Back in the fall, when I saw the upcoming shows for the 2017-18 season, I read the blurbs for “The Resident” and thought, “Umm, don’t we already have that show?”. More precisely, I thought:

FOX: The Resident – A medical show with hot actors? Yeah, they’ll try real hard to keep it, RENEWED;

Grey’s Anatomy, ER, heck even St. Elsewhere back in the day have all been hits with a similar formula. Residents, turnover, sex in patient rooms and closets, drama in and out of the hospital, oh, and let’s not forget the stakes here — we’re talking about potential DEATH. Or really bad ratings.

I can confess, right up front, I have very little interest in these shows. I watched St. Elsewhere, and I love the premises of the “disease of the week”, just as I do with Law and Order, etc. What I don’t like is the “extra” drama that feels more like soap opera scripting than nighttime drama. But as I’m male and pushing 50, I’m not the demographic they’re going for anyway.

So, let’s take a quick run-down on the regular requirements for a show like this:

1. New person to the group, to provide that outsider perspective, and to take the viewer along for the ride…check, we have Dr. Devon Pravash, new Harvard grad, played by Manish Dayal…and look, he used to be on the new 90210;
2. Hot male lead…Dr. Conrad Hawkins, brilliant / rude / egotistical, but you know his heart is in the right place because he carries around a picture of the first patient he ever killed and he hates the big baddie (see below)…Matt Czuchry checks the box, and his background is Gilmore Girls and The Good Wife;
3. Hot female lead…Nicolette Nevin, not listed as a doctor but acts like one, I’m sure they’ll figure that out over time…played by Emily VanCamp, it’s one of the few things I liked about the show, mostly as I miss the promise of the first season of Revenge; and,
4. A baddie…Dr. Randolph Bell, who we know is bad because he kills a patient on the operating table while his surgical team is taking selfies, and then covers it up…played by Bruce Greenwood, I first “met” him when he was playing on St. Elsewhere. He can play innocent and noble, or he can play slimy, this is his slimy version.

In the end, do I care?

Not really, but as I said, it’s not my kind of show. I didn’t feel there was a lot in the pilot that screams renewal, but it’s getting marketed out the wazoo, and Fox really wants this one to work. I’m betting they’ll get enough of a bounce to keep it past this year. But they’re going to need some more young hotties to keep it going.