Zombies in the ER? Like everything else it's done so far, Code Black finds a way to make it work, along with half- dozen other things.
There comes a time in every medical drama when the case of the week is something unconventional. For Code Black, that would be this week, when a scaffolding collapse at a zombie convention makes the Angels Memorial ER a bit more colorful.
This could've been a cue to try and be funny, but instead, the show uses that idea to tell a serious story about a father, his son, and the father's new fiancée, and also to give Neal another chance to prove himself in his new role. That's good storytelling.
Besides ... tell me you didn't cry at the zombie wedding. It was lovely and heartwarming, especially seeing the way the kid changed his outlook on his new stepmom.
The strongest point of "Love Hurts" is Code Black's continued ability to turn conventional storytelling on its head. For example, remember when Ed Harbert pointed out that he still has an M.D. after his name? Turns out he still uses it, too. We get to see him in action – though, sadly, not in any actual surgery scenes – as he deals with a particularly sensitive case. And he actually happens to be good at his job. Which means, in turn, we have to take him seriously. He has credibility, and not just because he's played by a guy who could punch out half of the ER.
Along those same lines, Leanne has to take a look at the hospital budget when she wants to hire more nurses and is forced to admit that the numbers aren't there. With her understanding the business part of the job, and Harbert taking the chance to re-engage from a doctor's perspective, that continues to add so much depth to the subplot of bureaucracy versus medicine. Too often we see the same thing when this topic is inevitably raised on a medical show. The bureaucrat has never seen the inside of an exam room and/or is only concerned with the numbers on a spreadsheet while the doctor is the white knight in the lab coat campaigning for the greater good.
Code Black has decided to eschew that cliché and given us a dynamic that's honestly fair, with both sides having pros and cons on any given day, and being represented by characters who are three-dimensional (plus played by actors we can't help but love), and that's incredibly more interesting than the usual petty arguments found in other series. With the whole premise of the show being how overwhelmed this ER is, it's fantastic that the show is actually exploring that, and from more than just one point of view.
Speaking of points of view, personal problems creep up in this episode and start to get in the way. I love it when Angus tells Savetti that he's not talking about their issues with Heather over a patient because there's nothing more annoying than people choosing wrong times to air their personal grievances. (Although now I'm worried about adorable Angus turning into a drug addict, but I digress.)
But hopefully, that's a lesson Christa will learn because she has this problem with acting on her emotions and this week she took it out on Grace. Despite that, their case is still interesting because like all the stories in "Love Hurts," it doesn't turn out the way it first looks. It would've been too easy for the show to do a plot about Christa being right and putting an abusive counselor in his place, therefore justifying her behavior, but instead, it turns out that her patient was faking it all along.
Code Black is setting itself apart by going to places other medical dramas haven't in some time – its explorations of the battle between good business and good medicine, and to a smaller extent the pseudo-class struggle between the ER and the surgeons (or at least Campbell), make this feel greater than a regular hospital show. The best series transcend their premise and become about a lot more, and everything I've seen so far points to this becoming another one of those shows.
There comes a time in every medical drama when the case of the week is something unconventional. For Code Black, that would be this week, when a scaffolding collapse at a zombie convention makes the Angels Memorial ER a bit more colorful.
This could've been a cue to try and be funny, but instead, the show uses that idea to tell a serious story about a father, his son, and the father's new fiancée, and also to give Neal another chance to prove himself in his new role. That's good storytelling.
Besides ... tell me you didn't cry at the zombie wedding. It was lovely and heartwarming, especially seeing the way the kid changed his outlook on his new stepmom.
The strongest point of "Love Hurts" is Code Black's continued ability to turn conventional storytelling on its head. For example, remember when Ed Harbert pointed out that he still has an M.D. after his name? Turns out he still uses it, too. We get to see him in action – though, sadly, not in any actual surgery scenes – as he deals with a particularly sensitive case. And he actually happens to be good at his job. Which means, in turn, we have to take him seriously. He has credibility, and not just because he's played by a guy who could punch out half of the ER.
Along those same lines, Leanne has to take a look at the hospital budget when she wants to hire more nurses and is forced to admit that the numbers aren't there. With her understanding the business part of the job, and Harbert taking the chance to re-engage from a doctor's perspective, that continues to add so much depth to the subplot of bureaucracy versus medicine. Too often we see the same thing when this topic is inevitably raised on a medical show. The bureaucrat has never seen the inside of an exam room and/or is only concerned with the numbers on a spreadsheet while the doctor is the white knight in the lab coat campaigning for the greater good.
Code Black has decided to eschew that cliché and given us a dynamic that's honestly fair, with both sides having pros and cons on any given day, and being represented by characters who are three-dimensional (plus played by actors we can't help but love), and that's incredibly more interesting than the usual petty arguments found in other series. With the whole premise of the show being how overwhelmed this ER is, it's fantastic that the show is actually exploring that, and from more than just one point of view.
Speaking of points of view, personal problems creep up in this episode and start to get in the way. I love it when Angus tells Savetti that he's not talking about their issues with Heather over a patient because there's nothing more annoying than people choosing wrong times to air their personal grievances. (Although now I'm worried about adorable Angus turning into a drug addict, but I digress.)
But hopefully, that's a lesson Christa will learn because she has this problem with acting on her emotions and this week she took it out on Grace. Despite that, their case is still interesting because like all the stories in "Love Hurts," it doesn't turn out the way it first looks. It would've been too easy for the show to do a plot about Christa being right and putting an abusive counselor in his place, therefore justifying her behavior, but instead, it turns out that her patient was faking it all along.
Code Black is setting itself apart by going to places other medical dramas haven't in some time – its explorations of the battle between good business and good medicine, and to a smaller extent the pseudo-class struggle between the ER and the surgeons (or at least Campbell), make this feel greater than a regular hospital show. The best series transcend their premise and become about a lot more, and everything I've seen so far points to this becoming another one of those shows.
