''Doc – Nelle tue mani'' (in English, "Doc – In your hands"), titled ''Doc'' in the English translated versions, is an Italian

medical drama A medical drama is a Television film, television movie or film in which events center upon a hospital, clinic, doctor's office, a paramedic, or any other medical topic or environment. Most recent medical drama (film and television), dramatic progra ...

TV series broadcast on

Rai 1 Rai 1 () is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It is the company's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship television channel and is known for broadcasting ...

since February 2020, written by Francesco Arlanch and Viola Rispoli. The series is inspired by the true story of doctor , former chief of the

emergency room An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pat ...

of Lodi and

Codogno Codogno (; Lodigiano: ) is a town and ''comune'' of 15,868 inhabitants in the province of Lodi, Lombardy, northern Italy. It is the main center of the plain known as Basso Lodigiano, which has about 90,000 inhabitants. It received the honorary tit ...

, who forgot the previous 12 years of his life following a car accident in 2013. The set is the fictional "Policlinico Ambrosiano" hospital of

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and the plot concerns the doctors working in the

internal medicine Internal medicine, also known as general medicine in Commonwealth nations, is a medical specialty for medical doctors focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in adults. Its namesake stems from "treatment of diseases of ...

department. Season 1 was directed by Jan Maria Michelini and Ciro Visco, while season 2's directors were Beniamino Catena and Giacomo Martelli. All three seasons aired on Australian TV channel SBS Television's streaming service SBS on Demand, titled ''Doc''. An American adaptation, ''

Doc DOC, Doc, doc or DoC may refer to: People and characters * Doc, an abbreviation of doctor * Doc (nickname) * Doc (mascot), the Towson University mascot Persons * The D.O.C., American rapper (born 1968) * Doc Gallows (born 1983), ring nam ...

'', aired on

Fox Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush"). Twelve species ...

, with Fox Entertainment Studios,

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production company, production and broadcast syndication, distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, California, it is a division o ...

and

3 Arts Entertainment 3 Arts Entertainment, formerly 3 Arts Productions, is an American film and television production company founded in 1991 by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein. The company has gone on to produce television series such as ''King o ...

producing, on January 7, 2025. A Greek adaptation of the series, with the name ' (', "The Doc"), will air on Alpha Channel by Green Pixel Productions.

Plot

Season 1

Professor Andrea Fanti is a brilliant and famous doctor working at the Policlinico Ambrosiano hospital of

, where he is the chief of the

department. Yet he is also arrogant, narcissistic, and a strict micromanager. Fanti thinks that doctors should not trust patients, as they lie. Consequently, he treats those under his care with a heavy-handed and often cruel manner and trusts only the handpicked members of his staff, especially his assistant Giulia Giordano, a doctor with whom he has a secret relationship. One day, the father of Giovanni Pavesi, a young boy who died in Fanti's ward following a mistake (he was given the wrong medicine due to a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

y error), waits for Fanti to end his shift at the hospital and shoots him in the head. Though the doctor does not die, he suffers from an irreversible prefrontal trauma, which causes him to forget the previous 12 years. Indeed, when Fanti wakes up from the coma, he believes that it is June 2008 instead of 2020 and his last memory is him coming home after signing his first contract with the Policlinico Ambrosiano. Forgetting most of the staff he used to work with, Fanti becomes a kinder and more thoughtful man instead of the authoritarian doctor he once was. Thrown into a present he sometimes struggles to understand, obliged to start over most of his life and to deal with relevant trauma like his child's death and the separation from his wife (which he forgot), he perceives his loved ones as strangers. As a consequence, the hospital becomes the only place where Andrea feels really at home and where he can try to build a new private and working future. No longer able to be the chief of the department he used to be in charge of, he comes back to work as a "doctor with limitations", that is a kind of assistant for young residents, who nickname him ''Doc'', and uses empathy to interact with patients and help solve their medical issues. In the meantime, he starts a psychological journey with Sardoni, a longtime friend and colleague of his.

Season 2

Set in an unspecified future,

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

critical stage has ended and the Policlinico Ambrosiano comes back to normal activity. Several flashbacks allow us to understand what happened during the acute phase of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Italy The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy was part of the COVID-19 pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Italy on 31 January 2 ...

. Many wards were converted to face the emergency, including the

department. However, the hospital had limited resources and people to cope with thousands of patients in a very short time, so, once the emergency ends, the high number of dead doctors and patients leads to an investigation by both the Italian

Magistrates' court A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several Jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) ...

and the hospital itself, involving all the medical staff, medical director Agnese Tiberi, Andrea Fanti and his team. Among the victims of

, there is Lorenzo Lazzarini, a member of Fanti's team later identified as the

patient zero The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. It can also refer to the first case of a condition or syndrome (not ...

