Harden is terrific because she is always terrific and she has a few fine professionals to hand - Guzman gives the show heart, Jaffrey can do more with the character than he’s initially been given and, as ER director, Kevin Dunn regularly lightens the mood. Potential viewers of “Code Black” might feel the same way, for the very same reasons. OK, I am.) Given the current political smackdown over healthcare, the show’s central belief that a single remarkable surgeon can save a clearly broken system is more than a little alarming. (I am not even going to mention the horrifying birth scene in which No One appears to give two figs about the mother. So while the inevitable “well, at least we didn’t kill anyone” denouement might work as a newbie narrative device, it seems very cavalier considering what just went down. (A third storyline involves a resident performing a delicate procedure on a young boy while the parents watch.) Of three young people brought back from the brink of death by extreme measures in the pilot, two are initially endangered by the divided attentions of the staff. Yes, yes, it certainly would, at least for the patients. Hudson (Raza Jaffrey) when he suggests that it might be better if everyone just calmed the heck down.
But it’s hard not to agree with the more cautious Dr. Rorish to display her throw-'em-in-the-deep-end, rule-breaking teaching technique. Obviously, this creates a built-in breakneck pace and many opportunities for Dr. Unfortunately, “Code Black” appears to have emerged from a pitch meeting in which executive producer Michael Seitzman simply repeated those names over and over, louder and faster until the CBS executives yelled: “Fine! Whatever! See if you can get Marcia Gay Harden to do it, because she’s good in everything!” Certainly the timing is right there hasn’t been a new hospital-centric hit since the one-two punch of “House” and “Grey’s Anatomy” premiered more than a decade ago, giving chase to “ER.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with a medical series even in these days of artsy-fartsy television, few templates are so sturdy and satisfying.
SIGN UP for the free Indie Focus movies newsletter > And yet the best anyone can offer an Oscar-winning performer who enriches any series in which she appears is the overstuffed, underdone CBS medical series “Code Black,” which premieres Wednesday. There are more new scripted shows than anyone knows what to do with appearing on platforms that didn’t exist 15 minutes ago. For the love of God, can’t someone give Marcia Gay Harden a leading role in a good hourlong drama? How hard can this be?