At the fictional Chastain Memorial Park Hospital in Atlanta, GA, third year resident internist Conrad Hawkins (Matt Czuchry), nurse practitioner Nic Nevin (Emily VanCamp), and first year resident internist Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal) navigate the ins and outs of medicine in the hospital, wrestling with violations of ethics, troubling medical situations, and relationships on FOX’s The Resident. Czuchry, no stranger to long-running dramas with Gilmore Girls and The Good Wife, must be pleased to see his headlining show in its second season now on FOX. For those needing to catch up, the first season is now available on DVD.
The Resident comes in a long line of medical dramas across all of the networks (New Amsterdam is the latest) but there is an abundance of malfeasance and neglect. More than his fair share of the tragedy can be laid at the feet (or hands) of Bruce Greenwood’s Chief of Surgery Randolph Bell. Melina Kanakaredes’ Lane Hunter plays a role as an oncologist at the hospital, while Hawkins’ father, Marshall Winthrop (Glenn Morshower), carries double duty as the chairman of the board at the hospital. While there’s medicine to be seen here, the behind-the-scenes administration is more in the spotlight than on many of the other medical shows that The Resident might be compared to from the past.
Also unlike many other medical shows, the patients on The Resident often touch down in multiple episodes; rather than portraying the hospital as fixing people instantly, or completely, it seems more realistic in its demonstration of ongoing care and problematic issues. Sure, it’s hard to not call Czuchry “Cary,” but somehow, there’s a reality to The Resident that stands out. The dogged determination he and his friends show provides the audience with hope that the hospital isn’t just a closed, financially-driven system, even if it comes off that way… too often. Somehow, caring is hard work – and it will cost you something, too – but integrity is a commodity too hard to win back when it’s thrown away.
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