Will the New Comedy Be NBC’s Next ‘Parks and Recreation’ or ‘The Office’?
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for St. Denis Medical Season 1, Episode 1, “Welcome to St. Denis.”]
St. Denis Medical has finally arrived on NBC, and it’s delivering strong Parks and Recreation and The Office vibes as the network explores the inner workings of the titular hospital through the lens of a mockumentary.
The pilot episode quickly establishes the players at the heart of this sweet series, which focuses on workaholic nurse Alex (Allison Tolman) as she tries wrapping up her duties for the day to make it in time for her kid’s musical. Every time she is about to step away, something pulls Alex’s attention back in and doctor Ron (David Alan Grier) is quick to call her out for not adhering to normal hours or work-life boundaries. Ron is more jaded, seeing patients as broken-down cars that he’s endlessly repairing and patching up.
Casey Durkin / NBC
Alex and Ron’s dynamic feels very reminiscent of Parks and Rec‘s Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), in the sense that their approach and outlook to their jobs may be different, but they’re ultimately good-hearted individuals who still work towards the same goal. Meanwhile, St. Denis Medical’s administrator Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey) may bring to mind The Office‘s Michael Scott (Steve Carell), eager to establish the hospital’s footprint by ordering an overpriced mammogram machine.
The trouble with such an endeavor? The expensive machine cuts into the budget that could go towards replacing the hospital’s current computers, which have completely gone down. When Joyce is clued into this though, she lets her dream to have the “best breast test in the west” go in order to save money for the computer fix down the line.
Among St. Denis Medical‘s other staff members are newbie nurse Matthew (Mekki Leeper), calm and cool Serena (Kahyun Kim), the frazzled Val (Kaliko Kauahi), and over-confident surgeon Bruce (Josh Lawson). All of them are such characters that we can’t help but imagine the hijinks they’ll get up to as the season unfolds.
The show’s first episode concludes with a harrowing rescue of a woman who suffers a pulmonary embolism, reminding the workers and watchers at home what this ragtag team of medical providers is working towards, which is to provide life-saving medical care.
The series hails from co-creator Justin Spitzer, who previously worked on The Office and served as showrunner on other NBC shows like Superstore and American Auto, so he knows a thing or two about crafting comedy. But does St. Denis Medical have the potential to live up to two of NBC’s most iconic mockumentaries that came before it? We want to hear from you. Sound off in the poll and comments section, below.
St. Denis Medical, Tuesdays, 8/7c, NBC
