It centers on an idealistic young doctor who begins his first day under the supervision of a tough, brilliant senior resident who pulls the curtain back on all of the good and evil in modern day medicine. Lives may be saved or lost, but expectations will always be shattered.
Perhaps "The Resident" will click with folks disenchanted with medical care. This show's mix of good acting, melodramatic writing and hospital horror could serve that huge audience.
The show doesn't totally abandon being aspirational, while simultaneously trying to carve out enough space to distinguish it from other white-coated network fare.
If you need to compare it to anything, then compare it to the late ER or the lesser known hit Strong Medicine, but this is not a Grey's Anatomy, nor a The Good Doctor, and that's OK.
If it doesn't break any new ground in the genre, it efficiently delivers a familiar mix of ethical conundrums and colorful characters, with just enough blood and sex to seem "real" in TV terms.
If all broadcast TV shows are going to be cops, law or medicine, it helps that the new "The Resident"... is, on the basis of its first show, pretty good, with the supporting cast outshining the ostensible star, played by Matt Czuchry.
But what we have here is really two shows in one. There's that dark, fascinating portrait of the modern hospital. And then there's the much more standard, dispiritingly regular drama about a cool doctor with eleven o'clock shadow.
A familiar medical show filled with broad strokes and broad characters that might - like "The Orville" and "9-1-1" - bring some viewers to the party too.
