Chicago Med was, in 2015, the newest addition to the Chicago-based shows (spun off from Chicago Fire) produced by Dick Wolf, who also produced the Law and Order franchise of shows. For those who already watching Chicago Fire and PD, Med got a backdoor pilot in season 3 of Chicago Fire, and Nick Gehlfuss' character, Dr. Will Halstead, who is the brother of Jay Halstead on PD, made a couple of appearances on that show before Med officially premiered.
The show is a pretty standard medical drama that has, mostly, a case-of-the-week format, in which one or two major medical cases come through the hospital, and then also focused on character development. The main cast included Colin Donnell (from Arrow) as Dr. Connor Rhodes, Torrey DeVitto as Dr. Natalie Manning, Yaya DaCosta as April Sexton (who had a past with Severide on Chicago Fire), Rachel DiPillo as Sarah Reese (a medical student working in the emergency department), Brian Tee as Dr. Ethan Choi, S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin, Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood (the head nurse for the emergency department), and Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles (the head of psychiatry). Tee and Merkerson are interesting additions to the cast that created continuity issues (not that Wolf's shows have been big on continuity) as they had played other characters (Merkerson on Law and Order, and Tee who played a bad guy on PD the season before) in the same universe. Of course, the Law and Order shows were established to be in the same universe of shows as the Chicago-based shows via the crossovers between Fire, PD, and SVU. While the show did a good job telling its own stories, it was a part of the three-episode crossover with Fire and PD, and characters from the other two shows made short appearances throughout the season.
For those who get the DVD set, the 18 episodes of the first season are spread across five discs. The only extras are the episodes from Fire and PD that made up the three-episode crossover, so if you did not watch the other shows, you could see the entire storyline of the crossover. There are no other extras like behind-the-scenes features, deleted scenes, or the like.
Overall, the show is very good. If you are someone like me, who only started watching the show because you like medical dramas, and did not watch the other Chicago-based shows, it is enjoyable as just a medical drama. If, however, you are a fan of the other shows, you can enjoy the crossovers and mini-crossovers throughout the season. For me, pretty much all medical dramas stack up against ER. While I would not say that Med is as good as ER, it is still very good (the name of the Hospital from ER is even named-dropped in Med). It does have a bit of soap-operaishness to it with romance storylines (although not as much in the first season as it would have in later seasons), but it mainly focuses on the medical storylines. It is well-written and acted, and definitely worth checking out.
The show is a pretty standard medical drama that has, mostly, a case-of-the-week format, in which one or two major medical cases come through the hospital, and then also focused on character development. The main cast included Colin Donnell (from Arrow) as Dr. Connor Rhodes, Torrey DeVitto as Dr. Natalie Manning, Yaya DaCosta as April Sexton (who had a past with Severide on Chicago Fire), Rachel DiPillo as Sarah Reese (a medical student working in the emergency department), Brian Tee as Dr. Ethan Choi, S. Epatha Merkerson as Sharon Goodwin, Marlyne Barrett as Maggie Lockwood (the head nurse for the emergency department), and Oliver Platt as Dr. Daniel Charles (the head of psychiatry). Tee and Merkerson are interesting additions to the cast that created continuity issues (not that Wolf's shows have been big on continuity) as they had played other characters (Merkerson on Law and Order, and Tee who played a bad guy on PD the season before) in the same universe. Of course, the Law and Order shows were established to be in the same universe of shows as the Chicago-based shows via the crossovers between Fire, PD, and SVU. While the show did a good job telling its own stories, it was a part of the three-episode crossover with Fire and PD, and characters from the other two shows made short appearances throughout the season.
For those who get the DVD set, the 18 episodes of the first season are spread across five discs. The only extras are the episodes from Fire and PD that made up the three-episode crossover, so if you did not watch the other shows, you could see the entire storyline of the crossover. There are no other extras like behind-the-scenes features, deleted scenes, or the like.
Overall, the show is very good. If you are someone like me, who only started watching the show because you like medical dramas, and did not watch the other Chicago-based shows, it is enjoyable as just a medical drama. If, however, you are a fan of the other shows, you can enjoy the crossovers and mini-crossovers throughout the season. For me, pretty much all medical dramas stack up against ER. While I would not say that Med is as good as ER, it is still very good (the name of the Hospital from ER is even named-dropped in Med). It does have a bit of soap-operaishness to it with romance storylines (although not as much in the first season as it would have in later seasons), but it mainly focuses on the medical storylines. It is well-written and acted, and definitely worth checking out.
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