This show is supposed to be a one-off show from General Hospital. That means they run on 2 different timelines (hence why Spinelli has a foot injury on Night Shift and none on the regular daytime show). It also means that as a viewer, if you’ve never seen General Hospital, you’re not supposed to worry because these characters, which recurring from a show that you might not have ever seen, will be introduced to you.
Let’s not talk about the fact that the show didn’t give us the names of half the characters until way after the first half of the show. Let’s talk about what we know about these characters based on what we’ve seen on screen (and I’m going based on the 2 episodes I’ve seen).
Robin is a preachy, moralizing HIV positive Doctor who only steps down from her soapbox long enough to be jealous that her boyfriend, Patrick, a doctor within the same hospital, with whom she has sexual relations with in the public showers, is a womanizing, ego-maniacal pretty boy who doesn’t listen when people talk because it’s all about him.
Spinelli is a chattering ninny who doesn’t realize he’s embarrassing himself and others with his incessant metaphorical double talk, which only he understands because he doesn’t get that not everyone is as nerdy and geeky as he is.
Epiphany is an aggressive black bitch who doesn’t support her son, Stan, who fancies himself the next Ché Guevera.
Never mind that Robin has trust issues and that Patrick has family issues. Never mind that Spinelli just wants to fit in because he’s been on the outside his whole life. Never mind that Epiphany was a single mother who battled cancer to raise her son so that he could have a good life, and he chose to use his talents to work for the Mob.
If I were a first time viewer, I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about any of these characters. They are all being written so horribly. And don’t even get me started on the “new” characters, like Dr. Julian and the 3 student nurses, Jolene, Regina, and Layla. There’s no depth to them at all.
And then the story lines.
Why do we care that Maxie’s scared about this staph infection she’s gotten? We don’t know whose borrowed heart she has. Also, the last time we saw her, she was having sex in a supply closet and not really apologetic about it.
Why do we care that the burn victim in the ambulance knows Jason and that her last name is Barrett?
Now, the fact that I do know these characters isn’t really making the show any better for me. In fact, quite the opposite. While I love Spinelli and Jason together on screen, the writing for this show isn’t on par with GH (and that’s saying A LOT considering how subpar the writing on GH has become lately) and the dialogue isn’t as funny or witty.
I think I can honestly say that I haven’t found one redeeming thing about this show yet whatsoever. Which means that I’ll most likely stop watching it after episode 3. Maybe I’ll catch it when it repeats on SoapNet (and then you’ll get another ranting post) but otherwise, I’m not going out of my way to tape it anymore.
