely explains why he's become attracted to her.
46	* DerailingLoveInterests: Poor, POOR Leslie. He was a kind HouseHusband to Andy for several seasons, and then he starts resenting it and abusing her ''for no reason at all'', just so Andy can kick him out and search for "a new boyfriend who validates and appreciates her". [[spoiler: And said boyfriend is killed off.]]) That's what you get for being a NiceGuy in Lifetime and NOT being called Peter, Les.
47	** As Leslie was originally so likeable and his derailment was so [[AssPull asspullish]], even hardcore fans of Lifetime's trademark "man-bad-woman-good" fare called shenanigans--even ''Lu'', the resident StrawFeminist, couldn't believe that he had turned into a wife-beater.
48	** This inadvertently happened to many of Lu's boyfriends as well to the point of CartwrightCurse. One's a perfectly NiceGuy who freaks out and heads for the hills as soon as he learns she has a kid, another is a spineless NiceGuy who lets his RichBitch ex-wife bully him into dumping her by threatening to take away ''his'' kid. Another helps her heal from her rape and they're seriously discussing marriage. . .only minutes before he gets [[TakingTheBullet shot protecting her]]. And yet another seems perfect for her, only for things to just fizzle out.
49	** Dana's boyfriend Nick as well. Actively pursues Dana and clearly adores her and puts to rest her initial qualms over their age difference (she's ten years his senior), as well as the fact that she's his supervisor. For several years, they're blissfully happy--until she starts bringing up marriage and children and he reacts like a scared jackrabbit, prompting her to give him the boot. It's understandable that she wouldn't want to waste time with someone who doesn't have the same goals as she (especially since she's running out of time to have children), but he's made to look a jerk for something that's entirely reasonable on ''his'' part (he's only in his late twenties and it's understandable that this isn't his top priority).
50	* DomesticAbuse: Andy's husband Les slaps her during an argument. Although shocked and horrified, she's reluctant to throw away years of a happy marriage and promises to consider reconciliation if he'll go to counseling. Although he claims to be going, she notes a discrepancy in his story and realizes that he lied to her. His dishonesty is the last straw for her and she files for divorce.
51	** Les does return later in the series, having sought therapy, apologizing to Andy for his actions and they're able to repair their relationship to friendly terms.
52	* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale[=/=]DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Averted. While treating a recently paroled sex offender (he comes to the clinic for chemical castration shots), Lu talks with his sister, who confides that they were both sexually abused by their ''mother''. At no time are they treated dismissively or as if her actions were any less despicable than if she'd been a man. The fact that the boy ended up as a rapist himself shows that it was just as damaging. The sister is also experiencing psychosomatic pains in her hands out of fear of molesting her daughter; [[AmbiguousSituation no one is sure if she is genuinely developing pedophilic urges as a result of her abuse or if she is just afraid of doing so]], but everyone is rightfully horrified of the former possibility and Lu is dismayed to have to explain that the drugs that are used to chemically castrate men don't have the same effect on women. The episode ends with Andy wondering out loud if mother-on-child molestation is reported less frequently than father-on-child because it really is more rare, or if everyone just wants to think it is.
53	** Also averted in an episode where a pop star is accused of molesting a young fan. Although the girl later admits to lying, having been pressured by her mother, her allegations are taken just as seriously as if she were accusing a man.
54	* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Also averted. One of the very first episodes featured a young man coming to the clinic for HIV testing. After some gentle prodding by Lu, he admitted that he had been out drinking late one night and was assaulted by a group of men when walking home. Lu reacts perfectly appropriately, refusing to let him blame himself for being drunk, being out late, and being in a bad neighborhood.
55	* EmbarrassingNickname: Dylan West has "St. Helens" for Lu; people around the hospital mistake it as an honor, until they hear why he gave it to her: for her tendency to erupt angrily at his sexist musings (it's short for "Mount St. Helens").
56	* TheEndingChangesEverything: Several episodes have a major twist in the final scene that has the characters (and audience) see things in a new light.
