New NBC Show: Does ‘Mercy’ Look Good to You?
From left to right: Michelle Trachtenberg as Chloe Payne, James Tupper as Dr. Chris Sands, Taylor Schilling as Veronica Flanagan Callahan, Delroy Lindo as Dr. Alfred Parks, Guillermo Diaz as Angel Lopez, James LeGros as Dr. Harris, Jaime Lee Kirchner as Sonia Jimenez
NBC held its so-called “Infront” presentation on Monday, May 4, during which it revealed four new dramas and two new comedies that will receive a spot on the network’s 2009–2010 roster. Of the six series, only two are relevant to Grrl TV: the nurse drama Mercy and the love-life sitcom 100 Questions.
Let’s take a look at Mercy first, which I’m not feeling at all based on the synopsis and a slew of clips NBC has already made available online. I’m thinking TNT’s Jada Pinkett Smith original series HawthoRNe is going to be much more my vibe, but we’ll see.
According to the official description, the hourlong ensemble medical drama Mercy “portrays the lives of the staff at Mercy Hospital as seen through the eyes of those who know it best — its nurses.”
Taylor Schilling (who apparently has only one previous on-screen credit to her name, the 2007 film Dark Matter) plays Veronica Callahan, a veteran nurse who “knows more about medicine than all of the residents combined.” Yet, she still opts to return to Mercy after a military tour in Iraq instead of, say, earning a medical degree of her own. Maybe that’s because she prefers navigating “through the daily traumas and social landmines of life and love both inside the hospital and out in the real world.”
Veronica’s two sidekicks colleagues are nurses Sonia Jimenez (Jamie Lee Kirchner, Just Legal, the suicidal singer on Dollhouse’s third episode “Stage Fright“) and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg, Gossip Girl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), two characters so integral to the series that the official synopsis includes nothing more than their names. Geez!
Also co-starring — meaning here comes some men — are James Tupper (Men in Trees) as Dr. Chris Sands, a new doctor at the hospital who complicates Veronica’s life; Diego Klattenhoff (Men in Trees again) as Mike Callahan, Veronica’s husband; the always A+ Delroy Lindo, who’s not even mentioned in the official synopsis, as somebody named Dr. Alfred Parks; and Guillermo Diaz (Weeds) as nurse Angel Lopez. Gotta have a male nurse in the mix for fairness, right?
Mercy is a production from Universal Media Studios and Berman Braun. Joining writer/executive producers Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights) and Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts (Pushing Daisies, Pepper Dennis) are executive producers Gail Berman and Lloyd Braun. Emmy Award winner Adam Bernstein (30 Rock, Rescue Me) is the director.
Continue below for three videos about the series: a featurette, a preview montage, and a behind-the-scenes showcase, in that order. What do you think? Does Mercy look like must-see TV to you? Or is ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and/or Private Practice — or some other network’s show — already more than you need to hit your medical-drama spot?
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[...] to go along with the earlier post describing NBC’s new 2009–2010 nurse medical drama Mercy, here are three video [...]