St. Denis Medical Isn't Terrible

But it's not Abbott Elementary. And Feminista misses laugh tracks.

I recently binged a medical sitcom called St. Denis Medical which airs on NBC (for those who still have regular TV--I streamed it on Peacock). It has a pretty diverse cast led by Alison Tolman (Fargo, Why Women Kill) and features the iconic David Alan Grier (In Living Color, The Carmichael Show). Tolman plays Alex, a nurse who has been promoted to Supervisor and is now in charge of managing the emergency department of St. Denis Hospital. Several interesting characters include Grier, who plays a sardonic emergency physician, and Josh Lawson (House of Lies), who plays an egotistical but devoted trauma surgeon. They all form a motley crew of healthcare providers doing their best to serve the needs of their community while keeping their wits about them.

I’ll be honest with you, as I always am--I’m not feeling it as much as I’d like. The biggest complaint I have is that yet another show breaks the fourth wall and has characters talking to the audience in interview-style segments to provide narration. This has been done so much that I think it’s a bit overdone. I miss the live studio audiences or even laugh tracks and while some shows like The Upshaws still tape in front of live audiences, more and more, we see this style.

This show makes me think about Abbott Elementary, the hit sitcom created by and starring Quinta Brunson. It’s almost like a medical version of it, with there even being alignment between some of the characters. Joyce, played by the delightful Wendi McLendon-Covey, is the hospital administrator and her personality is quite similar to Ava, Abbott’s principal. Joyce cares about the patients but is also focused on promoting her career and other things that shouldn’t be prioritized. Alex is very much like Brunson’s character Janine and Grier’s Ron is similar to Sheryl Lee Ralph’s Barbara. The alignment between the characters became a distraction for me and I spent more time noting how similar they were than paying attention to what they were adding to the storylines. That’s not a good thing, in case anyone is confused.