TV Reviews: The Resident and 9-1-1

Over the past several days, I've had the opportunity to watch two high-profile new medical/action shows, The Resident (Mondays, 9pm EST on Fox) and 9-1-1 (Wednesdays, 9pm EST on Fox).  One is must-see appointment television, and the other is merely watchable.

Let's start with The Resident.  I'm calling this show Grey's Anatomy Jr.  It basically steals many aspects of the long-running medical show, for better or worse.  Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal) is a new doctor  at the prestigious Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, top of his class at Harvard.  He's excited for his first day, until he meets his supervisor, the hotshot Resident Dr. Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry).  All of the nurses, especially Nicolette aka Nic (Emily Van Camp) swoon over him.  He takes charge in high-pressure situations and is always right about everything.  Throughout the pilot Conrad constantly reminds Devon that learning medicine isn't the same as practicing it in real-life, blah blah blah.  "Throw everything you've learned out the window".  I've heard this quote on a thousand shows over the years, and it sounds just as cliché as it always has.  The more interesting part of the show involves chief of surgery Dr. Randolph Bell (Bruce Greenwood).  He has some sort of condition making his hands shake (Parkinsons?), and instead of stepping aside he continues to perform surgeries, sometimes killing patients in the process.  In the opening scene of the series he severs a patient's artery and kills him during a routine appendectomy, but the other doctors in the operating room cover for him, simply because he has so much power in the hospital.  Later he blackmails another young doctor, Dr. Mina Okafor (Shaunette Renee Wilson) into performing a surgery using a new medical "arm" that he invented, while pretending over video watched by high-profile hospital donors that he is actually performing the surgery.  Dr. Okafor has practiced with the arm for months, and Dr. Bell is physically unable to use it due to his tremors, but he is the face of the hospital so he gets his way.  My biggest problem with The Resident is that it's too familiar.  It feels like any other medical show that I've seen.  It tries to mix the best parts of ER and Grey's Anatomy, with middling results.  There are "exciting" fast-paced emergency room moments like on ER, and hospital hookups and hotshot young doctors like on Grey's.  Also, I find it hard to believe that Conrad, merely a Resident doctor, would hold so much sway over his colleagues and be so respected, no matter how confident he may be.  The one part of the show that could set it apart from other medical dramas is the unethical, medical malpractice nightmare caused by Dr. Bell.  As long as the show doesn't paint him solely as the hospital villain and develops the character more, then I'll continue to watch for this part of the plot alone.  In addition, Dr. Okafor is one of the most interesting (but so-far underdeveloped) characters on the show.  She is highly skilled but possesses zero bedside manner.  At one point she walks into the hospital waiting room and approaches three different families, in quick succession telling them "He's stable", "It's still touch and go", and "He's dead", then quickly leaves.  Moments like this make me want to know more about her.

Next, I have to discuss one of my favorite new shows in a long time, "9-1-1".  It seems that producer Ryan Murphy has another hit on his hands.  Quite simply. the show follows first responders in all different jobs: a police officer, a fire/paramedic team, and even a 911 operator.  Through these characters the viewers watch some of the most insane medical emergencies I've ever seen on television.  The pilot begins with the rescue crew trying to save a newborn who was flushed down the toilet by a teenage mother (?!).  I was both cringing and watching in awe as the crew broke down a wall, cut through a pipe, and slowly pushed the newborn out.  They are then forced to transport the baby's mother (suffering complications after the birth) to the hospital in the same ambulance as the baby, despite objections by some of the team.  We then see a woman being choked by a snake and a scared little girl calling 911 from inside her house as home invaders break in.  These emergency scenes are often ludicrous, but still edge-of-your seat entertaining.  After the pilot I almost immediately watched episodes 2 and 3, where even wilder things happened.  My mouth was on the floor watching an insane roller coaster accident, and in another episode when a children's bouncy house was picked up by high winds and landed on the edge of a cliff with several kids inside.  These crazy scenes would mean nothing if the first responders themselves weren't fully developed, interesting characters.  As portrayed by top-notch actors, they definitely meet the demands of the crazy situations that the show puts them in.  There's tough policewoman Athena (Angela Bassett), whose husband has just come out as gay.  This plot seemed a bit hokey to me at first, but the story was developed more in epsiodes 2 and 3, so I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt here so far.  Then there's the fire/paramedic team led by Bobby (Peter Krause), who the viewers have yet to learn much about so far, other than that he's a recovering addict.  Also on the team are "Chimney" (Kenneth Choi), an earnest veteran who wishes that he was given more responsibilities, and "Hen" (Aisha Hinds), a tough woman who also happens to be friends with Athena.  I won't give away what happens to Chimney in episode 3, but it had me gasping in disbelief.  Finally on the team there's newbie Buck (Oliver Stark), a hotshot young firefighter/paramedic who uses his position to constantly flirt with and sometimes hook up with women, many of them patients and victims.  At first he clashes with Bobby and is fired for his irresponsibility, but he comes back to the team soon enough (as we knew he would).  Finally, one of the most interesting characters on the show is 911 operator Abby (Connie Britton).  Her calls often begin the high drama emergency scenes where the show really comes alive.  She cares for her elderly mother with Alzheimer's, and she's been alone for years after a long-ago breakup.  She soon befriends her mom's home health nurse, and the show is hinting at a future relationship with much-younger Buck (I'm not sure how I feel about this).  The show points out that Abby (and actual 911 operators) often don't ever find out how emergency calls actually end, because the callers hang up when police, firefighters, or paramedics arrive at the scene.  This for me was the most interesting takeaway from the show.  If the show can keep up the high-octane emergencies and continue to develop the characters, then I'm in for the long haul for this one.