57	** The creator of a successful role-playing game franchise is dying and has a "do not revive" option. Her husband, however, fights the doctors for hours, stretching her survival into the next day before he gives in. A few days later, however, the doctors read that the woman's will had stated that had she died just one day earlier, all the rights for her game would have been donated to charity. By dying when she did, her husband inherits it all. Thus, what they saw wasn't a man unwilling to say goodbye to his wife but desperate for her to live long enough that he got $17 million.
58	** A man is brought into the ER with a severe head wound from a fall off a cliff with his wife by his side. He can't speak but the doctors press for an experimental procedure that will allow him to "type" with his mind. His wife argues, telling him point blank she doesn't want to lose him. It goes through...and the man's first words are [[spoiler: telling everyone how his wife pushed him off the cliff.]]
59	** Another woman is brought in after a car accident. She is only able to babble that she wants to see her husband. Efforts to call the man are unsuccessful and so are Peter and Lana's attempts at finding him. The woman finally dies from her injuries, with everyone lamenting that they couldn't find her husband. Until the cops show up and one of them recognizes the woman's name. It turns out that her husband himself died in a car accident several weeks prior and that ''her'' accident was in fact a suicide--she had deliberately crashed her car into a tree. Her pleas to see her husband was to presumably be reunited with him in the afterlife.
60	** After being stuck with a needle, a nurse is soon revealed to have HIV. The hospital wants to fire her as a threat to patients and she sues with Lu backing her up. Thanks to Lu's push, the nurse ends up with a very nice settlement. But days later, an irate Lu shows up at her door with the latest check-up showing the nurse now has AIDS. Since it's impossible to go from HIV to full AIDS in such a short time, this means the woman ''knew'' she was HIV positive for almost a year, had been treating patients and used the needle stick as an excuse to trick the hospital (and Lu) into a settlement to provide for her family once she was gone.
61	* FalseRapeAccusation: A young girl accuses a pop star of molesting her, but inconsistencies in her story (which is actually not uncommon in a victim of any age, especially a young one), forces her mother to admit that she coerced the girl to lie in the hopes of receiving a large settlement.
62	* FamilyVersusCareer: Dana quits to be a full-time mother to the girls she's adopted. Dr. Jackson also resigns to spend more time with his ill wife and their daughters.
63	* FirstNameBasis: Lu insists on being called her first name, so it really stands out when she rudely--and completely falsely--snaps at her son's girlfriend, "NO ONE calls me Lu!" when the girl addresses her as such.
64	* {{Flanderization}}: Lu starts out merely having a chip on her shoulder about rich people and being a slight StrawFeminist. Understandable, as she grew up in a poor neighborhood and frequently saw--and still sees in her medical practice--the end results of that poverty, such as violence, drug abuse, teen pregnancies (of which her son is a result), domestic abuse, etc. This rapidly got completely out of control, to the point where EVERY episode was guaranteed a scene of her screaming her head off about the social injustice of the week and the evils of the rich people and/or men perpetuating it.
65	* GenderFlip: The shows was noted by at least one person as having a lot of gender-flipped dynamics common on medical shows, especially regarding Peter, since he was the [[MrFanservice good-looking, motorcycle riding]] ''male'' nurse surrounded by smart, distinguished ''female'' doctors instead of the more typical reversal.
66	*** He's also the nurse boyfriend to his doctor girlfriend, again a reversal of what's usually seen.
67	** Also, ''Andy's'' husband is the HouseHusband and the primary caretaker of their two daughters, constantly packing up and moving to follow ''her'' military career, and she ends up paying ''him'' alimony when they divorce.
68	*** Andy herself lampshades this trope upon meeting Peter, noting that he's the male nurse while she's the female doctor with the military background.
69	** On a negative note, one of Lu's boyfriends is bullied into dumping her by his jealous RichBitch of an ex-wife when she threatens to take full custody of their daughter, an ironic reversal of the typical tripe that Creator/{{Lifetime}} (and TV/film/books in general) portrays.
70	** Lu is adamant that Dylan West couldn't know anything about women's health just by virtue of being a male doctor, echoing the discrimination a lot of female physicians have dealt with. Lana herself doesn't realize that he's the new doctor on staff, also a situation any female doctor could identify with.
