St Denis Medical, review: yet another workplace mockumentary, flatlining on originality
Original ideas are thin on the ground in TV, but a mockumentary workplace comedy set in a US hospital? You've definitely seen this one before, spread across different shows. St Denis Medical (BBC One) is The Office meets Scrubs with a dash of St Elsewhere and Parks and Recreation, while unfortunately not being as good as any of them.
It's not so bad, though, even if the BBC has bought it in from NBC and dumped it in a graveyard slot. They're hoping you'll pick it up on iPlayer, where the half-hour episodes are available as a boxset.
The setting is a small, regional hospital in Oregon. Turns out they have the same problems over there as we have over here: low morale, chaotic A&E departments, intransigent receptionists who would have to see your internal organs fall out before they let you see a doctor. Then there's the endless admin. A consultant is asked how he spends a typical day, and replies: 'Well, 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 Dr Leonard (David Alan Grier), a twinkly hospital veteran and the most likeable character here. Some of the others owe a hefty debt to The Office. If David Brent was running a hospital, can't you imagine him saying, as Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey) does here: 'I was an oncologist for 20 years but, now that I'm a hospital administrator, I'm battling different kinds of cancers – like cynicism, pessimism, people questioning my judgment. Those attitudes are the real cancers.'?
She performs dance routines as employees wince, and asks them: 'What's the most infectious thing in a hospital?' When they suggest various diseases, she says: 'No, you guys, the most infectious thing in a hospital is a smile. '
Then there's Alex (Fargo's Allison Tolman), a supervising nurse in A&E. She's the one with whom we are supposed to sympathise because she's brimming with goodness and devoted to the job, patiently dealing with difficult patients, difficult colleagues and difficult bosses. Alex gives the show a sentimental side that can verge on the cloying. Her perennially sarcastic colleague, Serena (Kahyun Kim), is more fun.
Writer Justin Spitzer previously worked on the US version of The Office, as well as Scrubs and workplace comedy Superstore, and has stayed well within his comfort zone. He's done a competent job, but it all feels too safe. Dr Leonard has been given a quirk, but it's simply that he has a very sweet tooth; the trauma surgeon swaggers around as if he's God's gift, when it would have been more interesting to steer away from that stereotype.
The mockumentary touches – all those glances at the camera – feel hackneyed now. Shows like this have been so done to death that we've come full circle, and it's the traditional, canned laughter sitcoms that are starting to look edgy.
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