It’s hard to fall in love with a network sitcom in 2024; hell, it’s hard to fall in love with any kind of comedy in this age of television, given how disposable and short-lived so many series feel. For just about every sitcom – at least, those not tied to somehow-still-expanding The Big Bang Theory-verse – every new series fears for its continued existence from day one, and most comedies aren’t given the episode orders and exposure to find their voices (save for the rarities of an Abbott Elementary or The Neighborhood). There’s a lack of investment on the part of executives and the audience, their individual paranoias forming these odd shells around new comedies that creative voices have struggled to crack on the Big Four (or Five, if you still count The CW) for the past decade.
St. Denis Medical, NBC’s latest attempt revive the workplace comedy in primetime, is creator Justin Spitzer’s third and latest endeavor into the genre, following the elusively charming American Auto and Superstore – which remains one of the best comedies NBC, or any network, has aired in the past 20 years. St. Denis Medical, set in an upstart Oregonian hospital, is really a marriage of Spitzer’s two last series, takes the structure of American Auto‘s examination of modern American C-suite-isms, and marries them with Superstore‘s more grounded look at blue collar labor – and, quietly, how capitalism has warped and shifted some of the most basic, fundamental jobs of a modern society.
Spitzer also leans on the very familiar trappings of mockumentary comedy to establish the show’s pace and tone in “Welcome to St. Denis Medical” and “A Very Robust Personal Life”, tapping into some of the writing rhythms Spitzer utilized when writing on shows like The Office and Scrubs with characters like Wendi McLendon-Covey’s Joyce, the executive director of St. Denis trying to push the hospital into relevancy as a “destination medical facility” (a particularly devious phrase St. Denis Medical throws out early on as a reminder of how cutthroat and gross the medical industrial complex has become).
Her Joyce is the typical goofy, detached boss whose insecurities are only matched by their idiosyncrasies; but thanks to McLendon-Covey’s committed performance and the show’s unique tone, which makes her a lot more empathetic and interesting than some of her contemporaries in the genre (her character is a bit softer and goofier than Ana Gasteyer’s American Auto counterpart, for example). In what is a recurring theme across the cast, Covey’s versatility as a performer opens a lot of avenues for storytelling I’m excited to see explored in future episodes.
To that point, Covey’s presence is fairly prominent in the first two episodes (Joyce’s arc having a surprisingly emotional turn in “A Very Robust Personal Life” is also a pleasant surprise) – and while it is fantastic, where the show really taps into its magic is on the emergency room floor, where the show is primarily set. With a cast led by Alison Tolman as an overachieving supervising nurse (in her first leading network sitcom role since 2017’s EXTREMELY underrated and short lived Downward Dog) and David Allen Grier as a disgruntled career surgeon (who I last saw on NBC in the criminally underappreciated The Carmichael Show) St. Denis Medical quickly fills out its roster with a number of intriguing, if slightly familiar, personalities – Superstore veterans will feel a lot of similarities between the two ensemble sets, even if St. Denis Medical does offer some interesting wrinkles, like with Kahyun Kim’s Serena and Kaliko Kauahi’s Val (for my money, Kauahi remains one of Superstore‘s MVPs).
Despite all the comparisons, St. Denis Medical is certainly a series with its own voice; with a setting like a modern-day emergency room, it’s certainly easy for the show to ground itself and its characters in a familiar world of small wins and big losses – which leaves it plenty of room in the first two episodes to work out the kinks with its characters, and quickly start to establish some character beats and recurring jokes (like Ron’s dating life, or Matt’s religious background) with an infectious confidence. And when it goes for its big, cheesy emotional beats, it shows an ability to meld powerful, intimate moments with confident bits of humor and a strong grip on the pathos driving its characters – like Superstore, St. Denis Medical quickly finds that incredibly delicate balance between being a hilarious comedy and providing thoughtful reflections on humanity (without sacrificing one for the other).
It’s not completely flawless, of course (what first hour of comedy is?); “Welcome to St. Denis” spends a little more time focused on Tolman’s character than it probably needs to, and as a pilot, some of its observations about the patient/doctor/nurse relationship is a bit pointed and obvious. But those are obvious nitpicks – and issues “A Very Robust Personal Life” mostly doesn’t concern itself with, immediately shifting from Pilot Voice into a more relaxed, confident delivery of its story – one that leads down a surprisingly emotional road, and avoids the common pit of Second Episode-ism (that is, being basically a Pilot 2.0). “A Very Robust Personal Life” – which was co-written by Rutherford Falls creator Sierra Teller Ornelas and Superstore writer Owen Ellickson – is one of the better sitcom episodes I’ve seen in 2024, an episode that takes the simple concept of how “sometimes “sometime life creeps in” and turns it into a rather touching little rumination on the values we hold, and how those define the walls we put up between ourselves and others.
Will St. Denis Medical be able to maintain this momentum throughout its 18-episode first season run? Only time will tell, of course – but the building blocks for a great comedy are already firmly in place, and there’s not much about these first two episodes to dissuade anyone from returning for a least a few more servings, easily making St. Denis Medical is the most promising, recommendable freshman comedy of the fall.
Grade: A-
Other thoughts/observations:
- Welcome to St. Denis Medical reviews! I will be covering the first season weekly as it airs, so make sure to bookmark us, or add the RSS feed to the reader of your choice.
- So many Superstore actors returning for this series – I am most interested to see what Josh Lawson does as trauma surgeon Bruce. His Superstore pharmacist was hilarious, and this role looks to offer that with a little bit more depth to it.
- There’s a cute subplot in “Welcome to St. Denis” where Joyce purchases a 300k mammography machine, but ultimately returns it when it could damage the hospital’s bottom line. Not at ALL realistic, but a sign that St. Denis Medical is operating on a different level.
- At the end of the pilot, Alex is hugged by a man played by Scott Subiono – who looks so much like a slightly younger Christopher Lloyd I was momentarily confused.
- Any medical series that begins with a good OD joke is on the right path.
- Bruce tries to find a camera-worthy patient; his choices are someone who wants a white doctor or a woman who forecloses on people who can’t pay their mortgages.
- Ron: “If you’re going to clutch the pearls everytime I say something wrong, it’s going to be a long life.”