71	* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Lu didn't abort her teenage pregnancy (the result of which is her son Mark) and despite an amniocentesis report that states that her child will have [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cri_du_chat_syndrome Cri Du Chat syndrome]], Lu adamantly refuses to consider an abortion. This is someone who has been well established as a staunch supporter of abortion rights. Lu herself [[JustifiedTrope addresses this point]]; [[ExactWords pro-choice means that a woman has just as much right to keep a pregnancy as she does to terminate, and no one else should have a say in either direction]], and she will respect a woman's choice regardless of whether she would make the same decision herself.
72	* HatesRichPeople: Lu hates wealthy people, believing many of them to be snobs and that they [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney buy their way to better health/medical care over working class and poor patients]]. This is somewhat [[FreudianExcuse justified]] as she grew up poor, was a single mother and put herself through medical school and started up a walk-in clinic in hoping the latter classes of people get help and despised whenever big pharma and the like tried to cut her off financially.
73	* HeroicBSOD: Lu has this not only after [[spoiler: being raped]], but it kicks into high gear after '''of course''' [[spoiler: the grand jury declines to indict her attacker.]] She has another after her firefighter boyfriend is shot and killed trying to protect her from a vengeful patient.
74	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Several patients, of course. Lana is implied to have been this as well.
75	* HospitalHottie: Practically everyone
76	* {{Hypocrite}}: With all the discrimination she's undoubtedly faced as a woman and as a Latina, Lu seems downright outraged at the very idea that a man(Dylan) could be a women's health specialist.
77	* IfICantHaveYou: Lu and the father of Mark's girlfriend hit it off and begin dating, only to have his RichBitch ex-wife file for sole custody of their daughter, trying to spin their relationship as something tawdry and inappropriate. Despite being fully aware that she's only doing this out of jealousy, the guy caves in and breaks up with Lu, knowing that she has the money and power to win the case and not being willing to risk losing his daughter.
78	* InterclassRomance: For all her dislike of rich people, Lu hooks up with several wealthy men during the course of the show, ultimately marrying one (Jonas).
79	* ItsPersonal: Dana has to pretty much force herself to go on automatic pilot while performing the rape exam on Lu, clearly having never imagined that she'd have to do something like this for a colleague.
80	* LastNameBasis: Andy consistently addresses everyone this way due to her military background.
81	* LawOfInverseFertility: Averted with Dana. [[spoiler: Having decided to have a child on her own, she struggles to conceive, then miscarries soon after she finally does. She resigns herself to never being able to have a child naturally and to that end, ultimately decides to adopt two girls. . .and never does conceive on her own.]]
82	* ILetGwenStacyDie: Dylan blames himself for his fiancée's death. First for falling asleep while driving, leading to their accident, then by being unable to save her despite being a physician.
83	* LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek: Now in TV series format! With all the clichés (man hate, perpetual victimization and infantilization of women, big leaps in logic, etc.) too!
84	* TheLostLenore: Dylan's backstory includes a fiancee killed in a car accident--caused by ''him'' when he fell asleep at the wheel.
85	* ManlyTears: Peter, of the SingleTear variety when visiting Lu after her rape.
86	* MaternityCrisis: Lu goes into labor while trapped in the rubble of a house explosion. To make matters worse, she has to talk Jonas through performing a C-section. Luckily, Dylan arrives to take over.
87	* MDEnvy: Peter does ''not'' have this, he's clearly quite happy being a nurse/midwife, to the point where he's downright offended when Kayla suggests he go to medical school, not because she doesn't respect him as a nurse, but because she ''does''.
88	* MedicalDrama
89	* MilitaryBrat: Andy. And given that she joined the Army just like her father, her daughters are as well.
90	* MisplacedRetribution: Lu is [[JerkassHasAPoint understandably]] annoyed that Dr. Jackson didn't consult her about hiring a new partner, but she decides to handle it by being incredibly rude to Andy, who had nothing to do with his decision.
91	* MrFanservice: Peter. Nurse, rides a motorcycle, vegetarian, Buddhist, former Peace Corps volunteer, was in a band before going into medicine, heavily implied to be a great lover, etc. Dylan West also. None of Peter's abovementioned qualities, but still a very good looking man.
