TV-MA | 10 episodes | Medical Drama | 2025
How many comedies were released in the same time frame? I don’t know the number but would guess it would be significantly more, likely 20 times higher.
The big difference here is that comedies have virtually limitless types of characters, settings and situations to work with. Medical dramas take place almost exclusively in hospitals; they usually include doctors, residents, nurses, interns, and a crusty but benign administrator. This doesn’t provide much opportunity to do anything new or different.
Set at a fictional Miami hospital trauma center, the new Netflix series “Pulse” contains everything fans of the medical drama genre have come to not only love, but expect. Unfortunately, it also feels bloated and unfocused.
First, the Good News
Suggesting a hybrid of “Grey’s Anatomy,” “ER,” and the recent HBO Max series “The Pitt,” “Pulse” works off of essentially the same narrative blueprint.
Third-year resident lead character Dr. Danielle “Danny” Simms (Willa Fitzgerald from “Reacher” and “Dare Me”) is involved in an on again-off again romantic relationship with chief resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell from “The Flight Attendant” and “The Continental”).
Although Dr. Sam Elijah (Jessie T. Usher from “Smile” and “The Boys”) says he and Danny are “just friends,” it’s clear that he pines for her and frequently has his alliances tested when Danny and Xander are on the skids.
Far less affable than Sam, surgical resident Dr. Tom Cole (Jack Bannon from “Pennyworth” and “The Darkness”) is a lounge lizard lothario who more than flirts with various nurses and interns and has a thing for women wearing ponytails.
Tom is the closest thing the show has to a villain. We know this because he’s something of a bully with a massive ego, and … he’s British. Those Englishmen always make great bad boys.
Standout supporting players include Chelsea Muirhead as Sophie (a surgical intern), Daniela Nieves as Camila (a med student), Jessica Rothe as Cass (a nurse), and Jessy Yates as Harper, Danny’s wheelchair-bound sister who is also the emergency resident.
Showrunners Zoe Robyn and Carlton Cuse, in tandem with their writers and producers, make great use of the tropical Miami setting by opening the 10-episode first season with a devastating hurricane. This results in frequent power outages and a higher-than-usual number of life-threatening incoming injuries, all while operating with shorthanded staff.
Not So Good
A major subplot involves one character accusing another of assault, or maybe it’s harassment … or maybe it’s inappropriate behavior. It’s never made clear. This is a major problem as those are three totally different things. Also, the reason for the charges seem flimsy at best and vindictive at worst.While tossing in medical jargon certainly adds authenticity, there’s a fine line when using words and terms only medical personnel understand, and “Pulse” frequently crosses that line.
The same goes for the employment of shaky handheld camera work. Granted, this lends everything a certain you-are-there, documentary feel, but it needs to be used sparingly. That’s not the case here.
Not only is there too much flashback, it’s often disorienting. Some scenes jump back and forth up to four times making it difficult to figure out when events are taking place.
There are also far too many “emotional musical prompts.” These passages of mostly breathy and spare source songs contain lyrics that match the emotions of the on-screen characters. It often seems as if the producers didn’t think the audience could figure out what’s going on without audio embellishment.
There’s a doctor in the show who has an odd fear of tending to pregnant women. To a layman, delivering babies is something every physician in the world should be able to do without hesitation or phobic fear.
Following the three mostly impressive opening episodes, “Pulse” takes a huge quality dip in the middle four. The series is able to recover in the final three, and ends on a decided high note.
If they are granted a second season, Robyn and Cuse might want to consider bringing in a new set of writers and reducing the number of episodes from 10 to eight.
“Pulse” shows promise, but, all too often, it is as much a “General Hospital”-level soap opera as it is a “Grey’s Anatomy” copy with saltier language.
