Maybe it’s impossible to catch lightning in a bottle—look at how hard it is to follow up great projects with sequels. Look at how bad Iron Man 2 was compared to Iron Man. But sometimes, the third time is the charm. I mean, not Iron Man 3, but it was an improvement at least.
Okay, that’s enough of the idiomatic cliches, but I do want to talk to you about St. Denis Medical, the follow-up to the follow-up from Superstore creator Justin Spitzer. After suffering through 2021’s American Autos, which felt like it was written in 2016, I thought that perhaps Superstore was a fluke. I could tell American Autos was trying to recapture the magic of Superstore, even drafting in Jon Barinholtz (brother of the reliably hilarious Ike), who probably had the highest joke hit rate in the show, for a bigger role. But it didn’t work and while it managed a second season, I still don’t understand how. It left me skeptical when I saw commercials for Spitzer’s new show.
But St. Denis Medical rights the ship with aplomb. It’s not about the doctor’s office in Red Dead Redemption 2 where Arthur helps a doctor amputate an injured man’s limb, but rather a struggling, underfunded hospital outside of Portland, Oregon, even though I can’t stop myself from giving it a French pronunciation like the town from that game. But it’s not St. Denis, it’s “Saint Dennis”. That’s fine, I can live with that.
Going back to the mockumentary well for a feel good comedy may seem like a tired mechanic now, after shows like The Office, Modern Family, Parks & Rec, and Abbott Elementary, and the show does borrow heavily from the Parks & Rec playbook, but it’s all the better for it. The talking heads don’t take anything away from the flow of the show and it allows for layered jokes and it never detracts from the episodes’ stories. Ensemble comedies like this can often hinge on casting and St. Denis’s cast is well chosen. Wendi McLendon-Covey of Reno 911! and The Goldbergs plays the head of the hospital, doctor turned administrator, a real Leslie Knope-type; well-meaning and overbearing, she wants her hospital to be seen on the same level as big city hospitals, but she genuinely cares about her staff and the patients. I’m talking about the complete opposite of Dr. Kelso from Scrubs, it’s genuinely refreshing to see. Josh Lawson returns from his too short stint as Tate in Superstore (and Kano in 2021’s underrated Mortal Kombat, where he offered most of the comic relief) and, while he plays a version of Tate here, surgeon rather than pharmacist, he shines in every scene. I love his comedic timing and delivery, he serves up laughs every time he’s on screen. Veteran comic actor David Alan Grier also features heavily and the cast is really stabilized by his presence. He plays the jaded old doctor who is just past it, but in a charming, funny, Ed-Asner-at-the-end-of-Up kind of way. Alison Tolman’s Alex is the star of the show and she continues to delight in every role I’ve seen her. Her stint in the first season of the Fargo series was a standout performance, her recurring role in Brooklyn Nine-Nine showed she had the chops for a full on comedy, and in St. Denis she keeps up the record of strong performances. Rounding out the cast is a number of somewhat familiar faces, like Kaliko Kauahi (Sandra from Superstore), Mekki Leeper (from Jury Duty), and Kahyun Kim (from Cocaine Bear). Some great one-off appearances too, like Erinn Hayes, who has done the comedy doctor thing before in Childrens Hospital and its criminally underrated and too short-lived spin-off Medical Police and Nico Santos from Crazy Rich Asians, another Superstore vet.
It’s a time-tested formula. Understaffed, underfunded, with a new guy there to help the characters explain things to the audience, this time in the form of a wide-eyed young nurse who comes from an insulated religious community. His upbringing lends itself to some great comedic moments, where his family, who doesn’t believe in medical science and disapproves of his career as a nurse, tells him to be more like his cousin—whom unfortunately died of strep throat. The lack of staff and funding means there are always problems to deal with and it gives the characters something to work around; in a drama, it makes for conflict, in a comedy, it gives you plenty of awkward situation for comedic moments to grow. St. Denis sits on the shoulders of giants, sure, but it does it really well. Sharp writing and strong actors make it so it doesn’t seem like it’s just a copy trying to chase the feeling of another show, a trap Parks & Rec managed to avoid as well. In this post-Ted Lasso world, one where you feel increasingly yelled at by everyone and everything, where everything is vying for your time and attention and wants your rage and anger to fuel it, I can’t get enough of watching good people trying to do good things and that’s what St. Denis is all about. Even David Alan Grier’s lovable curmudgeon gives a damn about his patients and his fellow coworkers; the normal doctor v. nurse conflicts aren’t a focus of the storytelling, rather they approach the job as if they’re all in it together. It’ll never not be refreshing to see; I am so glad the era of comedies about “friends” who just constantly snipe at each other and go for the jugular is over. A friend isn’t supposed to just be someone who knows you well enough that they can hit at your insecurities and you’re supposed to shrug it off and, boy I have had lots of coworkers I couldn’t stand and some that I’ve become lifelong friends with, which makes a show like St. Denis Medical such a relatable, fun, and uplifting watch.
One thing that does make St. Denis unique is its focus on the nurses for the viewpoint of the show. It’s not a show about heroic doctors—Lawson’s surgeon Bruce has a god complex, but he’s not the hero of the show, rather, he’s the butt of jokes. Grier may be a jaded doctor who has seen it all, but he’s used most effectively as a foil for Tolman’s Alex, who is the heart and soul of the show, and most of the characters are viewed from the lens of her perspective. She’s the one who interacts with admin the most, she manages the other nurses, and the doctors look to her first. Leeper’s Matt may be the FNG, but he’s not the star like JD from Scrubs, he’s more of a bit player. Tolman’s Alex is the one who makes this show what it is and while she sets very high standards for the character work, no one in the cast disappoints and most live up to those standards. Lawson and McLendon-Covey especially, who was toned down very quickly into a believable, likable, and funny character. She started with the needle pointing a little too far towards Michael Scott, but was deftly redirected towards Leslie Knope, much for the good of the show. The pilot had some rough edges that needed to be smoothed out, but by the end of the second episode, I was hooked. Again, taking a page from great comedies like Abbott Elementary, this focus on the on-the-ground characters gives a comedic look at the very real problems in backbone industries like healthcare and education. They’re downstream, affected by decisions made miles above them, but while they take a moment to acknowledge them, the show isn’t about that. Even COVID is given just a small mention, whereas Superstore made it a front and center issue. St. Denis Medical is a show with something to say and, lucky for us, it says it in a really, really funny way. It’s airing weekly on Tuesdays on NBC, streaming Wednesdays on Peacock, and frankly, it’s become one of the shows I look forward to every week. With all six aired episodes on Peacock, there’s plenty of time to catch up over the holidays before it returns on January 14th. And I definitely recommend you give it a try.
[As this post is going up on Tuesday, December 24th and not Monday as usual, I would like to take a moment to both apologize for the delay and wish everyone who is celebrating Christmas a merry one. Have fun, have food, and make some memories—at the end of the day, they’re more important than presents anyway (but I do hope you get some good presents too). In case you missed it and still need to pick a movie to watch with the family or you just want to get in the holiday spirit for any reason, you can check out my 2024 Christmas Special here. Have a fun and safe holiday! I’ll see you in a week.]