Want to be prescribed a new hospital drama? These TV doctors are ready to treat you
No matter your ailment, there are plenty of TV doctors waiting to treat you right now on a selection of channels and streamers.
Whether it's Noah Wyle putting on his stethoscope for the first time since 'ER,' Morris Chestnut graduating to head doctor, Molly Parker making her debut in scrubs or Joshua Jackson trading death for life on a luxury cruise, new American hospital dramas have something for everyone.
There's also an outsider trying to make a difference in 'Berlin ER,' as Haley Louise Jones plays the new boss of a struggling German hospital's emergency department. The show's doors slide open to patients Wednesday on Apple TV+.
These shows all contain the DNA of classic hospital dramas — and this guide will help you get the TV treatment you need.
'Berlin ER'
Dr. Suzanna 'Zanna' Parker has been sent to run the Krank, which is only just being held together by hardened — and authority-resistant — medical staff and supplies from a sex shop. The result is an unflinching drama set in an underfunded, underappreciated and understaffed emergency department, where the staff is as traumatized as the patients, but hide it much better.
From former real-life ER doc Samuel Jefferson and also starring Slavko Popadić, Şafak Şengül, Aram Tafreshian and Samirah Breuer, the German-language show is not for the faint of heart.
Jones says she eventually got used to the blood and gore on the set.
'It's gruesome in the beginning, highly unnerving. And then at some point, it's just the most normal thing in the world,' she explains. 'That's flesh. That's the rest of someone's leg, you know, let's just move on and have coffee or whatever.'
As it's set in the German clubbing capital, the whole city seems to live at a frenetic pace and the staff deals with the pressure by partying. The music, the lighting and the pulse of the drama also rubs off on the audience.
'When I saw it the first time I was sitting there, my heart was racing,' says Jones of watching the program. 'I knew what was coming, but I just, you know, my body just reacted. And I think that really says a lot.'
Would she agree to be treated by Dr. Parker? Jones reckons it depends on what day you catch her.
DIAGNOSIS: 'This is Going To Hurt' gets the 'ER' treatment — side effects include breathlessness and heartbreak.
'The Pitt'
Emergencies are often against the clock, but in 'The Pitt,' they are on a timer. Attached to a bomb.
Each episode shows an hour of Dr. Michael Robinavitch's emergency room shift on one of the worst days of his life. After avoiding all doctor roles since the finale of 'ER' in 2009, Wyle pulls on the navy hoodie of a weary Dr. Robby — this time in Pittsburgh.
Initially an idea for a 'ER' reboot with producer John Wells, the show morphed into a fresh take on the challenges medical professionals face in the wake of the world-shifting pandemic.
'It felt a little sacrilegious to try to walk back into that arena prematurely,' says Wyle. 'It was really only thoughtfully, soberly, cautiously and meticulously that we attempted it again.'
Robby is calm and competent in showing his medical students how it's done, while keeping his own mental health crisis hidden. Not that there are many places to hide: Wyle explains that they are setting themselves apart from other hospital dramas by turning up the lights, cutting the mood-telegraphing music and showing the real dimensions of the department.
'All of those kind of lend themselves to doing something different,' he says. 'Rattling the cage, you know, trying to put a new spin on an old form.'
Joining him in Max's 'The Pitt' are co-stars Tracy Ifeachor, Katharine LaNasa, Patrick Ball and Supriya Ganesh.
As for his own medical knowledge, Wyle says there are procedures he feels adept at least pretending to do. With the amount of time he's spent playing a doctor, he could have earned his own degree by now.
'I've been doing this long enough,' he says. 'So I'm either the worst student or one of the best doctor actors around.'
DIAGNOSIS: With front-line workers against the clock, it has a similar pathology to both 'ER' and '24.'
'Watson'
Also in Pittsburgh, you'll find The Holmes Clinic for Diagnostic Medicine, where it's still life-and-death, but your heart rate can afford to slow a little.
It's run by Dr. John Watson, former colleague of Sherlock Holmes, the famous sleuth who has bequeathed the funding for the medical center.
Chestnut he plays the lead 'doc-tective,' as he puts it, leading a team trying to solve medical mysteries while avoiding old foe Moriarty (Randall Park) — Watson is still dealing with a traumatic brain injury from their last encounter.
