Joshua Jackson on Why ‘Doctor Odyssey’ Was the Perfect Next Step and That Viral Emmys Moment

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Joshua Jackson returned to network television for the first time in a decade with ABC‘s latest medical medical drama, Doctor Odyssey.

The cruise ship-set show — created by Ryan Murphy, Jon Robin Baitz and Joe Baken — stars Jackson as Max, The Odyssey’s newest and seemingly overqualified doctor who joins the ship’s two long-time, skeptical nurses on the medical team, Avery (Phillipa Soo) and Tristan (Sean Teale).

When Doctor Odyssey was first announced, the premise of the series was largely kept under wraps, which had viewers familiar with prolific showrunner Murphy’s work (American Horror Story, The Watcher) wondering if the fantasy presented by The Odyssey was even real. Not until the trailer dropped 10 days before premiere did viewers begin to understand that it just might be. Recently, when chatting with The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy described the series as “a tribute to the ABC shows of my youth.”

For Jackson, who is known for his network roles like in Dawson’s Creek and Fringe, Murphy was a big draw for the project. “Before I knew what the project was, it was a conversation with Ryan, and we didn’t even really specifically talk about Doctor Odyssey in the beginning, just about where I was in my life and what I was looking to do,” the actor tells THR.

“When we got to the end of the conversation, he said, ‘Great, I have the next thing for you. Here’s what it is, and I’m going to send you the script right now,’” Jackson recalls.

Jackson, who was most recently seen in Paramount+’s Fatal Attraction and Peacock’s Dr. Death, said he wanted to work on something lighter than those recent projects. “I really wanted to work on something that, even with all of the drama, and even with all of the fates of medical events on every episode, that ended up in a positive place,” he says. “This was that.”

And it also gave Jackson the opportunity to be filming in his home of Los Angeles, while his 4-year-old daughter starts school. “It’s kind of a miracle job,” he adds.

Doctor Odyssey, which has now released its first three episodes, dives into Max’s backstory almost immediately, but viewers shouldn’t expect consistent looks into the past. “You’ll get little bits and pieces [of Max’s past], but really at the end of the day, that’s all we need to know,” Jackson says. “The story that we’re telling shouldn’t be burdened by everybody’s past.”

That truly episodic nature of the show is “liberating” for the actor, and good for the audience. “As an audience member, it’s not homework. You don’t need to take notes every week to know where the characters are,” he says. “I love shows like that. But I think it’s also nice to have something that’s just simpler.”

Doctor Odyssey also sets up a classic love story early between the medical team. When asked about that dynamic with Soo’s Avery coming between his character and Teale’s Tristan, Jackson cheekily responds, “I’m familiar with love triangles,” he says, referencing his breakout role on Dawson’s Creek. “You can’t really plan for chemistry. You can put three good actors together and good material, but it’s not always there.”

He adds, “The camaraderie that the three of us have off camera has really lent itself to what we do on camera, and having the bravery to step into all that stuff.”

Last month, Jackson went viral for his appearance at the Emmys, when he burst into laughter when he realized the award show was playing the Dawson’s Creek theme song as he and fellow presenter Matt Bomer took the stage.

“Matt and I, we were standing backstage and, as you get closer, I think we were both getting into the sweaty palm moment. I think literally we were talking about, ‘How are we going to walk out here? Are we too stiff? Are we trying to play it cool?’” Jackson recalls.

“We’re literally in the moment of like, ‘Well, I don’t know. What do you think?’ ‘I don’t know. What do you think?’ And we take our first step, and they start playing the [Dawson’s Creek] theme [Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait”], and that was just a genuine laugh,” he says. “That was me being caught off guard and laughing.”

As far as Doctor Odyssey goes, Jackson just wants viewers to enjoy their time with the show.

“There’s no medicine here,” he says, laughing. “Every week we want to take you into this beautiful, almost fantasy, and get your heart pounding a couple times, get you invested in the stakes.”

He sums up: “More than anything, just enjoy the ride with these characters.”

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Doctor Odyssey airs new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu