PILOT REVIEW: The Resident

THE RESIDENT

Starring: Matt Czuchry, Emily VanCamp, Manish Dayal, Shaunette Renee Wilson, and Bruce Greenwood

Created by Amy Holden Jones and Hayley Schore & Roshan Sethi
Written by Amy Holden Jones and Hayley Schore & Roshan Sethi, Directed by Phillip Noyce

THE PREMISE
The Resident is the newest medical drama to hit the airwaves. This one is centered on Senior Resident Dr. Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry) who has a lot of the answers and also a lot of opinions about the way things are run at a prestigious and well respected hospital. He clashes frequently with Chief of Surgery Dr. Randolph Bell (Bruce Greenwood), who refuses to admit his shaky hands and other personal problems should be stopping him from continuing in his position. Rounding out the main cast are a take charge nurse, Nic (Emily VanCamp), and two more residents, Dr. Pravesh and Dr. Okafor (Manish Dayal & Shaunette Renee Wilson).

THE REVIEW
I went in to The Resident with a little bit of a bad attitude because I'm a little tired of medical dramas. I'm already watching Chicago Med and The Good Doctor and two is a little high on my medical drama tolerance, but I enjoy both these shows. So I thought I might hate The Resident, and I didn't, which is good. But it still has some work to do. The angle its taking with a resident as the main character might seem like a different angle but in practice, it's no different than a hot shot young doctor who knows everything and that has been done to death on medical dramas.

What keeps it from being too much of a cliche is a very strong performance by Matt Czuchry in the lead role. He has a charismatic personality and is fun to watch. He brings a lot to what is otherwise a pretty typical medical drama filled to the brim with cliches from gross things (I'll admit I winced at the toe falling off) to things getting hot and heavy in a closet or side room of the hospital (I still don't think I've seen a medical drama pilot since starting this blog in 2010 that didn't have some moment similar to that). I don't know that the performance is a game changer that will elevate the entire show to a stellar level (Freddie Highmore does that in The Good Doctor) but Czuchry certainly keeps the show from flying off the rails.

The rest of the cast is not used as effectively. Emily VanCamp, so interesting in Revenge a few years ago, is wasted here or at least she is in the pilot. We saw in Revenge that she can have a lot of layers and she's so far relegated here to a pretty standard nurse role. Bruce Greenwood's character is interesting to an extent but more-so in how he clashes with Czuchry. Try as I might, I didn't get too excited about the emphasis on how doctor error can mess things up. If I'm in a situation where I need urgent medical help, I don't want to think about doctors making a mistake and there was more emphasis on that than usual in The Resident's pilot. But at the same time, it didn't seem like it wants to become a medical version of Scandal: a very corrupt team of people running a major organization. It seems like it wants to be high minded and cynical at the same time and maybe that's why the tone felt off for the pilot episode.

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
I might give it one more episode but in the long run, I don't think this will be added to my watching list. Especially with two better medical dramas already on that list.