1 of 5 | Wendi McLendon-Covey, seen at the February Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., returns in “St. Denis Medical” Season 2. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier, Josh Lawson and Alison Tolman say Season 2 of St. Denis Medical, premiering Monday at 8 p.m. EDT on NBC, gives new insight into their characters.
The comedy series following the staff of an emergency room was renewed in January. In a recent Zoom interview with UPI, the cast said the new episodes show all of the characters in a new light.
McLendon-Covey, who plays St. Denis administrator Joyce, said Season 2 gets personal.
“We’re going to see just about everybody’s love life, all the grizzly, weird things that go on [while] not at work,” she said. “There’s a couple of times this season where we actually leave the hospital, which I think threw us all.”
Grier plays Ron, the veteran doctor who is the eldest person on the staff. Though often gruff, Grier said Season 2 explores more of Ron’s “emotional depth and his trigger points.”
“A lot of that behavior is protection,” Grier said. “I don’t want you to see my soft interior because you could weaponize it and hurt me. So there are situations like that like you thought you knew Ron but no, you don’t. There’s a lot more to him.”
Ron does let those defenses down when he’s with patients.
“Bedside manner, it’s stuff he’s learned and can tap into and that’s Ron at his best,” Grier said. “You’re going to get the best care, better than anyone at that hospital, if you break through that gruff exterior.”
Grier said Ron “doesn’t suffer fools lightly,” and indeed he will give up on colleagues or patients who insist on ignoring his advice. Grier said he drew inspiration from an interview with a doctor explaining how he had to talk to a patient for over an hour to reassure them about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Imagine in your day, every day, you have to spend an hour or more explaining the validity of the science you were trained in,” Grier said. “I think Ron does have an ability to read someone enough to say they’re not getting it. I can talk to you for two hours but I don’t believe you are going to be swayed.”
Lawson spoke to UPI in Season 1 about his role of cocky surgeon Bruce. He still agrees Bruce’s self-image makes him a good surgeon, but appreciates the show’s writers finding “many more dimensions” of Bruce and the other characters.
Many of Bruce’s new developments stem from a Season 1 episode where a dementia patient repeated the line “You don’t have to be good,” making Bruce question his skills. He ultimately learned the line is the opening to the Mary Oliver poem “Wild Geese,” but the crisis showed how juicy the material can be when Bruce questions himself.
“For Bruce it was a bit of a turning point,” Lawson said. “I think it was really one of the first times that you saw him spiral out of control from one single line. Again, it revealed a lot about Bruce.”
Drama among the nurses, including Matt (Mekki Leeper) and Serena (Kahyun Kim), will also capture Bruce’s attention, Lawson said.
“There are a few times in this new season, particularly with Serena, where he’s trying to get the tea on all the nursing and admin staff,” he said.
Season 2 picks up after chief nurse Alex (Tolman) returns from a Hawaiian vacation with her husband, Tim (Kyle Bornheimer), and Joyce is building a new birthing wing. The season premiere shows Alex try to maintain her island mindset, despite hospital demands pulling her back to stressful work.
“You can’t stay in an island mindset and also keep the hospital running,” Tolman said. “Once you’re home, you’re back to work and you’re back to yourself.”
The birthing center becomes a season-long storyline, too. McLendon-Covey said the center “is a giant win for Joyce” but creates new problems for her.
“There’s lots of permits involved that maybe she did or didn’t get,” McLendon-Covey said. “There’s inspections. There’s themed rooms that might not necessarily land well with people that want to give birth. But yeah, it’s a big win and also a big pain in the arse.”
Bruce does not handle childbirth, but Lawson said Joyce’s issues with the birthing center impact the entire hospital all season.
The stakes get higher and higher and higher as the opening is imminent,” Lawson said. “Iit turns the temperature up a little bit on everyone. There is a ticking clock in this season as well.”
Lawson also stars in the upcoming film Mortal Kombat II. The movie was originally slated for release in October, but Warner Bros. decided to hold it for May. Lawson is excited to have roles as a funny surgeon and a wisecracking Australian mercenary, Kano, out simultaneously to show his range.
“When it got pushed to May, we were thrilled because it was obviously a great sign of confidence from Warner Bros,” Lawson said. “Kano is so different to Bruce Schweitz, it’s great to have two very different characters in the world at the same time.”
