Fall 2024 TV Overview!
New health-related shows are here, and some have nurse characters. The central character on the NBC mockumentary St. Denis Medical seems to be a senior nurse. And ABC’s Doctor Odyssey, set on a cruise ship, actually has two nurse characters. But other new shows seem to fit the physician-centric model of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, especially Fox’s Doc and NBC’s Brilliant Minds. In any case, good portrayals of nursing will return, on the long-running Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS) and Virgin River (Netflix).
See our full Fall television overview on our new video podcast on YouTube, on standard audio podcast, or read more below:
Podcast | Written analysis (below) |
October 2024 – This is a transition year for health-related shows on prime-time U.S. television, as several new shows arrive in the wake of veteran shows that ended last season. The new show with perhaps the highest potential for some helpful portrayals of nursing may be NBC’s new mockumentary St. Denis Medical (Nov. 12). There, the central, narrating character seems to be a beleaguered senior nurse. Producer Ryan Murphy, whose Ratched now looks unlikely to return, is back with ABC’s Doctor Odyssey (Sept. 26), about a physician-led health team working on a luxury cruise ship. There are two nurse characters, including a nurse practitioner (NP). Both nurses are highly competent–but the NP badly wants to be a physician, reinforcing the stereotype that that is what nurses dream of. The other new shows look to focus heavily on heroic physicians, with little to no meaningful depiction of nursing, in accord with the Hollywood model. Fox’s Doc (premiering mid-season) is a drama about a “brilliant” physician who has lost her recent memory after a brain injury. The showrunner worked on ABC’s physician-dominated Private Practice, and the likelihood of a good portrayal of nursing here is low. NBC’s Brilliant Minds (Sept. 23) is about a pioneering neurologist based on Oliver Sacks. His team is composed of “brilliant young interns,” and there are basically no nurse characters, apart from the petty bureaucrats who occasionally get in the lead physician’s way. Overall, note the new shows’ focus on “doc” and “brilliant” – never good signs. Among returning shows, Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS; early 2025) will be back for a 14th season about the work of skilled, autonomous nurse-midwives in London, now in 1970. It remains the best show for nursing on U.S. television. Netflix’s Virgin River (Dec. 19) whose lead character is a highly competent nurse practitioner (NP) in a small California town, will return for a sixth season. And NBC will air, at some point, the fourth season of the Canadian drama Transplant, about a skilled trauma physician from Syria who has started over in Toronto. Physician characters are the focus, though there is a minor NP character who plays an important role in care. Other returning shows include NBC’s Chicago Med (Sept. 25), which also focuses on physicians, but has two major nurse characters with real skill and authority. And ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (Sept. 26) will continue to offer a vision of hospital care in which physicians do everything that matters. Please join us in encouraging Hollywood to offer more accurate portrayals of nursing!
FYI, shows that ended last season: The Good Doctor, New Amsterdam, and Bob Hearts Abishola.
New Shows
St. Denis Medical (NBC; Nov. 12)
Doctor Odyssey (ABC; Sept. 26)
Brilliant Minds (NBC; Sept. 23)
Doc (Fox; probably mid-season)
Returning shows
Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS; early 2025)
Virgin River (Netflix; Dec. 19)
Chicago Med (NBC; Sept. 25)
Transplant (CTV/NBC; TBD)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC; Sept. 26)
New Shows
St. Denis Medical (NBC; Nov. 12)
The new show with perhaps the highest chance of saying something helpful about nursing is this mockumentary about an underfunded hospital in Oregon, which looks like it may land somewhere between Scrubs and The Office. It appears that roughly half the characters (three) are nurses. The main one is Alex, who seems to be the show’s narrator and moral center, and she is played by the great Allison Tolman. Her character has just become an ED “supervising nurse.” Based on available previews, that seems to mainly mean more suffering with the work’s many challenges, which include uncooperative patients. The other nurse characters are Serena, a veteran ED nurse who also practices homeopathy, and Matt, a new nurse who seems to be unusually foolish. There also seem to be at least three physicians, including the hospital’s “executive director.” Because all the characters in a show like this will come off looking kooky and somewhat pathetic, its ability to say much about real nursing may be somewhat limited. But just showing that nurses comprise a significant part of the hospital staff, and that they provide a great deal of patient care, are things that many Hollywood shows never do. Available clips include one with Alex explaining that she became a nurse rather than a physician after realizing that “the nurses provide the care part of health care.” Another clip shows her persistently trying to get a patient to go to rehab, after multiple overdoses. Tune in November 12, 2024. See the show’s website.
