Reviewing "Strong Medicine"

I still remember when Lifetime had their share of original series about a quarter-century ago, and among their shows was Strong Medicine, which had to have been the network's first medical drama. Medical dramas had been a big thing for decades, but during my lifetime, somewhere wedged between NBC's long-running hit, ER, and the current longer-running ABC series, Grey's Anatomy, Lifetime gave us the subject this review, Strong Medicine.

The series premiered on July 23, 2000, and co-starred Rosa Blasi and Janine Turner, keeping up with Lifetime's female-centric theme. Blasi played Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado, a doctor who works at Philadelphia's fictional Rittenhouse Hospital and runs a free clinic, while also raising her teenage son, Marc, on her own. Lu also hosts a support group; with nearly every episode kicking off with Lu's group. Turner (in her first regular series since CBS' Northern Exposure), played Dr. Dana Stowe, who is strict and ambitious, but well-meaning. Part of Dana's ambition includes looking for a cure for breast cancer, and while it appears that Lu and Dana can clash, there is a closeness between them.

Regarding regulars, the cast also includes Chris Marquette as Lu's son Marc, as well as Jenifer Lewis (who has done so much, and still is) as Lana Hawkins, a former escort turned receptionist at the hospital. Brennan Elliott (who I've seen on Hallmark mystery films) played Dr. Nick Biancavilla, who was in a relationship with Dana for a while. Joshua Coxx played nurse practitioner Peter James Riggs, and Philip Casnoff played Dr. Bob Jackson, the chief at Rittenhouse, appearing during the first five seasons before being let go entering Season Six.

Though I never saw the show while it originally aired on Lifetime, I remember seeing promos, and I vividly remember Patricia Richardson being part of the show. The main reason is because this was Richardson's first major series role since Home Improvement ended, with Richardson spending eight years (1991-99) on the Tim Allen sitcom as Jill Taylor. Regarding this series, Richardson played Dr. Andy Campbell, a former military doctor who joins Rittenhouse, filling the void left by Janine Turner's departure. Similar Lu, Andy is a single mother, but her split from her husband was due to a domestic situation.

Andy begins dating another doctor, Milo Morton, during the series, and the Beyond the Gates fan in me can't help but remember seeing Milo's parents in one episode and thinking, "They are doing the world's worst job of trying to be Vernon and Anita." Sadly, the relationship ended in tragedy; Milo was killed in an auto accident, and the character's death was due to the real-life passing of Milo's portrayer, Richard Biggs.

Season Five, which served as Richardson's last, brought in Tamera Mowry-Housley as Dr. Kayla Thornton, and I remember this addition as well. Similar to Richardson, Tamera was also coming off her own sitcom, Sister, Sister, and in one episode, Tamera's twin sister and Sister, Sister co-star, Tia Mowry, appeared as Kayla's twin sister, Keisha, who struggles with schizophrenia. During Season Six, Rick Schroder (oh brother) joined the cast as Dr. Dylan West, and that same year, we would see Nestor Carbonell as billionaire Jonas Rey, who actually joined the show in Season Five, but became a regular in Season Six, as well as Lu's love interest and eventual husband.

The series tackled a lot strong issues, such as domestic violence, sexual assault (mainly an arc where Lu was on the receiving end of an attack), child abuse, HIV/AIDS, and a number of political issues. Oh, and something else was mentioned in one episode of the show:

On the day that WWE fans celebrated Eddie Guerrero's WWE Championship victory (February 15, 2004), Strong Medicine's fourth season ended with the episode, "Quarantine." The episode had the hospital dealing with patients who were carrying the coronavirus. Yes, you read that right. The coronavirus... in 2004. But if you ask people who clearly flunked science in school, it's not a thing. Not only was coronavirus a thing in late 2019 on, it was a thing as early as 15 years before the earliest case of COVID hit.

Strong Medicine aired for six seasons and 132 episodes on Lifetime, ending its run on February 5, 2006--the same day as Super Bowl XL. Despite not watching the series when it aired back then, the promos alone made me a bit of a fan of Rosa Blasi, aka Dr. Lu Delgado on the series. Prior to this, Blasi had a memorable appearance during Married... With Children's final season, and since then, she's done a handful of Lifetime movies, most notably Teenage Bank Heist. Since 2013, Blasi has played the role of Barb Thunderman (aka Electress) on Nickelodeon's Thundermans franchise, which includes the titular TV series (2013-18), the 2024 telefilm, The Thundermans Return, and the spinoff series, The Thundermans: Undercover.

I had been wanting to watch this show for the longest, and it finally hit Tubi at the end of 2025. Tubi doesn't have all of the episodes, unfortunately, but I was still happy to finally watch this show. I always love that Lu's women's group kicked off every episode, and I loved how it tackled some tough issues. Hopefully, I'll get to finally binge another Lifetime series, The Division, but for now, I'll be elated that I finally got to watch and enjoy Strong Medicine, and everything the show gave us.