Review: St. Denis Medical, “Gimme the Scuttlebutt” | Season 1, Episode 8
Move over Grey’s Anatomy, it’s sex week at St. Denis!
The first seven episodes of St. Denis Medical followed a pretty similar template: take a medical procedural drama structure and turn it into a comedy, with wacky patients-of-the-week to bring out the best (and worst) of our ensemble of healthcare workers. With “Gimme the Scuttlebutt,” however, the show smartly remembers it’s not just pulling from the history of medical dramas, but from the legacy of workplace sitcoms too. Thus we get a pretty bold shift in format—an episode all about the interpersonal lives of its characters with barely a patient in sight.
It’s a great way to shake up the world of St. Denis as the show heads into the latter half of its first season. (It was originally slated for 13 episodes before NBC picked up five more in June.) From the beginning, St. Denis has tried to convey the idea that working in a hospital isn’t that different than working anyplace else. So, naturally, the thing that brings that idea to the forefront is a classic wor…