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Medical series have been a prolific genre for almost as long as television itself has existed. Be it the soap opera antics of General Hospital and its contemporary quasi-equivalent, Grey's Anatomy, harder-hitting dramas like ER and Chicago Med, or Scrubs' comedic perspective, the hospital setting is abundant with fictional potential. There's something undeniably gripping about following the fluctuating duties of healthcare professionals, especially those tasked with addressing stressful emergencies; the stakes can't be higher than literal life-or-death. A successful medical show taps into this appeal by dropping a bunch of traditionally attractive doctors and their messy lives into an already chaotic environment. And let's not forget that the human body can be absurdly funny, too; throw in some hilarious patients who offer a necessary reprieve from somber situations, and the result is a formula that's difficult (but not impossible) to do wrong.
In that same vein, mockumentaries have slowly but surely integrated into the TV landscape. NBC's American remake of The Office didn't invent the format, but nine seasons' worth of Dunder Mifflin employees staring down the camera's lens helped launch a commonplace comedic shorthand that persists to this day. Modern faux documentaries like What We Do in the Shadows and Abbott Elementary keep the style's core tenets relevant but still toss out enough surprises to hold the audience's interest. NBC's upcoming sitcom, St. Denis Medical, seems poised to do the same, merging medical and mockumentary with charming flair.
What Is 'St. Denis Medical' About?
St. Denis Medical Center might be an "underfunded, understaffed Oregon hospital" (per the series' logline), but despite its limited resources and perpetually exhausted staff, the scrappy building houses big dreams. St. Denis aims to become a "destination medical facility" for everyone in need; a patient's restrictive financial circumstances and middling insurance policy won't stop them from receiving suitable care. Progressing toward this utopian endgame is a slow march, but every good or bad development unfolds under the shepherding eye of Joyce (The Goldbergs' Wendi McLendon-Covey), St. Denis' starry-eyed executive director.
If Joyce's motivations stem from her heartfelt dreams, then her haggard employees are just trying to find that ever-elusive work-life balance — something especially difficult to achieve in a profession that's often all-consuming. Specifically, St. Denis' staff is routinely beset by long hours, less-than-ideal salaries, unforeseen medical crises, and the kind of ancillary workplace drama that's bound to happen when strong personalities clash.
'St. Denis Medical' Offers Familiar but Reinvented Mockumentary Laughs
Image via NBC St. Denis Medical hails from showrunner Eric Ledgin (Superstore, American Auto) and his co-creator Justin Spitzer (The Office, Superstore). Based on the six episodes provided for review (out of 18 total), the pair's latest collaboration nails the anarchy required for a weekly mockumentary series. For every perplexing health condition that needs fixing, St. Denis' pandemonium-prone ensemble also finds themselves stuck solving an outrageously silly B plot.
Given Ledgin and Spitzer's past credits, this format is old hat for them, but it's still impressive to see St. Denis hit the ground running with self-aware assurance and a satisfyingly snappy pace. Many dilemmas faced by the St. Denis staff are either standard practice for the healthcare industry or a relatable side effect of corporate culture — a counterintuitive but realistic balance that St. Denis takes extra glee in exploiting. Joyce's optimistic goals and go-getter attitude frequently clash with the messy day-to-day practicalities of everything a hospital floor requires; as someone with family members in the industry, when Joyce insisted that St. Denis install a $300,000 3D mammogram device, only for the state-of-the-art machine to fry the building's entire computer system, this writer cackled at the accuracy.
Beyond malfunctioning technology, it's tricky for characters to navigate St. Denis' social hierarchies, especially ones taking their cues from high school cliques. Tension thrums between the doctor and nursing spheres: the latter feel overlooked and overworked thanks to their disproportionately higher workload, while those with an MD abbreviation after their names seem to effortlessly coast through their days. The doctors, meanwhile, complain about instantly diagnosing a patient, only to spend forty minutes filling out mandatory online forms — a tedious practice that impedes their ability to treat those in need.
