‘St. Denis Medical’ Review: NBC Comedy Could Be the Next Great Mockumentary

“The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Abbott Elementary” and now “St. Denis Medical,” the latest in a line of television workplace mockumentary comedies. Mentioning these previous titles shouldn’t be a knock against “St. Denis,” as it feels like it was designed to purposefully coast on these titles’ previously established rhythms, ensembles, dynamics and storylines. It’s a gentle, familiar-feeling show, and while it really works when it finds spiky, surprising and even uncomfortable ruffles to the formula, it plays pretty well when it’s just pulling it off too.

To describe the show’s world is as simple as saying “‘Modern Family’ but the family is doctors,” or “‘Scrubs’ but they’re aware of the camera.” The Emmy-nominated Allison Tolman (“Fargo”) leads an ensemble of medical professionals as our Leslie Knope-esque overachieving supervising nurse Alex.

Along for the ride are fussy doctor David Alan Grier (“The Carmichael Show”), egotistical surgeon Josh Lawson (“Superstore”), fumbling nurse Mekki Leeper (“Jury Duty”), Brat-coded nurse Kahyun Kim (“Cocaine Bear”), deadpan nurse administrator Kaliko Kauahi (“Superstore”), and our Michael Scott/Ava Coleman-esque boss Wendi McLendon-Covey (“The Goldbergs”). Would you believe this lovable band of misfits deals with eccentric patients and interpersonal conflicts while learning lessons along the way?

Showrunner and co-creator Eric Ledgin has a history of writing these kinds of Michael Schur-feeling television comedies, including “Superstore,” “Rutherford Falls” and “American Auto.” Like these shows, “St. Denis Medical” traffics in a gently satirical but earnestly heartfelt view on American institutions and ideals. The systems that bind us also tie us, and the aggravating individuals that irk us also remind us of the power of small communities. If you like this kind of tonic, this version will go down pretty well.

But you have to sit through a particularly rough pilot to get there. Heavy on archetypes, the first episode is pitched at a garishly high register, insisting it’s already a part of your beloved television family. It reaches far beyond its grasp, leapfrogging over the fundamentals of both mockumentary comedy storytelling (small moments of authenticity contrasted by public-facing moments of “performance”) and comedy television sustainability (letting characters be and build organically), landing loudly and obviously.

It’s a pilot that knows it’s a pilot, if that makes sense; it knows it has only one chance to keep your attention and stay on the air, with a noticeable flop sweat desperation. But I was pleasantly surprised to find the show dramatically improves throughout the rest of the six episodes provided for review. “St. Denis Medical” pokes and prods at workplace messiness in ways I’ve never quite seen in any of its forebears mentioned.

Death is a fact of life in any hospital, and McLendon-Covey anchors one episode about the challenges of “professional grief” with equal parts self-aware sensitivity and oblivious recklessness. The nervy discomfort of race relations and intersectionality is poked perfectly in one standout episode, bolstered by a knockout guest star performance from Nico Santos (“Crazy Rich Asians”) and a headfirst dive into bald-faced idiocy from a standout Leeper. And Lawson, who’s probably playing the pound-for-pound funniest character of the series thus far, ends one episode with a staggering turn into pathos, causing immediate empathy toward someone we might write off as a one-note blowhard.

Essentially, there are two paths forged by “St. Denis Medical” in these six episodes. When the show walks toward archetypical, over-familiar, even inhuman feeling claptrap (squabbles over candy bars, teaching prisoners to be better people, bluntly stated will-they-won’t-they crushes), it pushes away when it’s meant to invite in, even feeling distasteful given the seriousness of the setting’s stakes.

But when the show takes steps toward specificity, nuance, and even reckoning with the seriousness of the hospital’s stakes, it starts to feel engaging and special. It makes me feel cautiously confident that the creative team is onto something great, as television ensemble comedies tend to need time on-the-job training to discover and hone what works beyond broad strokes on the page. Since “St. Denis Medical” reaches some of these heights in just six episodes, and if NBC gives it the time it needs to breathe more, we could have another wonderful mockumentary to add to the list.

And if not, well, even the formulaic stuff made me laugh semi-consistently. So maybe that’s enough for now.

“St. Denis Medical” premieres Tuesday, Nov. 12, on NBC and streams the next day on Peacock.

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