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The Night Shift

These medics thrive on adrenalin, flirting and pranks -but haven't we seen it all before?

nightshSan Antonio Memorial is a lot like Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in Grey’s Anatomy -at about Season 8.

The good medics of The Night Shift‘s facility bust their hump to save lives…. when they’re not flirting, pranking and arguing.

If you’re looking for a point of difference, it’s a remote one: the team are former Army doctors who’ve seen it all in Afghanistan and now work the night shift. That’s it.

They thrive on adrenalin, high emotions and racing against the clock (maybe they should have stayed in Afghanistan?).

At the centre of this universe is TC Callahan (Eoin Macken), unshaven, with windswept hair. Billed as 50% hero / 50% heartbreaker -seriously- he’s a Dr. Dreamy / Matthew Fox clone. TC lives by his own rules, dammit, saving lives whatever it takes.

In the opening sequence he’s riding down the highway on his motorbike when he comes to the aid of some apparently inept paramedics with a car crash victim. While they happily let Dr. Heartbreaker take over without sighting any form of ID, I’m already worried that attention to detail has been left at the plotting room door in favour of action.

TC’s ex-girlfriend Dr. Jordan Alexander (Jill Flint) is head of the night shift. Of course she is. She tries to bring some order to the San Antonio chaos, asserting herself with TC and, as required, defending him too. She doesn’t demonstrate the same insight as Ellen Pompeo, nor do either match the chemistry of Meredith & Derek.

Amongst the other residents are TC’s pal, emergency room doc Topher (Lost‘s Ken Leung), protege with a cliché secret Drew (Brendan Fehr), newbies Paul (Robert Bailey Jr.) and Krista (Jeananne Goosen) plus seasoned nurse Kenny (JR Lemon).

But with the hospital underfunded it falls to administrator Michael Ragosa (Freddy Rodriguez from Six Feet Under & Ugly Betty) to ride their case. He’s rarely happy with their conduct and predictably locks horns with TC.

San Antonio is also the destination, it seems, for some bizarro cases. There’s the woman obsessed with Matt Damon. The burly bloke who has a tantrum. These join the sick kids who may not make it without some frantic surgery. And did I mention the pranks that the team manage to squeeze in between saving lives?

More concerning are some serious lapses in their moral judgment (looking at you doc attending road trauma driver), slabs of unfortunate, cliché dialogue and a decided lack of humility. I struggled to identify likeable characters.

In hospitals the world over doctors and nurses are arguably unsung heroes. In The Night Shift the unsung is practically elevated to aria status. Pass the morphine.

The Night Shift airs 8:30pm Thursday on Universal Channel.

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