Why are medical dramas having a resurgence this Emmys season? The showrunners of some of the hottest series, which this year include Brilliant Minds, Doc, Doctor Odyssey, The Pitt, Pulse and Watson, have some theories (apart from the fact that they’re just “quite good,” says The Pitt’s R. Scott Gemmill).
“Medical shows introduce a problem and provide a solution, and in doing so offer hope,” Gemmill tells THR. “I think people need hope now more than they have in a while.” And Watson’s showrunner Craig Sweeny agrees: “Audiences are craving the hope and positivity that are baked into the genre.”
Brilliant Minds
NBC
Inspired by the Oliver Sacks books The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, Brilliant Minds stars Zachary Quinto as attending neurologist Oliver Wolf at Bronx General Hospital. “COVID shifted the conversations we’re having about health care and health care workers,” creator Michael Grassi says about why the genre is resonating once again. “We’re talking about a national mental health crisis, loneliness as an epidemic. These are urgent topics we get to explore through a beloved genre that’s often comforting, even when dealing with difficult topics.” And what sets Brilliant Minds apart? “Focusing on the brain — neurology, psychiatry, neurosurgery — gives us a unique lens on the genre,” adds Grassi.
Watson
Paramount+
Watson, like The Pitt, also takes place in Pittsburgh. “Pittsburgh is my hometown, and I grew up in the hallways of the hospital where my mother worked,” showrunner Sweeny says. “The show is my chance to celebrate the city’s unique character and to write about the academic corridor that inspired my own love of learning.” The show finds its uniqueness in the sense that it’s a medical drama infused with detective work — naturally, Sweeny was inspired by, and “owes a debt to,” House. “Watson looks for cases that live on the fringes of science and at the edge of human knowledge, so that tends to push us into fresh territory,” Sweeny says about his drama’s distinctive storylines. Watson stars Morris Chestnut, Eve Harlow and Peter Mark Kendall.
Pulse
Netflix
Zoe Robyn created Pulse, the first Netflix original English-language medical drama. Starring Willa Fitzgerald, Colin Woodell and Justina Machado, the show follows emergency and surgical residents at a level-one trauma center in Miami during the aftermath of a sexual harassment complaint, at the same time as the hospital is hit by a hurricane. Carlton Cuse, best known for Lost, served as an executive producer on the show. In 2023, Cuse was in the Emmy race with his Apple TV+ miniseries Five Days at Memorial, a disaster medical drama depicting challenges at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
St. Denis Medical
NBC
No, St. Denis Medical, starring Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier and Allison Tolman, is not a medical drama. But the sitcom revolves around overworked doctors and nurses at an underfunded hospital in Oregon. Criticizing health care funding in TV shows this season seems to be a trend, with The Pitt staff dealing with similar insufficient resources. “Hospitals and insurance companies are hyper-focused on financials. Health care workers have been pushed past their limits, but they keep showing up for us in our most vulnerable moments,” showrunner Eric Ledgin says. “And we are, I think, sicker than ever? It’s an undeniably interesting combination of mostly bad things.”
The Pitt
HBO Max
The Pitt has been lauded for its authentic and realistic portrayal of health care workers in an underfunded, short-staffed emergency room. Each episode of the series, starring Noah Wyle as Dr. “Robby” Robinavitch, chronicles one hour, with the 15 episodes of the season representing one full shift for the ER workers. The show title serves as a clever double entendre: The “pit” is a common nickname for the ER given its chaotic environment, and the show takes place in Pittsburgh, “traditionally a blue-collar steel town, but it is also the birthplace of some of the fundamentals of modern medicine, including things as diverse as ambulance service and street medicine,” says Gemmill, whose inspiration for The Pitt was largely M*A*S*H, “a master class in writing.”
Doctor Odyssey
ABC
Emmy darling Ryan Murphy — who also is in Emmy awards contention for his Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story and Grotesquerie — created Doctor Odyssey for ABC alongside Jon Robin Baitz (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans) and Joe Baken. Among the traits that distinguish this medical drama from others in the race is its setting: aboard a luxury cruise ship, where a new doctor and his team must handle unusual medical cases far away from shore. Joshua Jackson, Phillipa Soo, Sean Teale and Don Johnson star in the show that became ABC’s most watched drama debut in four years. Just recently, John Oliver on Last Week Tonight described Doctor Odyssey this way: “It’s sexy ER on a boat; it’s The Pitt with sharks!”
Doc
Fox
Not to be confused with Doctor Odyssey, Doc is based on the Italian television series Doc — Nelle tue mani, which was inspired by the true story of Dr. Pierdante Piccioni, who after a car accident forgot the previous 12 years of his life. This medical drama follows Dr. Amy Larsen, played by Molly Parker, who struggles to resume her medical career following the accident while not remembering major life events such as a divorce. Why is there such an influx of medical dramas again? “They’re so relatable,” show creator Barbie Kligman explains. “More so even than any other procedural. Over the course of one’s life, you may never end up in a police station or a courtroom — but sadly, you will almost certainly end up at the hospital.”
This story appeared in the June 11 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
