Taking a page from other workplace TV mockumentaries, NBC’s “St. Denis Medical” follows the overburdened staff of a hospital in Scranton. Sorry, I meant small-town Oregon. But if the rhythms and delivery mimic “The Office” at the outset, I’m willing to chalk that up to a new show needing time to find its footing. A more cynical possibility is that NBC saw the wildly successful second life of “The Office” on streaming and sought out a show just like it. Either way, here’s hoping “St. Denis Medical” can develop a more distinctive voice of its own.
Sitcoms are meant to be funny but also comforting, and the show is still figuring things out on both fronts. Co-creators Eric Ledgin and Justin Spitzer (who worked together previously on “Superstore” and “American Auto”) have given themselves a sometimes insurmountable challenge: How do you portray incompetence at a hospital as comedy? The answer is to focus on harmless incompetence, or, more often, interpersonal conflicts among the staff. That requires a lived-in quality, and maybe it’s unfair to expect a show to have that right off the bat. “Abbott Elementary” did. But that doesn’t mean “St. Denis Medical” can’t get there.
Wendi McLendon-Covey plays the awkwardly confident, frequently inappropriate hospital administrator, and if that sounds a lot like a Michael Scott, well, I wasn’t exaggerating when I said the show feels derivative of “The Office.” McLendon-Covey has real talent as a comedic actor and I’d like to see if the show’s writers can carve out some ways that make the character feel less like a retread. There’s a brief scene where she fires someone and instead of her usual ineptness, she handles it just right. Suddenly she becomes interesting, because if she’s terrible at some things but surprisingly good at others, that feels unpredictable, which is one step closer to funny. More of those contrasts, please.
Josh Lawson’s insecure egomaniac surgeon doesn’t fully work just yet either. His silly self-importance — pathetic and almost innocently childlike in its desperation — is meant to be a riff on the god complex of his chosen profession. But his sweaty arrogance and bluster are his only defining qualities, and they’re not a reliable source of humor. The character needs more depth. I’m also not sold on the naive but eager nurse fresh out of school, played by Mekki Leeper, who has a tendency to stick his nose where it doesn’t belong. The show is trying to tackle a variety of personality types, which is the right instinct, but so far what we’re getting are personality traits. That’s not enough. The show’s style is realism (rather than the heightened absurdity of a comedy like “Childrens Hospital” or even the dreamy silliness of “Scrubs”) so if their shenanigans are going to resonate, the characters need to feel more like three-dimensional people.
The rest of the ensemble shows more promise, with standout David Alan Grier as a mildly cranky ER doctor who has seen it all. When asked to describe his day, he replies dryly: “Where do I begin? I just examined a patient with a heart murmur — that took about two minutes. Now I’m going to spend 40 minutes filling out electronic health records — that’s a party.” Grier’s tangy, deadpan annoyance (and occasional moments of sage wisdom) give the character specificity, and he’s funny. Allison Tolman plays a newly promoted supervising nurse. A good-natured workaholic, she’s struggling to juggle her additional responsibilities and fumbling it at least 25% of the time. That feels like the right balance. The strongest episode provided to critics centers on the tension between her and a headstrong nurse played by “Superstore” alum Nico Santos, in a guest starring role. Santos is so wonderfully self-assured and snippy — bringing a much-needed comedic attitude to the show’s proceedings — that he should be added as a regular cast member.
The cast also includes another “Superstore” veteran, Kaliko Kauahi, as a nurse who is funniest when she functions as a one-person peanut gallery. And Kahyun Kim is terrific as a nurse who is never too busy to take a co-worker down a peg or three, and with barely any effort.
So far, the show hasn’t left the confines of the hospital (which is fine), but if we aren’t going to see these people socialize outside of work, they need more excuses to just hang and build a palpable rapport. One episode briefly takes us to the hospital gift shop and this feels like a fruitful spot for comedy, where characters can be ridiculous without setting off any alarm bells about their ability to do their day jobs. For now, the show is a work in progress, but there is enough talent here for it to potentially grow into a reliable staple.
However, it suffers from an overriding weirdness that affects most medical shows right now. “What’s the most infectious thing in a hospital?” their boss quizzes them. Antibiotic-resistant staph? Pneumonia? “No, you guys, the most infectious thing in a hospital is a smile.” For half a second, I actually thought we might hear someone say COVID-19. Would a show dare to find humor in the most humorless health crisis in recent memory? Uh, that would be no. It’s yet another challenge “St. Denis Medical” faces: How to address the viral elephant in the room? Like so many other hospital shows at the moment, it chooses to not confront it at all. I get it. Doesn’t make it any less surreal. But I get it.
“St. Denis Medical” — 2 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: 7 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC (the first two episodes air again 8 p.m. Friday and can be streamed on Peacock)
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
