Last year, this medical drama was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards. It won five, including Outstanding Casting, Outstanding Guest Actor, Outstanding Supporting Actress, Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Drama Series. It was conceived as a reboot of ER (1994). That Emmy-winning show from 30 years ago had John Wells as its producer, R. Scott Gemmill as a writer and Noah Wyle as an actor. All three of them return for this current series. There has never been a shortage of medical dramas, even going back to the 60's and 70's with shows like Dr. Kildare (1961) and M*A*S*H (1972). There are about a dozen shows on the air at present, including Grey's Anatomy (2005) and Chicago Med (2015). The last time a medical drama was up for Outstanding Drama was House (2004), which had its fifth season up for the top prize. Some programs go the more soap opera route. Others go the route of competence porn or showing people doing their jobs well and solving medical mysteries, much like cop shows have police solving murder mysteries.
Whenever any real-life cops watch a cop show or real-life lawyers watch a legal drama, they always complain about how fictionalized and non-realistic the shows are. Often, that's the case with certain processes and protocols. Often, dramas will exaggerate certain procedures for dramatic effect. There is an exaggeration that can take actual professionals in those fields out of the story or narrative. Most shows strive for authenticity, but the dramatics can take over. Often, these medical dramas are broadcast on network television. As such, the depictions of certain things can be sanitized to one degree or another. A lot of these shows emphasize the sex appeal of their actors. It's not to say that this show doesn't have a lot of really good looking actors in it, but the show reportedly goes above and beyond in its efforts to be as real as possible, as immersive as possible, and make people think this could be a documentary and not a drama.
All of that is supremely appreciated and elevates this show for sure. Some might think it's too "real" and too "immersive," especially in its second season. This series gives a lot of graphic, medical procedures and in-your-face surgical acts that could make you either queasy or want to avert your eyes. The first episode of the second season is very visceral where the characters are literally cutting a person open and digging inside their chest cavity. The camera is right there giving bold close-ups that if you don't have the stomach for it, it could be nauseating. As the episodes progress, more and more patients are introduced who need invasive, medical procedures, whether it's having their necks cut open for intubation, or having their chest, limbs or even head cut open to relieve inflammation. However, what is the most nauseating, if not the most gross, is a procedure in Episode 5 meant to solve constipation called disimpaction, a process that's employed when an enema doesn't work. It's nasty, but played for comedy.
The elderly woman who is severely constipated is one of several patients that have quirky medical illnesses or illnesses that can be mined for comedy. This season takes place all in one day. The first season was done the same way where each episode and thus the whole season is structured like 24 (2001). Each episode is an hour in length and represents an hour of real-time in the chronology of the series. This season has chosen July 4, 2026, as its actual day. A fun exercise would be for someone to watch this whole season on that actual day, which is less than three months away from the time of this season's finale. As such, there are patients who have July 4th related medical problems like a guy who gets stabbed with a tiny flag pole and a young woman who becomes sick after being painted the colors of the American flag.
However, there are less comical and more heartbreaking cases that this show parades one after the other. Each new one becomes even more heartbreaking than the last, which becomes a point or theme that this season is juggling. One child is injured during a firecracker explosion. A woman is injured when falling off a ledge while trying to watch fireworks. Yet, given the date, a lot of the patients have issues related to the summer heat, but sometimes, symptoms that might seem as the result of that summer heat could be a smoke screen for something else. Therefore, a lot of this show is the young doctors having to look past any superficial judgments and arrive at a true diagnosis, and often those decisions have to be done very quickly.
As Wyle's Dr. Robby keeps indicating, this show is set at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, which is a teaching hospital. Dr. Robby is an attending physician or a person who supervises fellows, residents and medical students, as they get first-hand experience treating patients. He's their leader but he's also a teacher, educating them on how to diagnose quickly and then what to do to keep people alive. This motivates the medical students and young doctors into learning and doing their best. It also scares them because there are times when things go wrong, resulting in patients dying. The hardship of that is a lesson that the students and young doctors also have to learn. Yet, it has an affect on them. What we see is that it also has a cumulative effect on the older physicians like Dr. Robby. That effect is something that weighs on all of their mental health. This season is as much about the doctors grappling with their mental health as they are their patients. In the first season, we saw Dr. Robby have what could be called a mental breakdown.
This second season is as much about Robby reckoning with that mental breakdown as anything. We also see a couple of the younger doctors dealing with similar afflictions. One doctor, Samira Mohan, played by Supriya Ganesh (Chicago Med and New Amsterdam), has a panic attack while on duty. She's under pressure from her mom to figure out what kind of doctor or what kind of specialty she'll have. She's not exactly indecisive, but some of her options are fields that are very competitive and she wonders if she has what it takes to break into those fields. Last season, she was criticized for how slow she is when she's treating patients. When working in the emergency department, a doctor has to be fast when treating patients. This is due to patients potentially having immediate, life-threatening problems. It's also due to the waiting room usually getting filled and being crowded, which overwhelms everyone.
