The Night Shift shows real ER experience

Amelia Symons, Staff Writer

On May 27, 2014, the first episode of an American medical drama show, The Night Shift, aired its first episode. From then until August 31, 2017, four seasons were aired with a combined total of 45 episodes. This show, produced by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judan, was originally shown on NBC, and later put onto Netflix.

The Night Shift, filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico and San Antonio, Texas, follows the lives of the night shift staff at San Antonio Memorial Hospital. The show very quickly displays that multiple employees, TC Callahan, Christopher “Topher” Zia, and Drew Alister have been in the military. TC exhibits some PTSD symptoms when a patient’s case hits too close to home and reminds him of when his brother, Thad, was shot only feet away from him years ago in Afghanistan. The patient just so happens to be the recipient of his brother’s heart transplant.

The Night Shift goes through how difficult and spur-of-the-moment the lives of Emergency Room doctors and surgeons can be when they are faced with hard cases that need immediate care. Throughout season three, a foster child, Bre, gets into a car accident with her foster mother, Avery, and the mom dies. Instead of Bre going back into the system, newlyweds Drew and Rick decide to adopt her and completely change her life. The hospital is given a scare at the end of season three when word gets around that the hospital is being sold to become a Plastic Surgery Center, and they would all lose their jobs, until Paul Cummings father, Julian Cummings, one of the best neurosurgeons in the world, offers to buy the hospital. He ends up buying and saving the hospital for $10 million and he becomes the new boss. The very end shows the hospital becoming a combat training program center to transform the hospital and train both the employees and volunteers to know what to do in all situations. 

Throughout the four seasons, cases like gunshot wounds, radiation, chopped off limbs, allergic reactions, bombs going off, buildings set on fire, a hostage situation, and many more, and shows just how fast these doctors must act to not only save their patients’ lives, but also their own lives.

Just like most other shows having to do with new residents training to become doctors where two of the doctors fall in love, there is a lot of romance in The Night Shift. Before the show, TC and Jordan have had an intimate relationship but have broken up. When Scott Clemens, a trauma surgeon comes to San Antonio, he and Jordan develop a relationship but break up when Scott believes that Jordan may still have feelings for her ex, TC. Later, TC and Jordan get back together and even get pregnant but break up once again after Jordan has a miscarriage after a stroke when the pregnancy became toxic to her. During all of this, Drew, an army medic reserve comes out as gay and reveals he has a boyfriend, Rick, who is still fighting overseas. Their relationship has some complications when the bus coming home from Afghanistan gets into an accident and Rick’s leg must be amputated. Rick says he would rather die than not live without his leg. They break up for a while, but Rick comes back after Drew saving a woman’s life at an army banquet is broadcasted on the news. They later get married and adopt a foster child with Cystic Fibrosis, Bre, after her foster mother dies in a car accident. A former college football star, Kenny gets into “relationships” with many in and out of the Emergency Room including Gwen, an EMT; Krista, a first-year surgical resident; Jocelyn Diaz, and Bella Cummings, Paul Cumming’s sister who is a urologist that comes to San Antonio when Kenny is hurt, and she later marries Kenny. Jordan’s ex, Scott, falls in love with TC’s sister-in-law, Annie who is his brother, Thad’s, widow, after coming into the hospital after overdosing on an unknown drug. 

At the beginning of season 3, the Head of the Surgical Center, Jordan hires a new resident, Shannon, who initially does not get along with Paul Cummings as he shows her around the hospital, but they eventually get into a relationship once Paul has learned about her difficult past.

If you are a fan of any other hospital shows like Grey’s Anatomy or The Good Doctor, I would highly recommend you give The Night Shift a shot, you won’t be disappointed!