LOS ANGELES, April 29 (UPI) -- St. Denis Medical stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier, Allison Tolman and Kahyun Kim say real-life health care workers have complimented the accuracy of their portrayals of hospital staff.
In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, the cast previewed the Season 1 finale, airing Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. EDT on NBC. McLendon-Covey said she has received messages praising her portrayal of hospital administrator Joyce, whose attempts at motivation only distract doctors and nurses from the job at hand.
"The DMs I get are like, 'Yeah, you nailed it. We have an administrator at our hospital that's always trying to get us excited about an ice cream social or something that's our big reward for having a good week,'" McLendon-Covey said. "Adults don't want that."
Grier plays Ron, a veteran doctor who can be gruff and impatient. Grier said doctors have given him notes about the show's props.
"They really love the show, it really catches and captures the ambiance, the work ambiance amongst all the health care workers, but the stethoscopes that we're using are way too expensive," Grier said of such comments. "That's top of the line. They really should be busted down."
Tolman's Alex is a nurse who overextends herself trying to tend to her patients and staff. Tolman said she has visited hospitals to meet the staff, who always say someone else is the Alex of their hospital.
"People say, "My boss is like Alex. I have a boss like Alex or I had a boss like Alex,'" Tolman said. "I don't know if anyone has self-identified as an Alex to me yet."
Season 1 has challenged Alex to set boundaries within herself. She has struggled to accept a bad Yelp review and share party planning duties with coworkers.
Last week's episode saw issues in her marriage come to a head when her husband, Tim (Kyle Bornheimer), brought up the prospect of having another baby. The season finale will show the couple take a step toward that decision, which tests Alex further.
"We get to see her grow as a person, as a wife, as a mother and as a nurse," Tolman said. "This whole season for Alex, her arc is how does she balance these things?"
St. Denis co-creator Eric Ledgin said the characters have made baby steps of progress this season.
"I think people go backwards and people make baby steps of progress," Ledgin said. "It is a little bit two steps forward, one step back."
Nurse Serena (Kim) is so laid back as a nurse, she can be sassy and sarcastic. Kim said nurses have complimented her character as well.
"They just like how fun and real Serena is," Kim said. "She kind of takes no [expletive] and that comes off funny. I don't think she's necessarily always trying to be funny."
Though St. Denis is a comedy, Ledgin said the show is also a tribute to health care workers. Ledgin has found many health care workers are burnt out from the COVID-19 pandemic, but still push themselves to do the job.
Ledgin also acknowledged how doctors, nurses and staff bear the anger of patients for systemic decisions that are made well above their heads.
"They're sometimes taking it out on these workers who are doing their best," Ledgin said. "If there's purpose to this show, it's to remind people that the people that are on the front lines of health care are there because they care and they're doing their best."
St. Denis characters sometimes push themselves harder than their patients. In a February interview with UPI, Josh Lawson spoke about surgeon Bruce's extreme confidence in his surgical abilities.
In one episode this season, a patient with dementia kept repeating the phrase, "You don't have to be good." It got to Bruce, making him question his pursuit of excellence.
At the end of the episode, the patient's daughter shared how her father remembered the first line of Mary Oliver's poem Wild Geese. Ledgin called that episode a passion project after hearing David White read the poem aloud.
"I somehow felt like it was something Bruce needed to hear," Ledgin said. "If he heard it, would he be able to handle it?"
NBC renewed St. Denis Medical for a second season in January. The season finale addresses Alex and Tim's family discussion, Serena's relationship with nurse Matt (Mekki Leeper) and the $10 million donation Joyce received at last week's fundraiser.
"You know how some people, maybe they win the lottery and then they end up bankrupt because they spend that and more," McLendon-Covey teased. "I don't know that Joyce has ever had a good relationship to abundance."
The writers are at work on Season 2, including an episode Ledgin said deals with a doctor who does not measure up. That character will be portrayed by a guest star.
"This came from a real story someone told me about a doctor who was not intentionally doing bad medicine but not really cutting it," Ledgin said. "How does it work when you try to get rid of someone like that? What's the fallout?"