Lucas Iverson is new to the show and plays James Ogilvie, a medical student who doesn't seem to have any mental health issues at the beginning of the day. In fact, he seems like an over-achiever who is super eager to do the work required for the job. As the day progresses, his mental health starts to break down and he becomes more and more depressed, if after being horrified following extreme cases being put in front of him and mistakes being made. Working in the emergency department is certainly a trial by fire situation or it can feel like being thrown in the deep end. There are supposed to be attending physicians who act like lifeguards to make sure young doctors or medical students don't drown, but it doesn't mean that damage can't be done, especially if those medical students act boldly or rashly in the heat of the moment, which Ogilvie does.
Yes, this show is very authentic in its portrayal of what doctors in the emergency department do. Characters remark about how crazy things are because it is a flood of intense cases. Obviously, the show might feel boring, if not with the deluge of cases that always become extreme or always go left into life-threatening territory. This show does its best to justify these deluges. Last season, the show dealt with a mass shooting. This season, the show is dealing with a cyberattack. Granted, the show isn't dealing with these crises in terms of anyone trying to solve that specific problem. The mass shooting and now cyberattack are ways for the show to justify why there's an over-the-top influx of patients, which ultimately overwhelm the doctors involved. It's meant to push the characters to the brink because the point is to show how tough and taxing their jobs are, as well as how we should all appreciate them more.
That in itself could be considered a manipulation or an exaggeration for dramatic effect. The show is about mental health and it's effective for making us feel those mental health issues. If a phrase embodies what this season is trying to accomplish, that phrase is "physician, heal thyself." It gets to the point that every doctor is in need of some kind of help whether mental or otherwise. Chief among them is Dr. Robby who is dealing with his own mental health issues that he does a good job of hiding but manifests itself in certain outbursts. Those outbursts or those issues reveal themselves when it comes to certain people, starting with Baran Al-Hishimi, played by Sepideh Moafi (The L Word: Generation Q and Nurse Jackie), the new attending physician who will be taking over for Robby when he goes on sabbatical. She's into using digital technology like A.I. in order to streamline the paperwork or administrative work at the hospital, whereas Robby is more traditional and more old-school in his methods. It seems as if Al-Hishimi and Robby will clash on this ideological difference in how the hospital should be run. Yet, for Al-Hishimi, it also becomes a "physician, heal thyself" situation, which isn't revealed till the end and it feels like overkill in that the cast is so large and to have yet another doctor dealing with their own illness and ailment felt like a step too far.
Patrick Ball, a Broadway actor, co-stars as Frank Langdon, a senior resident at the hospital. Last season, he was revealed to be a drug addict who was stealing medicine from the hospital. That should have gotten him fired at least and possibly arrested to be put in jail. He basically had to go to rehab for several months and now he's back working in the hospital, in the same place where he was stealing. Dealing with his drug addiction is a big deal, which causes consternation for Robby and for Dr. Santos, played by Isa Briones, a fellow Broadway actor. Santos was the one who figured out and caught Langdon stealing drugs. She's upset that Langdon is back working at the hospital as if nothing happened. She doesn't think his treatment is fair, given how poorly she's treated. Last season, Santos had a spicy personality and perhaps rubbed people the wrong way with her brazenness and cockiness at times, so Santos' consternation this season could be chickens coming home to roost.
The cast is so large and all of them standout tremendously. However, one actor who absolutely deserves a spotlight is Katherine LaNasa who is a veteran TV actress and who won the Emmy for this role. LaNasa co-stars as Dana Evans, the charge nurse for the hospital who basically is the one who runs the emergency department, handling most, if not all the logistics. She was attacked last season by a disgruntled patient. This season, she's on guard for any other disgruntled patients. She might be a bit trigger happy. She's also the one who battles with Robby the most over his consternations and his lashing out at times. She's really the only one who can check him and call him on his toxic behavior. Some of the best scenes of the season are the ones where she's talking to him or even arguing with him. Yet, Dana as a nurse is absolutely amazing. She's beyond incredible at her job. That's not on display more as when she has to do a rape kit exam. The show walks us through the step-by-step process of it in a way that I haven't felt viscerally as when it was done in the second season of John Ridley's American Crime (2015).
Finally, this season introduces Jeff Kober who is a veteran actor who has done several medical dramas from China Beach (1988) to even an episode of ER. He recently won an Emmy for his role on ABC's General Hospital (1963). He also had a role on Sons of Anarchy (2008), which was about a motorcycle club. Here, Kober plays Duke, a friend of Robby and a motorcycle mechanic. Kober is always great in any role he inhabits and having him pop up here was a refreshing surprise. Hopefully, the show will find a way for him to return, which I suspect they will.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 15 eps.
Available on HBO Max.