Doctor Odyssey (ABC; Sept. 26)
This new drama from producer Ryan Murphy follows the exploits of a small health team on a luxury cruise ship. The team is led by a physician, and he is the show’s central character, but there are two nurse major characters as well. One is an NP, played by Phillipa Soo. Both nurse characters are assertive and highly skilled, and they provide surprisingly high-tech emergency care. Unfortunately, the NP sees nursing as a dead end and desperately wants to be a physician, so she plans to attend medical school on a scholarship from the cruise line. She has also started a romance with the lead physician. And Ryan Murphy’s track record, which includes problematic portrayals of nursing on Ratched and Glee, does not inspire much confidence that these problems will go away. See the show’s website on ABC. You can contact the show in writing at Bell Media, Doctor Odyssey, 299 Queen St. W, Toronto, ON M5V 2Z5 Canada.
Brilliant Minds (NBC; Sept. 23)
Guess whose minds are brilliant?! This is the show “inspired by” the work of pioneering neurologist Oliver Sacks. Lead character Oliver Wolf is assisted by four “brilliant young interns.” According to the NBC site, Wolf’s team will be “solv[ing] some of the world’s most puzzling psychological cases while navigating the complicated relationships that come with the job.” Evidently this is care that does not require any significant nursing component, so there are no regular nurse characters. However, anonymous nurses do occasionally pop up in the first few episodes–to fret about and obstruct Wolf’s innovative, holistic practice. See the show’s website on NBC. You can reach the show at 1-818-954-1711 or info@72st.co or 4000 Warner Blvd Bldg. 146 Ste 204/205 Burbank, CA 91522.
Doc (Fox; probably mid-season)
This is another new physician-focused hospital drama. Delayed because of the Hollywood strikes, it still has no premiere date or any significant details on the Fox website. But according to media reports in early 2023, the show will be based on the globally popular Italian drama Doc – Nelle tue mani. A Deadline piece from April 2023 says:
FOX’s Doc is a new medical drama centered on the hard-charging, brilliant Dr. Amy Elias, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis. After a brain injury erases the last eight years of her life, Amy must navigate an unfamiliar world where she has no recollection of patients she’s treated, colleagues she’s crossed, the soulmate she divorced, the man she now loves and the tragedy that caused her to push everyone away.
It’s not impossible that such a drama would include a fair portrayal of nursing. But we can’t recall seeing a show pitched as focusing on a “brilliant” physician that included strong nurse characters (e.g. House, The Good Doctor, New Amsterdam); it seems likely that all or almost all major clinical characters will be physicians. One available trailer suggests physician heroism will be a major theme. And since showrunner Barbie Kligman spent time on the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff Private Practice – a show that treated nursing abysmally – there is no cause for optimism here. See the wiki page on Doc. We are unable to find contact info for this show.
Returning shows
Call the Midwife (BBC/PBS; early 2025)
The best current prime-time show for nursing will return for a 14th season in early 2025, after the usual Christmas special. The series will continue to portray about 10 nurse-midwife characters providing holistic care to a working-class community in London, now in 1970. The show presents nurses as autonomous professionals who help pregnant women and others overcome a host of health, social, and economic challenges during an era of great transition. Season 13 episodes highlighted the training of a small crew of promising nurse-midwife students. That gave the show the chance to highlight the expertise of the veteran midwives in a teaching context, as Hollywood hospital shows have traditionally done with physicians. Notable season 13 events included expertly-handled births in a variety of difficult settings, strong advocacy for patients who were being abused or neglected, and even a few references to the Royal College of Nursing’s 1969 “Raise the Roof” campaign for higher nurse pay—perhaps an echo of the situation of U.K. nurses today. The show has occasionally over-credited physicians, but the main impression it leaves is of nursing authority and life-saving skill. See our webpage featuring analyses of previous seasons, or the show’s website on PBS, where you can find episodes. You can reach the show at +44-207-240-8890 or post@nealstreetproductions.com.
Virgin River (Netflix; Dec. 19)
The central character on this drama, returning for a sixth season, is rural California nurse practitioner Mel Monroe. The show is mostly about romance and personal intrigue, and so there have never been many substantial clinical plotlines. Still, Mel has regularly shown advanced skills, managing issues including emergency care, prenatal care, and her physician colleague Doc’s initially regressive views of nursing. The fifth season probably had less clinical care than some prior ones, as Mel quit Doc’s clinic to focus on her upcoming wedding and high-risk pregnancy. Even so, in episode 3 Mel managed to play a key role in remotely guiding a firefighter in handling a very challenging baby delivery in the field. And in episode 5 Mel did a good job caring for victims of the wildfires threatening her town. Unfortunately, Mel lost her own baby. Afterwards, she returned to the clinic for the last three episodes of the season, in time to float some plans about starting a birth center, advise her friend Ava about a possible hysterectomy, and expertly guide her old nemesis Charmaine through her own twins delivery. Throughout, Mel provided adept psychosocial support for the community as it faced various challenges. For more information see our review of season 1 and the show’s website. You can reach the show at 1-818-880-8442 or romaroth@myreelworld.com 5427 Villawood Circle; Calabasas, CA 91302 USA.