92	* MistakenForGay: When Peter's mother drops by for a visit, he's rocked that she talks of how she's "finally accepted" he's gay (her "reasoning" being he's a nurse in Philadelphia who doesn't have a steady girlfriend). The rest of the staff find that hilarious as they know Peter as a ladies' man. He tries time and again to get her to realize he's straight but finally just goes along with it as it makes his mother happy.
93	* NoMeansYes: While testifying at his rape trial, Lu's assailant freely admits that she told him "no" and "stop" throughout, but insists that she did it in a playful, flirtatious manner, indicating that he thought this trope.
94	* TheNotLoveInterest:
95	** Peter to Lu. Any other show would have WillTheyOrWontThey tension, but here, they are genuinely just good friends. As well as with Dana. Even though he insists on actually sleeping with her when she asks him to father her child, it's not because of UnresolvedSexualTension, it's merely because he feels that the natural way to conceive a child is the best. And while she's clearly [[SexGod impressed at his bedroom skills]], it never turns into an actual relationship between them.
96	** Dylan to Lu. Any other show would translate their antagonism as BelligerentSexualTension, but it turns out they are simply two people whose personalities and way of doing things clash. And when things start to improve, it isn't because they're falling in love, just merely finally learning to get along and work together.
97	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Several episodes have the doctors' attempts to help just making things worse.
98	** Lu pushes for the investigation into a rash of illness in a poor neighborhood. It turns out to be mold in a huge apartment building which is condemned...meaning everyone there is now homeless.
99	** Lu argues against a cop using a taser in a school area because of the risks to kids. The tasers are banned...and the area is soon hit with gunshot wounds and deaths.
100	** Dana is annoyed to learn a new patient is the woman who made her life miserable in college as a rich elitist who loved drinking. She's surprised to learn the woman is a kind-hearted figure involved in charities and apologetic for her behavior. She claims she had a vision from God to change her ways. Dana finds out she's actually been affected by a brain tumor altering her behavior and wants to remove it but the woman begs her not to as she's worried about how it can make her that person again. Dana gives a talk on how there's no way a tumor could do that, it was her all along. She does the surgery and comes to see the woman in recovery...and meets an arrogant bitch who insults those around her, wonders why her money has been given away to "a bunch of deadbeats and illegals" and demanding a drink. Dana just stares as she realizes she's saved the woman's life but ruined the good person she was.
101	** When a local pharmacist refuses to carry painkillers for fear of being robbed, Lu pushes for him to do so, as many patients in the neighborhood genuinely need them. Sure enough, the store is robbed and the owner murdered. His brother refuses to reopen it, and the episode ends with a woman bringing her son in with an asthma attack because she couldn't get his medication--"The last pharmacy in the neighborhood, and it's gone."
102	** Similarly, she urges a school to lift its "no drugs" policy after a little girl almost dies because she wasn't allowed to carry her inhaler with her (the principal points out several instances of children smuggling in illegal drugs in legitimate bottles of aspirin, etc.) By the end of the episode, a boy is brought in suffering an overdose from huffing paint thinner that he hid inside an inhaler.
103	** In "Orders", Lu advocates on behalf of a pregnant woman accused of killing her first baby via negligence. (She's TheFundamentalist who doesn't believe in medical treatment). When she appears to insist on medical care for her second baby, Lu successfully argues that she not only deserves to retain custody, but have the charges dropped. However, upon her release from the hospital, the woman reveals that her beliefs have ''not'' changed, meaning that her second child is in just as much danger as the first.
104	* OlderThanTheyLook: Former TeenGenius Kayla Thornton. A RunningGag is to have people amazed that someone that young-looking is a full-blown doctor.
105	* OldMaid: Dana. She's mostly okay with still being single, it's her ticking biological clock that bothers her.
106	* OncePerEpisode: The majority of episodes started with Lu leading a group of women in discussion of a medical/social/personal issue.
107	* TheOneGuy: In the final season, much to her dismay, Lu's newest partner is a male doctor as opposed to the women she worked with before. (Though it's not just his gender, but the fact that they couldn't stand each other when they worked together years before). He lampshades this when he introduces himself to the equally shocked Lana.
