#Why You Should Watch Nurses on NBC

“#Why You Should Watch Nurses on NBC”

Due to COVID-19, a slew of shows has had to put off filming. To fill their air space, networks have been importing shows from Canada. Earlier this year, NBC aired the Canadian medical drama Transplant, and it was a rousing success.

Given how popular Transplant was, it’s no surprise that NBC would pick up another Canadian medical drama. This one is all about the unsung heroes of the hospital, the nurses.

Nurses is definitely worth the watch if, for no other reason than because nurses don’t get enough credit. As Head Nurse Sinead O’Rourke, played by Cathy White, puts it, the doctors are the rockstars.

Television is filled with popular rockstar doctors, from Meredith Grey to Conrad Hawkins and everyone in between. They seem larger than life, and they save lives every day.

When people go to the hospital, they don’t expect a nurse to save their life. They expect a doctor to do it. The nurses do everything the doctor doesn’t want to do, and then the doctor takes the credit.

Nurses are heroes, just as much as, if not more than, doctors. This show is meant to spotlight that, and it does a decent job of it. That’s not the only reason to watch, though.

Like many medical shows today, Nurses tries to draw current issues and real-life events into their plot.

Nurses Season 1 Episode 1 focuses on a vehicle-ramming white supremacist attack. A similar attack, The Toronto Van Attack, occurred in Ontario in 2018. The real-life driver is on trial currently, so this was incredibly topical.

On the show, one of the nurses has to deal with treating the driver. She’s uncomfortable, not to mention scared.

However, she strongly asserts that nurses don’t have the right to choose who they treat. Once he became a patient, her duty was to provide the best care possible.

That’s healthcare at it’s finest and just controversial enough to keep us interested. If they continue with storylines of this nature, the show will be something to talk about for sure.

Nurses also has a stellar cast. Familiar faces abound, from Tiera Skovbye of Riverdale and Once Upon A Time fame to Nicola Correia-Damunde, from Burden of Truth and Coroner.

Skovbye plays Grace Knight, the Meredith Grey of this ensemble show; she narrates the episodes. Grace is experienced and clearly competent, but she has a mysterious history.

There is a slew of skeletons in her closet. Everything we learn about her backstory makes us want to learn more.

For example, what is the deal with her engaged boyfriend, played by Raymond Ablack of Degrassi fame? And why did she get fired from her last hospital? We’re foaming at the mouth to know.

Keon Colby, played by Jordan Johnson-Hinds, who was most recently on Amazon Prime’s Upload, is also a character to watch. As a male nurse, he defies the stereotype.

There’s a stigma that nurses are women and doctors are men. Nurses fight this stigma, having two out of five nurses be guys.

Keon’s backstory seems a bit formulaic. He was a football player who switched to nursing, presumably due to some injury.

Still, he’s a guy who is proud to be a nurse, even if he had some trouble finding a baby’s heartbeat on an ultrasound.

It’s going to be an uphill battle for Keon, as he’s now the newb who couldn’t find the heartbeat, but he clearly cares a lot about his patients and helps them even when it makes him look silly.

Dr. Vanessa Banks, played by Nicola Correia-Damunde, certainly thought he looked silly making those whale sounds. It was so nice to see her, even if she isn’t a regular. I noted some sparks between her and Keon, so here’s hoping.

The third nurse to watch is Nazneed Khan, played by Sandy Sidhu, who fans of the Arrowverse might know as Zari’s mom on Legends of Tomorrow.

She fits the stereotype of the model minority, but you get the impression that she’s more than just an A-student. She’s clearly got a big heart, and she owns her flaws. I’m excited to see how they develop her.

Honestly, Wolf Burke and Ashley Collins, played by Donald MacLean Jr. and Natasha Calis, respectively, weren’t as dynamic as Grace, Keon, and Nazneed. They didn’t draw you in as much.

Still, they served a purpose, highlighting the thankless jobs nurses get, like operating the phones, and sitting behind a desk, or tracking down someone because you have their missing fingers on ice.

Ashley’s mission was monotonous and emotionally draining. Wolf’s was difficult and a little gross. Neither was something a doctor would waste their time doing.

While these characters didn’t shine as bright as the others, they may surprise us going forward. It’s hard when a show is new because there’s so much you don’t know, so much that needs to be set up.

Still, I enjoyed it, and I want to watch more, which should be the standard we measure these things by.

I’m excited about the potential ‘ships I saw, to learn the secrets and backstories of the nurses, and to see the praises of these hospital heroes sung.