Chicago Med (NBC; Sept. 25)
This Dick Wolf drama, returning for a tenth season, is mainly about a half dozen emergency physicians, and they direct most of the care we see. But for its first six seasons the show also had three major nurse characters, which, for Hollywood, was a glut. They were the competent ED nurse April Sexton, the authoritative ED charge nurse Maggie Lockwood, and the strong hospital executive Sharon Goodwin, who is a nurse. These nurses at times played key roles in care. Unfortunately, April left at the end of the sixth season to become a nurse practitioner. The show also has recurring minor nurse characters, although they tend to operate mainly as competent assistants, absorbing physician commands. Still, Goodwin and Lockwood remain critical, authoritative parts of the care the show portrays. In the strike-shortened ninth season, Goodwin helped guide the staff through countless challenges, all while managing the dementia-related decline of her ex-husband. Meanwhile, Lockwood used her authority to advocate for patients, for example in episode 6 persuading a reluctant mother to allow her son with ileostomy to have a time-sensitive operation. The show occasionally relies on unhelpful cliches, as the nurses themselves might say that so-and-so is “one of our best doctors,” or push a family member out of the room to give “the doctors space to work,” neither of which they would ever say about the nurses. For more information see our page on Chicago Med or the NBC website. You can contact the show at +1-818-777-3131 or contact@wolfentertainment.com or 100 Universal City Plaza Bldg. 2252 Universal City, CA 91608 USA
Transplant (CTV/NBC; TBD)
This Canadian drama about a refugee from Syria who is also a gifted trauma physician will return for its fourth and final season on NBC. Despite the main character’s experience, he must start over as a resident in a Toronto ED. The show’s focus is on the physicians, who have the real skills and who handle the vast majority of patient care. There is one semi-major nurse character, head nurse and now NP Claire Malone. She has displayed clinical skills and some authority, particularly in dealing with the former head ED physician, with whom she had a longstanding professional and personal relationship. And the middle of the third season did feature a fairly helpful multi-episode plotline about a nurse understaffing crisis in the ED, which was brought on by the new chief ED physician’s attempts at reform. These episodes briefly presented the resulting risks to patients and nurses, and the nurses, led by Malone, responded with effective industrial action (a period of “work to rule”). But overall, the show’s nurses are no more than competent assistants who obey physician commands, report vital signs, and handle logistics. And there is no reason to expect anything different from the fourth season, which finished airing in Canada in early 2024. See more about the show on the NBC website. You can contact the show on the NBC site, or in writing at Bell Media, Transplant, 299 Queen St. W, Toronto, ON M5V 2Z5 Canada.
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC; Sept. 26)
Back for a 21st season, this prime time TV institution will again show more than a dozen surgeons providing all of the hospital care that matters, including even managing violent patients, while nurses are generally clueless handmaidens, on the rare occasions when they appear at all. Actually, as we have noted in the past, the veteran OR nurse BokHee does appear briefly in many episodes, but she really never speaks. In the strike-shortened season 20, very few nurse characters surfaced, even in the usual mode of assistants with few skills or responsibilities. In episode 7, one did get a little screen time, in the occasional role of casual romantic object for the physicians. In this case, the nurse seemed to ask a surgeon out on a date. He smiled but was noncommittal. Later, the surgeon told the nurse to start a patient on pressers “and keeping checking on her every 15 minutes” – as if a nurse would not know to do that without direction. The nurse smiled flirtatiously: “Absolutely, doctor.” For more information see our Grey’s Anatomy page with analyses over the years or the show’s website on ABC. You can contact the show at business@shondaland.com, Grey’s Anatomy, 1905 N. Wilcox Avenue, #307, Los Angeles, CA 90068.
Conclusion
The physician-centric narrative of most U.S. hospital shows is exemplified by dramas like Grey’s Anatomy, on which nurses tend to be handmaidens, at best. In fairness, some shows, like Chicago Med, have at least offered substantial examples of nursing skill, advocacy, and even autonomy. But only Call the Midwife and Virgin River can be expected to offer a consistently good portrayal of nursing. Please join us in encouraging better ones!
Take Action!
With all these shows, we need your help! Please call or write to the shows to give them your feedback with the contact information we provided at the end of our analysis of each show. Please also consult our Take Action page for ideas. Also, since we cannot monitor the world’s media by ourselves, please watch one or more of the shows with a nursing element and let us know if you see a good or bad portrayal at info@truthaboutnursing.org. If we all work on a piece of the puzzle, we can build a society that understands the true worth of nursing, helping to strengthen the profession so nurses can deliver better patient care.
