{"id":108053,"date":"2025-10-30T02:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/108053\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T02:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T02:08:08","slug":"st-denis-medical-season-2-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/108053\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Denis Medical season 2 review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The truth is that a lot of people don\u2019t watch network television these days, which means a show like St. Denis Medical<\/a> could, sadly, easily get buried. This is a strong throwback to when sitcoms on NBC made cultural waves, a program that makes clear how talented co-creator Justin Spitzer is when it comes to art of the workplace comedy. And in its second season, the series returns as tighter and more confident.<\/p>\n

The mind behind the great Superstore<\/a> and the underrated American Auto came back in late 2024 with another mockumentary sitcom, this one set in an Oregon hospital with dwindling resources and overworked employees. Not quite as socially conscious as Superstore was at its best (at least not yet), there\u2019s nonetheless an undercurrent of commentary in St. Denis Medical about the broken health-care system. While the current state of things could have allowed the writers of SDM to lean into social statements a bit more than they do in the eight episodes sent to critics for review, they\u2019re still full of increasingly sharp writing and effectively funny performances. St. Denis Medical doesn\u2019t break the mold of the network workplace sitcom as much as remind you why it was a TV staple.<\/p>\n

Of course, casting is half the battle when it comes to network comedies, and the producers of St. Denis Medical attracted a strong blend of veterans and new faces during that phase of production. For the former, Emmy nominee Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs) brings her neurotic energy to Joyce, the executive director of St. Denis. At the start of the second season, Joyce is obsessed with the construction of birthing suites for expecting mothers instead of what her staff really needs on a day-to-day basis. She\u2019s a relatable embodiment of of bosses who talk big about what could happen tomorrow instead of focusing on the needs of their employees today, and McLendon-Covey threads a needle in which she somehow keeps the character relatable and likable instead of just turning her into a villain. Joyce, in other words, is trying to do her best. She\u2019s just not very good at it.<\/p>\n

Allison Tolman\u2019s Alex, the supervising nurse who starts this season learning that the relaxation that comes with a vacation can be destroyed quickly when one returns to work, is always doing her best.\u00a0She gets the \u201cJim on The Office\u201d part, the protagonist with whom we\u2019re supposed to identify as she looks witheringly at the camera crew capturing the chaos that she\u2019s barely keeping under control. But Spitzer and his team are smart to not turn Alex into too much of a saint. Especially in the second season, she seems to be learning to speak up for herself and her needs as much as she considers those of others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Ron faces off with “Google University” in exclusive St. Denis Medical clip<\/a>St. Denis Medical competes with McDonalds on Yelp in exclusive clip<\/a><\/p>\n

While St. Denis Medical wisely doesn\u2019t heavily stress a romantic subplot, there\u2019s a growing one between Matt (Mekki Leeper) and Serena (Kahyun Kim) that progresses at the right pace over these new episodes. At the end of last season, Matt professed his interest in Serena, which makes things awkward to start this one But, again, the writers don\u2019t foreground this like a Jim-and-Pam situation. It\u2019s just flavoring for a scene here and there and something that humanizes Matt beyond his goofy demeanor. At the same time, Kim really grows as a performer here, finding a few more comedic registers than the disdain with which she greeted almost everything last season. She\u2019s becoming one of the most likable characters on the show.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

The scene stealer is still Bruce (Josh Lawson), the trauma surgeon who got a tattoo between seasons just so people will ask him about it. Drawing another parallel to The Office, Bruce is the Dwight of St. Denis. And Lawson understands the kind of guy for whom ego is a defense mechanism against any potential failure, someone whose lack of social grace consistently punctures what might be likable about his personality. He gets the broadest, goofiest comedic beats in the first half of season two, and the actor\u2019s comic timing seems to only be improving.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Balancing Lawson and Leeper\u2019s very different takes on male idiocy is the excellent David Alan Grier as Ron, who considers himself above the lives of his co-workers but still wants to play in their reindeer games. Grier is a grounding force in St. Denis Medical, a veteran comedian with ace timing whose character can bring the show\u2019s writing back to something relatable with a knowing sigh. Finally, Dave Theune and Superstore\u2018s Kaliko Kauahi may only have a couple of lines each episode but feel somehow essential to the rhythm of the show regardless.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, like any good workplace comedy, it\u2019s all about balance. Viewers don\u2019t want too much of Bruce\u2019s idiocy or Alex\u2019s warmth; and Serena\u2019s cynicism needs to be tempered by Matt\u2019s wide-eyed optimism. And it\u2019s in that formula that St. Denis finds some consistently funny beats. Again, would it be nice to see the show tackle real-world issues more head-on?\u00a0 Sure. But the hope is that this is only a small stretch of a series that will be on for years. With any luck, there will be plenty of time for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Denis Medical season two premieres November 3 on NBC\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The truth is that a lot of people don\u2019t watch network television these days, which means a show…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-108053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}