‘The Resident’ Gets a Good Diagnosis on Bad Medicine

Tony Sokol

Matt Czuchry isn’t a doctor, but he plays one on Fox’s new medical drama “The Resident.” Though the former suitor of Rory Gilmore and Life or Death Brigade member on “Gilmore Girls” isn’t just playing any doctor. He’s playing Dr. House, well, a lightweight version of it. Czuchry’s Dr. Conrad Hawkins is a genius at diagnostics, flouts rules and subordination, treats the people around him like shit, and is always sure he is never wrong. But Dr. Hawkins, the third year resident at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital, has too loopy a grin to hate. Former comic actor Hugh Laurie infused his Dr. Gregory House with so many annoying quirks, the audience sometimes would gladly sacrifice a patient just to see him proved wrong, just once. Dr. Hawkins’ only problem is he cares too much, and he appears to do it without a crutch. And when he is proven wrong, he makes us like him for it.

The same can’t be said for the hospital’s Chief of Surgery Dr. Solomon Bell (Bruce Greenwood). He is an easy guy to hate, and not the first choice to wield a scalpel if you want to make it out of the ER and order pizza through a delivery app during recovery. Bell, the aging poster child for the hospital, gives himself good Yelp reviews, goads old white men into balking at surgery from Nigerian doctors, and blackmails everyone he can’t intimidate into doing what he wants when he wants it. He also kills patients with such regularity that Hawkins calls him the “Hands of Death and Destruction,” HODAD for short. It’s not just a term of endearment or a sycophantic aside like those oozing out of new intern Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal). Hawkins browns his nose for no one.

That includes his ex-girlfriend, Nicolette Nevin (Emily VanCamp). Hawkins did something to piss off the extremely talented and dedicated nurse, but she’s not saying what it is. He wouldn’t get it anyway, and it won’t be enough for the audience to turn on him. This is the doctor you want at your side, the one who knows the difference between thoracic surgery and a splenectomy. He can gauge the odds of paralysis by sticking his finger up a patient’s ass. This is brain surgery, not rocket science. In a body shop full of hack mechanics, Conrad’s the guy who tightens the bolt. But enough about his love life.

The series opens as a routine appendectomy turns deadly. The surgical team is celebrating a broken cherry with series of selfies and all the new technology gives the old, but still picturesque doctor, the shakes. He cuts into an artery and gets blood on his paper surgical shoes. This is a teaching hospital and the team learns to improvise a cover-up, running through different excuses for malpractice until they chalk it all up to a heart attack, based on a pre-existing condition. The veteran chief of surgery has the dope on everyone and isn’t afraid to sling a few accusations to pass the blame or pull a compliment.

The hospital’s new Lyle Hancock Cancer Center got its hands on Titian robotic surgery equipment, which eliminates human error in the right hands. This isn’t true when a doctor is all thumbs, tries to core and apple and winds up getting fruit salad all over the lab. That’s when a good doctor calls immigration to ensure backup from a steadier hand. The show is a little heavy handed on its treatment of the elder doctor, but makes up for it in post-operative trauma cleanup. Some of the surgical scenes are actually grosser than most horror movies.

Dr. Mina Okafor (Shaunette Renée Wilson) is no match for the chief surgeon, though she would be a good match for Conrad. What she lacks in bedside manner, she makes up for in competence. This doesn’t help her on the dating scene where women may be as impressed by male doctors as men are intimidated by female doctors.

Dr. Pravesh, who is the show’s main POV character, is a dedicated, educated healer so idealistic, he’ll save a life of a patient at all costs. He gets a heart pumping again after 26 minutes of trying, which is too long to save brain function, but just right for the hospital’s billing department. Conrad is a bad boy. He sports a “death before dishonor” tattoo, but this reviewer can’t tell if he is a former Marine or a fan of obscure Boston metal bands. He pours an energy drink on the hood of a brand new car parked in a handicapped spot so it wouldn’t get dented. He starts out the pilot concerned about the many ways to harm a patient, but ends up rolling the dice of hospital politics for a chance to play god.

The prognosis is good, but guarded. “The Resident” levels out after the over-reaching pilot, and has the possibilities of starting a contagion. Czuchny was a steady junior legal partner to “The Good Wife,” and it is about time we get to see him in the cutting room.

“The Resident” premieres with a two-episode event on Jan. 21 at 10 p.m. ET and airs Sundays on FOX.