Such interpersonal dynamics mean that trivialities quickly implode into full-tilt mayhem — moments the characters sometimes bring upon themselves and other times are just part and parcel of their madcap profession. Either way, no one in St. Denis Medical is immune to well-meaning mistakes, pettiness, or foiled glory-seeking. However, the show's occasional black humor never degrades healthcare workers. Instead, the characters use their quips to cope with their rollercoaster reality, and doing so gently humanizes their flaws. No one is corrupt — just a human being pushing their way through a dysfunctional system that runs them ragged.
'St. Denis Medical' Is Anchored by an Excellent Ensemble Cast
Even with Ledgin and Spitzer leveraging their mockumentary experience to St. Denis Hospital's advantage, all those meme-worthy glances at the camera — disbelieving, pleading, or a stink-eye, depending on what the situation calls for — could feel like a worn-out trope. In the hands of capable performers like St. Denis' instantly appealing cast of TV veterans, the running gag becomes a trifecta of familiar, satisfying, and hilarious. McLendon-Covey plays Joyce's awkward enthusiasm and idealistic tunnel-vision with earnest good humor that feels both deliberate and hard-won on Joyce's part. Even though some of her decisions inconvenience her staff, Joyce cares, which makes her a far cry from your typical inappropriate sitcom boss.
Allison Tolman (Fargo) as Alex, a newly promoted supervising nurse, is another stand-out and one of St. Denis' only routinely logical voices. An empathetic everywoman adjusting to her dramatically increased responsibilities, Alex struggles to balance her responsibilities as both a leader and a mother: i.e., fixing the time-consuming problems her peers create, but also making her daughter's school play. Matt (Jury Duty's Mekki Leeper), the new and very naive floor nurse, doesn't make things easier for Alex as he racks up mistakes with the speed of a NASCAR driver — a trait that earns him hospital-appropriate hazing from more experienced and wry nurses, like Serena (Kahyun Kim) and Val (Superstore's Kaliko Kauahi). David Alan Grier shines as Ron, the grumpy emergency doctor who's done with everyone's nonsense and a lightning-fast draw when it comes to snarky remarks. Then, there's self-serious Bruce (Josh Lawson), the trauma surgeon and Bitcoin devotee who overcomplicates things by trying to sniff out rare diseases instead of, well, doing his job.
St. Denis Hospital hasn't quite distinguished itself from its mockumentary counterparts yet. Likewise, the characters have only just begun to reveal their layers. Hopefully, the benefits of an 18-episode full-season order mean that this appealing and talented ensemble continues to be fleshed out now that the introductory phase is over. That said, this is a series secure in its identity, and all signs currently point to it sustaining that momentum. Much like the upstart hospital it's named after, St. Denis Medical shows great promise.
St. Denis Medical premieres November 12 on NBC in the U.S., with weekly episodes available to stream the next day on Peacock.
St. Denis Medical is already demonstrating great promise, mixing the medical with the mockumentary format in a charming way.
Pros
- The show immediately nails the mockumentary format in a familiar but refreshing way.
- Setting a mockumentary sitcom inside a hospital opens up hilarious new opportunities.
- The experienced cast deliver delightfully eccentric performances.
Cons
- The situations are less distinctive and the characters less developed than they could be, but things could easily improve over the 18-episode season.
At Oregon’s underfunded St. Denis Medical Center, an eclectic team of doctors and nurses tackles chaotic medical challenges with limited resources while striving to keep their sanity intact. Led by the quirky administrator Joyce and a jaded ER doctor Ron, the staff faces both high-stakes patient cases and hilarious workplace antics, bringing a blend of compassion and humor to the mockumentary format reminiscent of The Office and Superstore.
Release Date November 12, 2024
Main Genre Comedy
Seasons 1
Character(s) Joyce , Ron , Bruce , Matt , Serena , Dr. Andrews , Alex , Val
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English (US) ·