Street Doctors: Right Idea, Wrong Host

The premise of Lifetime’s new web series Street Doctors is a good one: Get a real doctor to answer some of those nuttier medical questions you’re pretty sure you know the answer to, but would be happy to get confirmation on. Questions like “How do you cure a snake bite?”, “Are toilet seats contagious?”, and since it is Lifetime, “Is there really a G-spot?”

The show combines footage of real people asking the questions with a straight answer from Dr. Ross. He’s a UCLA medical professor specializing in emergency medicine and international health. I feel kinda guilty writing this, because the guy is a bad-ass who worked with Lassa Fever patients in Sierra Leone as a war broke out — but he needs to work on his on-camera presence. He looks uncomfortable, which detracts from his message.

Which is too bad, because short video bits like this could be an entertaining way to get answers to some interesting medical questions. (Tip: If someone gets bitten by a snake, do not try to suck out the venom or, oddly enough, electrocute the patient.)

There will be 15 episodes of Street Doctors, with two new episodes each week. The show is apart of Lifetime’s recent big push into online entertainment. In April the network announced a slate of 15 original broadband series including Hollywood Tails and Mommy Madness.