Is (CODE) BLACK the New Grey's?

Article originally published as CODE BLACK Review on Seat42F.

CBS, usually the home of crime procedurals these days, decided to try its hand at a medical one with CODE BLACK. Set in a busy emergency room, the title refers to the state the staff goes into if there are not enough personnel and resources to handle the patients coming through the door. While many medical facilities may see this occasionally, the one at the center of the show, LA County Hospital, goes through it on a regular basis, nearly every day of the year.

CODE BLACK is high energy fun. From the start to the finish of the episode, a lot occurs because the tempo of the setting is a very busy one. While the premise would not work at most hospitals, the specific scenario chosen seems realistic enough, and the pacing keeps things interesting. Viewers will not have time to get bored.

But it isn’t always realistic. The trap any medical show falls into is that the cases must be unique in order to engage the audience. House, M.D. kind of got around this limitation because of the nature of the unit that Dr. House ran, but most series, such as Grey’s Anatomy, just decide to suspend reality in this aspect of the program in order to make more compelling stories. Judging by the pilot, CODE BLACK does the same. I don’t know that this is strictly a negative aspect, since so many other shows do the same thing, but it is worth noting.

Credit goes to the production design, which makes the LA County Hospital look much more authentic than in other medical dramas. The white board shows signs of being erased many times over without a good cleaning, and the paint is cracked and peeling. Too many television programs go for the stylistic look, to their detriment, and the approach CODE BLACK takes lends more credibility to the presentation.

What a lot of crime shows forget to do is to make the characters the center of the show, and medical dramas tend to not have that problem as much. Sure, there are patients to treat constantly coming through the door, and most will not return for another hour. But while the focus of the majority of CBS’s fare is the investigation, with character moments saved primarily for the beginning and ends of the hour, medical series tend to focus on emotional arcs for their players throughout the installments, even while they are dealing with the emergencies. CODE BLACK is no different in this regard, which already gives it a leg up on its same-network peers (save The Good Wife, which operates in a similar manner, favoring character over formula).

CODE BLACK’s ensemble is delightful and given decent material. The person with the most authority on the floor, the renowned Dr. Leanne Rorish (Marcia Gay Harden, Trophy Wife), has gone through a tragedy that worries her former student and fellow doc, Neal Hudson (Raza Jaffrey, Smash). Together, along with long-serving Dr. Rollie Guthrie (William Allen Young, Moesha), they manage four new residents who have been assigned to them (played by Golden Boy’s Bonnie Somerville, The Brink’s Melanie Chandra, The Joneses’ Benjamin Hollingsworth, and relative newcomer Harry Ford). They are all cared for by ‘Mommy’ senior nurse Jesse Sallander (Luis Guzman, How to Make It in America).

When compared to others of its kind, CODE BLACK is more enjoyable and intriguing than most. I can’t say it has any single element that makes it stand out in particular, but I really like the chemistry of the cast, which is the heart of the show. It could be my new Grey’s Anatomy (which I love dearly) when that show goes off the air, but for now, it’s one of the few new broadcast shows this fall I consider worth watching. It lacks depth and falls a bit short on realism, but it’s still very entertaining overall.

CODE BLACK premieres Wednesday, September 30^th at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.

Golden Boy tarnished by network's reputation

Article first published as GOLDEN BOY Review at Seat42F.

Grade: 85%

At first glance, CBS’s GOLDEN BOY, premiering this week, may seem like more than your typical cop drama. After an intense opening, the story moves seven years into the future, where we see Walter William Clark Jr. (Theo James, Bedlam) being interviewed by a reporter (Richard Kind, Luck, Spin City) about how he has become the youngest police commissioner of New York City, ever.

This is a great draw. We know that the older Walter looks quite a bit aged, pointing to a hard journey. There is regret in his tone as he talks about the price he paid to rise so quickly, so we know there will be tragedy. The fact that he is now police commissioner means that the series may move away from solving murders on the street, eventually, as we do have seven years of story to get through first.

Clark is terrific, really letting the pathos play on his face, and his American accent is pretty good. His character is an egomaniacal, overconfident jerk, so we need these future scenes to show us that he has grown, and eventually gotten beyond the arrogance of his youth. Probably. And knowing there will be movement built in is nice.

But then we get to the meat of the plot, beginning when Walter, after heroic actions, chooses to be on the homicide squad. He isn’t accepted at first because he’s young and hasn’t earned his bones. But because he really is as good as he thinks he is, he proves himself in a single hour to his co-workers.

I keep expecting Walter to screw up in the “Pilot,” as we so often see in such main characters, the drama being that they really aren’t as ready as they think they are. Walter is special, though, so GOLDEN BOY chooses the alternate tack, building him up, rather than tearing him down. Because we’ve seen where he is in seven years, we know fall will never seriously come, at least not professionally, though perhaps personally.

The problem is, if he never screws up, how will he learn? Walter’s assigned partner, Detective Don Owen (Chi McBride, Pushing Daisies, Boston Public), two years away from his retirement, is the only one who sees this, and while Don is a patient man, one wonders how long his patience with the upstart might last.

Don is set up to be a finite character. With only a couple of years left on the force, this means we are told that Don may not stick around for the long haul, even though we see his picture on future Walter’s desk.

However, because this is CBS, I strongly suspect that these hints of a great, sweeping story of a genius who does great things will be reduced to a formula. Until that day, seven years in the future, when Walter takes the big office, he will be solving a case every week. They could even stretch it longer than seven years, should the show prove popular, or make Walter the first commissioner to be out catching the bad guys himself. Don could put off retirement, sticking around for the duration, which is what I expect to see, given CBS’s track record.

Is it fair to pigeon hole what, on the face, appears to be a somewhat compelling series just because of the network it is on? I think so. Blue Bloods and Hawaii Five-0 looked like they could break the mold, but have been reduced back to the typical CBS fare. I have little confidence that GOLDEN BOY will be any different.

Part of my worry stems from the fact that the rest of the cast is pretty much what one would expect from such a series. There’s the hotshot jerk, Christian Arroyo (Kevin Alejandro, True Blood, Southland), the popular guy who Walter wants to be, even though viewers know he’ll be better off listening to Don. Christian has a softer partner in Deborah McKenzie (Bonnie Somerville, Cashmere Mafia), a pretty woman we are told is tough, but who is nice to Walter, and could even be a love interest. Another detective, Joe Diaco (Holt McCallany, Lights Out), is the likeable rogue, who will probably get in trouble because of all the rules he breaks in skimming connections. And finally, the obligatory troubled family member, Walter’s drug-addicted sister Agnes (Stella Maeve, The Runaways), who is supposed to show the human side of Walter, and provide a distraction form the casework.

If the supporting cast weren’t such a predictable lineup of personalities, I might hold out hope for GOLDEN BOY. As it is, I appreciate the “Pilot,” but will probably not become a regular watcher. The audience that will love it is those that eat up CBS’s cop shows, as this one will probably be more of the same. This is regrettable, because the cast is full of amazing actors who deserve better, but won’t get it while locked into a long-term contract.

 GOLDEN BOY premieres Tuesday, February 26th at 10 p.m. ET.