My Doctor's Secret Life (also called The Doctor's Secret) is a 2023 Lifetime Made-for-TV Movie Thriller written and directed by Doug Campbell.
Dr. Veronica West (Jessica Morris) is a successful psychiatrist who's enjoying life with her hunky boyfriend Jackson (Jason Tobias) and a side gig as a self-help author, all while harboring a secret shame in her past. While someone who seems to know about her past starts threatening her anonymously, she takes on a new client, Brianna Bentley (Taylor Castro), a shy, squirmy young woman coping with a tragedy in her life. When a series of cruel pranks completely mess up Veronica's life and practice, she tries to get to the bottom of what's happening, but slowly realizes that she may have to answer for her past misdeeds.
My Doctor's Secret Life contains examples of:
- Alcoholic Parent: Mathew's drinking is deeply troubling to his daughter Brianna.
- Action Girl: Brianna shows some physical agility in her scheming against Veronica, breaking-and-entering at several points and, at the climax, murdering the detective and tackling the much taller Veronica.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Brianna, who seems like a fragile, pitiable young woman in her early scenes, turns out to be a cunning plotter with a huge vengeful streak.
- Florence Nightingale Effect:
- Dr. West's big secret is that she had an affair with Mathew, a former patient, but broke up with him, and in response he got drunk and died when he crashed his car into a tree. Brianna is his daughter.
- David, another patient of hers, has a massive crush on her and keeps asking her out.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: Veronica is the protagonist, but she's shown to be prone to poor judgment, sleeping with an ex-patient despite all the ethical alarms that raises, then acting like nothing happened after he accidentally kills himself following their breakup. Brianna is the antagonist, but is clearly still emotionally and mentally devastated by the death of her father after he broke up with Veronica.
- In the Hood: The person who broke in and trashed Veronica's office wears a concealing black hoodie in the surveillance footage, but some of the clearer shots reveal the person having a feminine figure, a huge clue that it's Brianna (but Veronica and her assistants never pick up on that).
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even though she's a psycho who not above plotting murder, Brianna is absolutely right that Veronica not coming clean about her role in Mathew's death is just going to harm her.
- Never Trust a Title: My Doctor's Secret Life wrongly implies that Veronica is the villain and the story is being told from Brianna's POV. Lifetime changed the title from the more accurate The Doctor's Secret.
- Recurring Dreams: Brianna has the same exact dream every night, with her walking down a dark street toward the crashed car of her father.
- Red Herring: Everyone makes the logical assumption that Stalker with a Crush David is the one targeting Veronica, until a Wham Shot reveals it as Brianna.
- Shrinking Violet: Brianna is very nervous, mousy and soft-spoken in her early sessions with Veronica. How much of this is genuine trauma and how much is just an act to throw Veronica off isn't totally clear.
- Slipping a Mickey: Brianna does this at several points, drugging Jackson to obtain photos of him with a prostitute, and finally planning to murder Veronica with a drug overdose.
- Sticky Fingers: Veronica's patient David is a kleptomaniac, even stealing things from her office.
- Took a Level in Badass: In her first session with Veronica after all of her various schemes against the doctor have messed things up for her, Brianna is suddenly a confident Deadpan Snarker who turns the tables on the doctor, starts interrogating her, and even acts a bit bossy towards her.Brianna: How many of your patients have left you?
Veronica: I'd rather not discuss this right now.
Brianna: I disagree. I think you should talk about it. Remember: if you want to get better you need to tell the truth. That's your line, not mine. - Wham Shot:
- The Dream Sequence in Brianna's hypnotherapy establishes that she's the daughter of Veronica's former patient/lover Mathew with a shot of her running up to his crashed car.
- Followed by one of Brianna going through Veronica's laptop, establishing her as the villain once and for all.
