‘Chance’ Review: Even With Hugh Laurie, Hulu Series Not Worth Taking A Chance On

Yes, Hugh Laurie plays a doctor on Hulu’s Chance, but the October 19-debuting series is no House – and I don’t mean that in a good way. The series based on Kem Nunn’s 2014 novel is, as I say in my video review above, an ill-considered step backwards for the home of Casual and The Path.

Few actors can do empathy or haunted as well as Laurie, and he is asked to do that a lot in this Fox 21 Studios-produced series as the broke, divorced and obsessed neuropsychiatrist Dr. Eldon Chance. Unfortunately, as the increasingly not-so-good doctor goes further and further into the Bay Area underbelly, all the alum of the great The Night Manager has to work with, is slabs of script that sink under the weight of themselves and a flabby story involving a possible multiple personality, corrupt cops, the sex trade and an alluring married patient played by Gretchen Mol.

I have no doubt that this 10-episode return of Laurie to the lead on series television four years after House wrapped on Fox will attract curious viewers and fans (in fact, Chance has a two-season order). Yet, even with a striving Ethan Suplee on board as a traumatized Army Ranger who helps navigate the Peak TV-era clichés that permeate the series executive produced by Nunn, Laurie, Alexandra Cunningham and Michael London, there isn’t much to keep them around week after week as new episodes debut. In the fast pace of today’s TV landscape, that’s a stumble waiting to happen.

Click on my Chance video review above for more and tell us what you think.

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