Off The Map | C+

Look out for ABC's new show Off The Map, a Grey's Anatomy spinoff washed ashore on the picturesque beaches of a remote location in South America. Three "baby docs" join three veterans at a "clinica" in a populated village near the jungle. The team struggles to learn the lays of the land and work together, despite general ambivalence to reveal themselves to each other.

"Forget everything you learned in med school," instructs the hot Australian veteran (Martin Henderson, The Ring) to the newest crop of doctors. "Tropical medicine in a third world country is a different ballgame." Treating patients in locations where modern medicine is not easily accessible, practices are almost medieval, as the doctors rely upon dried herbs, tree roots, and fruit to cleanse serious, current ailments. After an older gentleman's flesh gets caught in a zip line, the team uses coconut juice to substitute for the blood loss.

The show's apparent lead resonates strongly with other female characters from previous medical soaps. Caroline Dhavernas (Wonderfalls) plays Lily Brenner, a doctor who will go to great lengths to please patients, similar to Meredith Grey. Though she is struggling with the loss of her fiancé, she gushes the naïve enthusiasm of a woman trying to define herself beyond her personal struggles (much like Dr. Allison Cameron of House). Sound like characters we've seen before? She even looks like Ellen Pompeo.

It is clear that Grey's Anatomy tag team Shonda Rhimes and writer Jenna Bans have squeezed their very last droplets of creative juice. The blossoming romances, medical mysteries, and unexpected (yet totally expected) plot twists have all been done before. The only thing that sets the show apart from many of its competitors is the overlying theme of American sophistication versus foreign barbarism. Viewers get the idea that villagers are very bound to their unconventional medicine, and the doctors from industrial countries don't know how to communicate with them to change their ways (besides the fact that nobody speaks Spanish, despite being set in South America.) The American newbies whine about their trivial American problems, while thousands of rural South Americans don't utter a word of complaints as they wither of a common cold. It will be interesting to see the ignorant Americans grow, both as doctors and as people.

If you are at all into medical dramas wait for a few more episodes to roll around as pilots are rarely as magical as the trailers lead them to be. But if the show follows the general framework of this first episode, Off The Map might as well be off the air.