108	* OpenMouthInsertFoot: Lu, occasionally. Unfortunately, she never seems to learn to think before she talks:
109	** When Dana takes time off to spend with her mother, Lu makes a snide comment about them taking "a Paris shopping trip", only to be coldly informed by Dana that her mother has breast cancer.
110	** She's incredibly rude to her son's girlfriend until the girl zings her for hating her for being white rather than for being rich.
111	** She's also quite rude to Andy after she's hired, insinuating that she can't handle working with low-income patients, until Andy reacts like she wasn't even listening to her.
112	** She lectures Andy about supposedly exploiting her Eastern European nanny/housekeeper. Andy angrily informs her that she is doing no such thing--she's paying the woman even more than the norm and has taken care of the necessary paperwork.
113	* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: The episode "First Response" was intended to be the first episode of a spin-off series of the same name, featuring, like its parent show, two polar opposite medical professionals--one a doctor, another a paramedic--who also happen to be a FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling pair. While ratings were not bad, it failed to generate enough interest to result in a new show.
114	* PracticallyDifferentGenerations: By the time Lu gets pregnant with her second child, her son Marc has gone off to college.
115	* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Rule One of this show: Dr. Lu Delgado is '''ALWAYS RIGHT.''' Even if she's not. And no one should dare question her.
116	* RapeAsDrama:
117	** [[spoiler: Lu]] is raped by one of the surgeons. The final episode of the storyline involves a gathering of women--including the prosecutor in her case--who had been assaulted and whose attackers had gone unpunished for a variety of reasons. It might seem like typical Creator/{{Lifetime}} tripe, but it's actually a very depressing TruthInTelevision.
118	** In one of the episodes, a teenage girl needs a transplant. When no match could be found, the girl's mother tells the staff there is one possible remaining donor candidate- the girl's father, [[ChildByRape who had fathered the girl by raping her mother]].
119	** Also, [[spoiler: Part of Lana's backstory is that she is a rape survivor as well, and in an episode she's ''again'' raped by a thug that broke into the hospital's hall at random]].
120	** The trope is used with such ridiculous ease that it brings up ''terrible'' messages: "women should pretty much inevitably expect to be raped", "90% of men are rapists", "women don't experience true abuse and trauma unless their genitalia is involved", etc.
121	** One of the very first episodes featured a young man coming to the clinic for HIV testing. After some gentle prodding by Lu, he admitted that he had been out drinking late one night and was assaulted by a group of men when walking home. Lu reacts perfectly appropriately, refusing to let him blame himself for being drunk, being out late, and being in a bad neighborhood.
122	* RapeDiscretionShot: Lu is offered a ride home by a colleague. The next shot is of her wandering into the ER, falteringly declaring that she's been raped. We never see the assault, only her and his recounting of it to a grand jury.
123	* RashomonStyle: An unusual version where we never see the incident in question when Lu and her accused rapist testify before the grand jury. She describes them having a nice evening at a reception to celebrate his appointment as Chief of Surgery (they're both doctors at the same hospital), him offering her a ride home when her car broke down, escorting her to her apartment, kissing her, then refusing to stop even though she repeatedly told him "no". In his version, it's she who kissed him and he insists that she said "no" and "stop" in a playful, flirtatious manner, indicating that [[NoMeansYes she really meant yes]]. (It's unclear if he's lying or sincerely believes what he's saying)
124	* ReallyGetsAround:
125	** When one of Lu's old high school boyfriends shows up, Lana asks her if he was "the first one". Lu sheepishly admits that rather, "he was the only one I ''didn't'' do it with."
126	** When her son's classmate claims to have been molested by their teacher after she tests positive for an STD, the teacher informs Lu that he's a swinger and as such, makes certain to stay healthy--he doesn't have the STD in question and therefore, is not the girl's abuser.
127	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: A few plots were.
128	** The most blatant was the plot of the sixth-season premiere "New Blood": A flood of patients comes in from a train wreck from someone leaving a car on the tracks. Later, a bipolar girl in manic state comes in to tell Lu how she got over a suicidal impulse. Her method: Drive a car onto the tracks and wait for a train. She got over it...but she left the car on the tracks. This is pretty much how the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Glendale_train_crash 2005 Glendale train wreck]] happened (though the perp in real life was a man.)
