'The Mob Doctor': FOX's new drama 'doesn't have to be black and white'

Male antiheroes have been all over television in the past decade, but there haven't been a lot of women filling that kind of role. "The Mob Doctor" hopes to turn that tide a little.

The creators of the new FOX show, which stars Jordana Spiro ("My Boys") as a Chicago surgeon who's in debt to a gangster, say they want to push the lead character through "shades of gray," morally speaking, in the show's first season.

"We're excited to see the character grow and watch what we assume her morality to be change over the course of the season," co-creator Josh Berman said Monday (July 23) at the TV Critics Association summer press tour. "... The show doesn't have to be black and white."

The idea of a character caught between the physician's oath to "do no harm" and the idea of "no honor among thieves" sparked lots of ideas about where the show and Spiro's character, Grace Devlin, can go, adds co-creator Rob Wright (who has worked with Berman on "Drop Dead Diva").

"It's an archetypal pull -- you really can't get two positions that are further apart from one another," Wright says. "It seemed like a really compelling thing to explore."

Grace has a definite moral compass, Wright says, but she might also be drawn to certain aspects of the mob life, including its access to power. Spiro just hopes the show doesn't have her character go too dark too quickly.

"I think the timing of that will have to be handled carefully," she says. "That human desire and seduction to a darkness or power or to adrenaline is certainly inside of her. Where and how and when it will come out needs to be handled with some care."

"The Mob Doctor" is set to premiere Monday, Sept. 17.