Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes

Season 1 – Diagnosis

Play trailer Poster for Season 1 – Diagnosis Aug 2019 Documentary Health & Wellness Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
100% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 75% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
Dr. Lisa Sanders crowdsources diagnoses for mysterious and rare medical conditions in this documentary series based on her New York Times Magazine column.
Watch on Netflix Stream Now

Where to Watch

Diagnosis — Season 1

Diagnosis — Season 1

What to Know

Critics Consensus

As emotional as it is illuminating, Diagnosis' deep dives into the lives of patients navigating complicated health care systems is at once harrowing and hopeful.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View More
Kelly Lawler USA Today 08/19/2019
The series wisely stays in the realm of patients without short life expectancies, so weeks or months of research are possible. It also means no overtly tragic endings, even if all aren't perfectly happy. Go to Full Review
Judy Berman TIME Magazine 08/16/2019
Diagnosis isn't magic. Episodes rarely end in a cut-and-dried cure. But their outcomes are extraordinary enough to feel miraculous nonetheless. Go to Full Review
Jen Chaney New York Magazine/Vulture 08/16/2019
The Netflix series definitely appeals to the logical, scientific parts of the brain, but it also goes straight for the heartstrings. It is an uplifting show, though not in the ways you might think. Go to Full Review
Jordan Julian The Daily Beast 03/27/2020
Lashay Hamblin's story best captures the theme that underlies every episode of Diagnosis, the weight of the diagnosis itself and the way a doctor presents the diagnosis to the patient-an aspect of medical practice often taken for granted. Go to Full Review
Merrill Barr Forbes 03/27/2020
Overall, while Diagnosis may not be a must-watch, it is one worth watching. Go to Full Review
Marty Brown Common Sense Media 03/27/2020
4/5
The show's brand of entertainment might not be for everyone, but for some viewers, seeing sick people instilled with hope might be a revelation. Go to Full Review
Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View More
10/11/2019 It could be good, but the narrator is really annoying. He states the bloody obvious, just stating what we can see with our own eyes. See more 09/09/2019 Started with very high expectations and this ended up being just a bunch of more woke crap like all new netflix things See more 09/07/2019 I love the articles in The NY Times that inspired this show. It's an interesting concept. But the shows are much too long. They should cut to the chase and boil them down to a half hour. Too much bathos. See more 09/04/2019 Not great. I've watched all 7 episodes and am pretty disappointed. I realize not all medical problems have a clear cut solution. However, these shows have no real conclusion. We're just left there hanging after becoming invested in outcomes. But only 2 of these episodes have such outcomes where there's at least a hint that recommended treatment is working, where the viewer understands the patient finds a solution for a serious health challenge. That said, Episode #1 where the "crowd" does actually work in the sense that a student at a lab in Italy actually studying the gene that might be -- and is later confirmed to be -- the cause of her symptoms sees the NYT article and calls in. The lab tests her and recommends a diet to solve her problem. As a viewer, I was incredibly frustrated and disappointed to not have better follow up. What was the diet? Why did it work? How effective was it? We don't know! What's the point in spending all that film time on the problem and almost zero on the actual solution. In most all of these episodes, we're left hanging. Even the first two that have something of a solution, we're not told if the recommended treatment worked, details on how it worked, and a followup some months later. In two, the subject ignores the best medical advice and the episode just fades to black. WTF?? Sure, people distrust doctors and, often, rightly so. But what's the point of a limited set of episodes showing people who ignore something that might help them. Again, frustrating and a waste of time for both the series and the viewer. I have every sympathy for people who are suffering but, I hate to say it, the show makes it difficult to really care See more 09/03/2019 It seems like "RUSS A" was expecting another season of the television series, "House". What he missed is the frustration and anxiety that can go into living with an illness that one has very little understanding for the etiology or cause of. Without a diagnosis, treatments may miss the mark, leaving patients wondering and suffering. This series demonstrates how much a sense of community can ameliorate the pain these patients endure in their daily lives. See more 08/25/2019 I love this Netflix series, but you probably have to have a certain kind of interest to love it. If you love solving inscrutable problems, and are fascinated by medical issues, then I think you'll love it as much as I do. The doctor at the NY Times is really excellent in this documentary. Her compassion, integrity and intelligence pull every case together. I am on episode 5 now, and prior to this episode, I kept asking myself, when are we going to hear that the doctors are telling this patient that their medical issues don't exist, and it's all of psychological origin, so go away and threaten my ego by suggesting I don't know everything? It finally happens in episode 5, which is very predictable, because a teenage girl who vomits is involved. I am shocked she received any medical treatment at all, to be honest, and wasn't accused by every doctor of having bulimia. Most people with unusual medical problems that involve thought and research are treated with hostility and divisiveness, and are almost always written off with a Freudian explanation for their symptoms. See more Read all reviews
Diagnosis — Season 1

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING

Episodes

Episode 1 Aired Aug 16, 2019 Detective Work Once-athletic Angel, 23, suffers from episodes of muscle pain so severe she often can't move; she needs answers as she begins a nursing career. Details Episode 2 Aired Aug 16, 2019 Second Opinions The parents of bright and charming Sadie, 7, seek alternatives to the devastating brain procedure that doctors propose to treat her frequent seizures. Details Episode 3 Aired Aug 16, 2019 The Wisdom of the Crowd Day by day, 46-year-old Willie loses pieces of himself; he has memory loss, seizures, mood swings, a brain lesion -- but no diagnosis; he hopes the crowd can help him. Details Episode 4 Aired Aug 16, 2019 Looking for a Village Kamiyah, 6, will suddenly and briefly go limp dozens -- sometimes hundreds -- of times a day; now the search is on to find others like her. Details Episode 5 Aired Aug 16, 2019 A Question of Trust Lashay, 17, can't hold down anything she eats or drinks, but negative interactions with doctors in the past leave her family leery of the crowd's advice. Details Episode 6 Aired Aug 16, 2019 Deja Vu Matt, 20, experiences fainting spells that stop his heart, each one preceded by a sense of deja vu; the issue may be with his heart -- or his head. Details Episode 7 Aired Aug 16, 2019 Paralyzed Two very different people are desperate for a diagnosis for their unexplained paralysis: textbook "good patient" Joe, 61, and skeptical Ann, 44. Details
Broken % 70% Broken Watchlist Connected: The Hidden Science of Everything 100% 90% Connected: The Hidden Science of Everything Watchlist The Confession Killer 100% 91% The Confession Killer Watchlist Encounters 40% 65% Encounters Watchlist The Future of % 43% The Future of Watchlist TRAILER for The Future of Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Season Info

Executive Producer
Scott Rudin, Eli Bush
Network
Netflix
Rating
TV-14
Genre
Documentary, Health & Wellness
Original Language
English
Release Date
Aug 16, 2019
More Top TV Picks Netflix