NBC’s Medical Soap Heartbeat Lacks Grey’s Anatomy Smarts

It’s now a workhorse, but when it launched, Grey’s Anatomy was revolutionary. The soapy depiction of medical residents’ personal lives informing and interfering with their work made it more than another hospital drama. Twelve seasons in, the formula is often imitated, and now Melissa George, who appeared on Grey’s, is donning the scrubs. In NBC’s Heartbeat (debuting March 22 and 23), she’s a cardiothoracic surgeon with a perfect blowout. George’s Dr. Alex Panttiere pauses her search for a donor heart to play a flirty game of basketball with her doctor beau (Dave Annable). “I’m bored. Wanna have sex?” she asks, making the common TV mistake of confusing bland frankness with wit. She’s not the only one who’s bored.

Heartbeat has welcome flashes of true weirdness. But the show isn’t thoughtful enough to earn its insouciance. Life-and-death situations are a tricky place to try to find sassy edge.

–DANIEL D’ADDARIO

Heartbeat airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. E.T. on NBC