A Mexican medical drama based on a true story

Diego Calva, Renata Vaca, Sergio Bautista and Joaquín Cosío in a scene from “Midnight Family.” Apple TV+

Dear Watchers,

“Midnight Family,” on Apple TV+, is a Mexican drama (in Spanish, with subtitles or dubbed) about a family that runs a private ambulance. There aren’t enough ambulances for all the emergencies in Mexico City, so bootleg paramedics blare their own sirens and pitch in.

Our heroine is Marigaby (Renata Vaca), who splits her time between medical school and working with her father and brothers on the ambulance. She is passionate about medicine but spread awfully thin — eager to keep the hands-on rush of in-the-field emergency care but desperate to be a proper doctor. She is tired of being looked down on by hospital employees, tired of having to solicit payments from patients mid-ride.

Her older brother, Marcus (Diego Calva), likes the ambulance fine but mostly thinks about his girlfriend. Her little brother, Julito (Sergio Bautista), is just a kid, but he handles all the crises with precocious aplomb. Her father (Joaquín Cosío) does not take great care of himself and relies on Julito for probably too much. Her mother (Dolores Heredia) is warily inching her way back into the picture.

The show is based on a 2019 documentary of the same name, but the vibe of this TV adaptation is less gritty realism than just solid medical drama. Episode 3, about the 2017 earthquake that killed hundreds of people, has both a bleak, broad grounding and also a weepy individual through line, as all good natural disaster episodes do. Mercifully, this is fresher and more energetic than contemporary network doctor shows and also more cinematic. The nighttime color palate glows, sometimes radiating warmth but other times emitting a kind of woozy menace. Scenes set in traffic don’t feel too phony baloney, even if some characters feel pat.

Like many other medical dramas, the show gets flabbier the farther it gets from the hospital, or in this case, the ambulance. The domestic plotlines are a mixed bag: Marcus’s relationship woes are not hugely compelling, though the potential for rekindled romance between the separated parents has a fraught charm.

There are graver sins than being reminiscent of “Grey’s Anatomy,” though the pointed voice-overs and rule-breaking romances here add to the similarities. If “Midnight” is a little predictable, so be it; it’s still quite a ride.

SIDE QUESTS

Your newly available movies

Naomi Scott in “Smile 2,” directed by Parker Finn. Paramount Pictures

The quickie sequel “Smile 2” turns out to be better than the 2022 original, as that cursed grin crosses the face of a pop superstar — suggesting an Eras Tour that goes gruesomely awry. Elsewhere, the Canadian iconoclast Guy Maddin switches gears by casting a big star, Cate Blanchett, in “Rumours,” but the result is still delightfully eccentric.

Unless otherwise noted, titles can generally be rented on the usual platforms, including Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Fandango at Home and YouTube. SCOTT TOBIAS

‘Joy’ (Netflix only)

The director, Ben Taylor, keeps the momentum up despite his weakness for marking the passage of time with eyebrow-raising needle drops. The movie is most effective in creating a rooting interest for [Jean Purdy’s] character, while the maestro [Bill Nighy] gets a nice juicy monologue at the end that he of course makes a meal of. — Glenn Kenny (Read the full review here.)

‘Out of My Mind’ (Disney+ only)

As the ultrasmart girl using a wheelchair who longs for sparkly shoes and escape from educational segregation, Phoebe-Rae Taylor (making her screen debut and infusing the part with her experience of cerebral palsy) has an expressive, knowing gaze, alive with eagerness as well as exasperation. — Sheri Lindon (Read the full review here.)

‘Rumours’ (A Critic’s Pick)

Sporadically ingenious, occasionally chilling and entirely bonkers, “Rumours” sees Maddin (writing and directing with his longtime collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson) abandoning his more familiar black-and-white, silent-film aesthetic for vibrant color. — Jeannette Catsoulis (Read the full review here.)

‘Smile 2’ (A Critic’s Pick)

“Smile 2,” directed by Parker Finn, is more thematically ambitious than the original, which also allows Finn to stage more satisfyingly ridiculous kills and ramp up its air of delirium. The film addresses ideas about addiction and dependency, stardom and solitude and the loss of control that comes with being chained to your job. — Beatrice Loayza (Read the full review here.)

‘Witches’ (Mubi only)

If all women behaving badly can be summed up as witchy, then [Elizabeth Sankey’s] documentary too often works like a game of associations. — Beatrice Loayza (Read the full review here.)

Also newly available:

Also this weekend

Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan are still outlanding on Season 7 of “Outlander.” Starz