And Chestnut is no stranger to the long words and Latin terms that accompany hospital dramas. Chestnut was a nurse in 'ER,' a former army doc in 'Nurse Jackie' and a pathologist in 'Rosewood.' More recently, he was the ruthless and talented neurosurgeon Barrett Cain on 'The Resident.'
Luckily, his Watson has a better beside manner and uses cutting-edge science to help puzzle out a unique selection of patients, alongside his staff, played by Eve Harlow, Inga Schlingmann and Peter Mark Kendall.
The Sherlock mythology is provided by show creator, Arthur Conan Doyle fan and ex-'Elementary' writer Craig Sweeny, who brings a case-of-the-week style to the program. Chestnut reckons it's this literary twist on the medical mystery formula that sets it apart from 'House MD,' whose lead character was more of a Sherlock.
And he wouldn't hesitate to be treated by Dr. Watson because 'he wants to understand you as a person' and 'truly cares' about his patients.
DIAGNOSIS: More tests needed to confirm if 'Elementary' or 'House' is the leading condition.
'Doc'
Over her 30-year career, Molly Parker has never played a doctor before. In 'Doc,' based on a true story, she jumped right in with the top job, chief of internal medicine, at Minneapolis' Westside Hospital.
A car crash causes the overachieving, work-centric Dr. Amy Larsen to lose eight years of her memory, turning her into a patient with a traumatic brain injury. Parker portrays both versions of Larsen through Fox's debut season — the career woman in flashback and the mother learning to trust again in the present.
The focus of the show is on feelings over physical ailments, as Larsen has to deal, all over again, with the loss of her son.
'What I liked about this is that it has all the elements of that genre, like it has the high stakes and the mystery illness and the romantic love triangle,' explains Parker, who stars alongside Anya Banerjee, Jon-Michael Ecker, Amirah Vann and Omar Metwally. 'But at the center of it is this woman who is going through this really profound grief.'
Parker has learned 'not to diagnose yourself on the internet,' a deeper respect for health care workers and that playing a doctor is not easy.
'The most you can do is sort of try to get the words right sometimes,' she says with a smile, admitting she still can't pronounce the name of one particular drug.
'It's, like, so important in the entire season,' Parker adds, 'and I said it wrong every single time.'
DIAGNOSIS: For fans of 'Grey's Anatomy,' where complications come from relationships rather than infections.
'Doctor Odyssey'
An honorable mention goes to Dr. Max Bankman of 'Doctor Odyssey,' who set sail at the end of 2024 and is finishing up Season One's maiden voyage March 6 on ABC.
Joshua Jackson, who previously portrayed real-life man of malpractice Christopher Duntsch in 'Dr. Death,' is on board as the accomplished and smiley new head of a luxury cruise liner's medical team. 'Doctor Odyssey' comes from super producer Ryan Murphy and is set in the same world as his '9-1-1' franchise, with an upcoming crossover episode starring Angela Bassett.
Philippa Soo and Sean Teale complete the ship's medical threesome contending with a surprisingly frequent number of bizarre illnesses and accidents that befall the guest stars (episode one: a broken penis). Jackson acknowledges the cases are 'absurd and fun and wild and over-the-top,' much to the amusement of his brother, who runs an actual ER.
But that is the appeal, he says, for viewers to 'exhale' and find 'welcome relief' from the stress of real life.
'To have this, you know, pretty bauble in the middle of your week to just come in and go on an adventure,' Jackson explains. 'The stakes are high, the relationships are intense. Everything's very dramatic. And 42 minutes later, you realize you're just in the most beautiful place in the world.'
Unfortunately, his own medical skills remain more Dr. Death than Dr. Bankman.
'I could really, really, deeply mess somebody up,' he says. 'I have just enough terminology and jargon to sound like I know what I'm doing, but none of the practical skills.'
Jackson wouldn't hesitate to put his own health in the hands of Dr. Bankman, though, citing the miracles he's able to perform weekly on The Odyssey.
DIAGNOSIS: Call '9-1-1' for a therapeutic trip on 'The Love Boat.'
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