, the one who unintentionally introduced the virus in the Policlinico: only his colleagues know the truth about him being the

index case The index case or patient zero is the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population, or the first documented patient included in an epidemiological study. It can also refer to the first case of a condition or syndrome (no ...

and they keep the secret to honour his memory. However, his death, which occurred under unclear circumstances, is also a matter of investigation. In the meantime, Agnese is suspended from her role as director due to the investigation about the department he managed during the pandemic and starts working as a senior doctor in the ward she used to belong to, which doctor Sandri manages. The lawyer Caruso, also chief of the administrative department, is appointed as the new medical director with the aim of finding out the truth about how the doctors tackled the pandemic emergency. At the same time, doctor Cecilia Tedeschi, famous

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, the ...

and scholar of

infectious diseases infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

, is appointed as chief of the

department, a vacant role after the imprisonment of professor Sardoni and temporarily held by doctor Giordano during the pandemic. Tedeschi is also a former Agnese and Andrea's university mate and was once in love with Andrea, who did not reciprocate her feelings. Tedeschi secretly wants to turn the

department into an

department with Caruso's help. Trying to save his department, keep his team united and protect everyone from the investigation, Andrea decides to get his role as chief of the department back, facing several exams intended to certify his eligibility. While doing so, Andrea also needs to deal with Caruso, who does not want him to manage that department for some unknown reasons.

Season 3

2023. Andrea is back as chief of the internal medicine department and must once again manage its responsibilities, including training new residents. Furthermore, the new administrative director pressures him to reduce the department's costs and increase efficiency. In the meantime, Agnese accepts the role of health director again. While going through a crisis phase with her partner, she often meets with Professor Bramante, her and Andrea's former Medicine teacher, with whom she seems to have a dark secret in common. In this season, Andrea's memories partially resurface, albeit fragmented and often not authentic, as his unconscious created them. Enrico and Giulia will again be at his side in his quest to reconstruct the events. However, the latter is engaged in scientific research to become the department chief in another hospital.

Cast and characters

Main

Luca Argentero Luca Argentero (born 12 April 1978) is an Italian actor, model and television personality. He has appeared in more than 18 films since 2006. Biography Born in Turin to Guido and Agata, Argentero grew up in neighboring Moncalieri. After complet ...

as Dr. Andrea Fanti *

Matilde Gioli Matilde Gioli (born Matilde Lojacono; 2 September 1989) is an Italian television and film actress. Life and career Born in Milan to a father from Puglia and a mother from Tuscany, from whom she decided to take the surname for her artistic care ...

as Dr. Giulia Giordano *Pierpaolo Spollon as Dr. Riccardo Bonvenga *Raffaele Esposito as Dr. Marco Sardoni (season 1) *Sara Lazzaro as Dr. Agnese Tiberi *Gianmarco Saurino as Dr. Lorenzo Lazzarini (season 1; recurring season 2) * Simona Tabasco as Dr. Elisa Russo *Alberto Malanchino as Dr. Gabriel Kidane * Silvia Mazzieri as Dr. Alba Patrizi (season 1-2) * Beatrice Grannò as Carolina Fanti *Elisa Di Eusanio as Nurse Teresa Maraldi * Giovanni Scifoni as Dr. Enrico Sandri *Alice Arcuri as Dr. Cecilia Tedeschi (season 2-present) *Marco Rossetti as Dr. Damiano Cesconi (season 2-present) *

Gaetano Bruno Gaetano Bruno (born 26 July 1973) is an Italian actor. Early life Bruno was born in Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region o ...

as Dr. Edoardo Valenti (season 2-present) *Laura Cravedi as Dr. Martina Carelli (season 3-present) *Giacomo Giorgio as Dr. Federico Lentini (season 3-present) * Elisa Wong as Dr. Lin Wang (season 3-present)

Recurring

*Simone Gandolfo as Davide *Mariarosa Russo as Irene Ceraldo (season 1) *Pia Lanciotti as Dr. Fabrizia Martelli (season 1-2) * Giusy Buscemi as Dr. Lucia Ferrari (season 2) *Massimo Rigo as Umberto Caruso (season 2) *Lorenzo Frediani as Father Massimo (season 2) *Arianna Scommegna as Dr. Marrabini (season 3) *Aurora Peres as Barbara (season 3)

Guest stars

Valeria Fabrizi Valeria Fabrizi (born 20 October 1936) is an Italian actress, singer, tv host and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Italia 1957. Life and career Born in Verona, in 1936 Fabrizi made her acting debut in the revue ''Campione senza ...

as Tilde Ravelli * Fiammetta Cicogna as Vittoria *

Alberto Molinari Alberto Molinari (born Rome, 14 April 1965) is an Italian actor, producer, and director, mainly of documentary films. He made his debut in the 1988 film '' Un bel dì vedremo''. Filmography As actor Films * '' Il cuore di mamma'', directe ...

as Edoardo Grotti * Ilaria Spada as Serena Ruffo * Giacomo Poretti as Giacomo

Episodes

Season 1 (2020)

Season 2 (2022)

Season 3 (2024)

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, tt11876490 2020 Italian television series debuts 2020s Italian television series Italian medical television series 2020s medical television series Television shows set in Milan RAI original programming Italian-language television shows Television series by Fremantle (company)