129	** A storyline in which a young girl accuses a pop star of molesting her, only to finally have her mother admit that she coerced her into lying so as to get a huge settlement is clearly based on the Music/MichaelJackson case, which was kicking into high gear at the time.
130	%%* SassyBlackWoman: Lana
131	%%* SassySecretary: Lana, again.
132	* SayYourPrayers: The moment that tells us that Dylan West isn't the {{Jerkass}} he's been acting like throughout most of his first episode is when he's seen praying before a surgery.
133	* SexlessMarriage: Dr. Jackson confides in Peter that his marriage is this. Peter assumes that it's because she has multiple sclerosis, but he admits it was like this even before.
134	* ShoutOut: Andy's daughters are named [[Literature/SweetValleyHigh Jessica and Elizabeth]], though they aren't twins.
135	%%* SoapboxSadie: Lu
136	* SpecialGuest: The show occasionally had famous actors or TV personalities making appearances, but not as themselves.
137	* StayInTheKitchen:
138	** An Army recruiter has a rather patronizing attitude to a young woman interested in joining, and to Andy herself, until she coldly reminds him that he's not only speaking to a fellow officer, he's speaking to a ''superior'' and tells him to shut up.
139	** Dr. Dylan West actually does ''not'' have this attitude, but likes to pretend to in order to get a rise out of Lu.
140	--->'''Dylan:''' Why do women need a women's health specialist, anyway? Aren't you just...small men?\
141	'''Lu:''' AARGH! ''[storms off]''
142	* TeamMom: Lana, ''again'', also the OnlySaneMan, to the point of MagicalNegro, given the sage advice and counsel she frequently doles out.
143	* TeenPregnancy: Lu's son is the result of this, and a later episode had him fearing that he'd gotten his girlfriend pregnant.
144	* ThirdPersonPerson: Lana frequently referred to herself this way.
145	* TomboyishName: Andy. Lana calls her "Andrea', assuming that Andy is short for this, but Andy corrects her and informs her that "Andy" is her full name, given by a father who had been either wanting or expecting a boy.
146	* UnexpectedPositive: When the hospital staff was subjected to drug testing, Peter worried that he might test positive given his occasional pot-smoking. He didn't, but Lana tested positive for ''cocaine'', stunning her as she had long since given up that lifestyle. It turns out the medium used for testing--human hair, because toxic substances can linger in the hair long after a person has last used the drug--could also easily pick up outside substances. Lana lived in a poor neighborhood where drug use was frequent and the cocaine particles in the air had clung to her hair (and it being African-American hair made them even more likely to stick than to hair of a different ethnicity and texture), making her test positive even though she no longer used drugs.
147	* UnresolvedSexualTension: Dana and Dr. Jackson, though it's mostly one-sided on his part. When he asks her "if I wasn't married. . .?", she immediately shuts him down by reminding him that he ''is''. In another episode, when he passes Nick over for a position, Dana outright tells him that he's doing this out of jealousy, and in yet another episode, upon hearing that she's looking for a sperm donor, offers his, er, services.
148	* WhamLine: At the end of Lu's rape storyline, Lu hosts a gathering of women who had been assaulted and whose attackers had gone unpunished. Beginning with Lu, they declare their name, their assailant's name, and that he was never punished. Lu is stunned when the final woman to step forward is the prosecutor in her case.
149	--> "My name is Jules Sorenson. I'm an assistant district attorney for the city of Philadelphia. I was raped by a man named Clifford Swann. A professor of mine in law school. And he was never punished."
150	* WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Andy's new boyfriend is African-American. His mother is ''not'' pleased when they meet. [[spoiler: And he gets killed off.]]
151	* WriterOnBoard: Lu seems to be a mouthpiece for the Lifetime people's black-and-white view of the interactions between men and women.
152	* YoureJustJealous: Dana flat-out tells Dr. Jackson that the reason he's passed Nick over for a position is, "You're jealous because I'm with him and not with you."
153

Context Series / StrongMedicine