15 Reasons ‘The Resident’ Needs a Second Season

The Resident‘s pilot season is making a splash as each episode takes on a new medical ethics issue. The cast is incredible, and the stories are educating viewers on the hidden and profit-seeking sides of hospitals.

Unfortunately, Fox has yet to pick-up The Resident for a second season! In 2017, another powerful Fox series, Pitch, was not renewed for Season 2. We don’t want the network to make another serious error!

Let us help Fox come to the right choice for The Resident and make sure it survives for a sophomore season.

Here are 15 reasons the medical ethics drama needs a second season.

1. Matt Czuchry is Giving His Best Performance Yet

Matt Czuchry knows how to play the bad boy.

As Cary Agos on The Good Wife and Logan Huntzberger on Gilmore Girls, Czuchry perfected the devilish grin and smoldering gaze.

Czuchry’s role on The Resident calls upon these well-honed acting skills and pushes him into darker, richer character development. It’s as if he’s taken Logan and Cary and soaked them in a leather aging solution; he has been refined and darkened by pain.

The Resident places Dr. Conrad Hawkins’ moral development front and center. Smartly, the show doesn’t type-cast the talented actor as just a rebel with a heart of gold. He’s wading through ethics and trauma, alongside romance.

On The Resident Season 1 Episode 4, “Identity Crisis” Conrad confronts a situation where his past choice to save one life may cause the team to be unable to save many lives, because of being understaffed and undertrained.

Conrad refuses to believe that he can’t save everyone, and this belief threatens to take him over the edge when he faces the reality that he has limitations; he is not God.

It is shadowy stuff. Matt Czuchry is perfectly leaning into the darkness of his character. He holds the overt flirtyness of Logan at bay so he can show more tension and pain.

He delivers rather dramatic lines with restraint and hints of sadness. The dialogue goes from tepid to humming with tension. Each of the choices Czuchry is making propels The Resident forward toward a seasons-long future.

The Resident needs a second season so Matt Czuchry can continue to provide a nuanced, morally complex, AND effortlessly shippable character.

2. The Slow Burn

Conrad and Nic have a rich and sweet connection. They support each other as they face heart-wrenching tribulations. They make each other better.

Conrad has made it clear that he is willing to fight for Nic. Nic has made it clear she loves Conrad, but is not willing to be with him.

Questions abound. What happened in the past to cause Nic to insist on distance? What battles has the couple fought together to create their tight bond?

Clearly, it is too soon for them to get together. This ship needs to be a slow burn!

There is a rich backstory here that needs more than one season to discover. It will also take more than one season to build the tension between the couple so that the eventual payoff is worth it.

We need more flirting, more friendship and definitely more yearning from this steamy pair. This ship is meant to sail, but a slower burn will ensure that the couple makes waves but doesn’t sink. A second season pick-up would provide The Resident time to do justice to the love story between Nic and Conrad.

3. A Chance to Discuss Gun Violence

Whenever a gun violence tragedy befalls a community, E.R.s are called upon to step up and face the carnage.

Even though they are not usually featured in news stories about mass-shootings, doctors and nurses like those at The Resident ‘s Chastain Hospital are significantly involved and impacted by gun violence.

Nurses are the first faces the victims and victims’ families encounter at the hospital. E.R. doctors have to wade through shock and intense gun wound traumas. Surgeons have to follow the random and deadly path of bullets through bodies.

It is chaotic and tragic. It is political, too. It would be interesting to know how the NRA lobbyists interact with hospital administrators.

How would Chastain Hospital react to gun violence beset upon an affluent, white-majority population, as compared to a poor, brown-majority population?

Especially because Dr. Hawkins and Dr. Silva’s have military backgrounds, The Resident has the ability to cover gun violence from new perspectives.

Issues in gun control impact communities far beyond the shooters and direct victims. The Resident needs a second season so we can learn about how gun violence impacts hospitals.

4. A Chance to Know Dr. Pravesh’s Partner

The Resident debuts with a steamy romp in bed between Dr. Pravesh and his significant other, Priya.

I cheer because it is about time we see South Asian men as having sex appeal. However, the show has thus far kept us in the dark about Priya.

Dr. Pravesh is, arguably, the least developed of the lead characters. Getting to know Priya will allow viewers to understand him more.

We can also learn more about how intern year impacts a romantic relationship. Spoiler alert: it is NOT easy.

In a second season, we can see Priya not confined to bedroom scenes and making connections with Mina, Nic, and Conrad. The Resident needs to have more women characters talking to each other and engaging in a meaningful relationship.

With a second season, The Resident can integrate characters from the doctors’ and nurses’ home lives, providing for more Bechdel passing dialogue.

5. More Merrin Dungey

Merrin Dungey appears on The Resident Season 1 Episode 3, “Comrades in Arms,” and it is glorious. But the episode is not nearly enough Merrin.

As Claire Thorpe, the calculating and glossy Chastain Hospital CEO, Dungey provides a balanced character who allows us to feel rage AND understanding.

She manages to make an action as callous as trading patients like baseball cards seem reasonable. She elicits trust, even as she’s  ruthlessly pursuing the bottom-line.

There are many scenarios that can bring the CEO back into the thick of it. A second season can provide enough space and time for Merrin Dungey’s talents to thrive.

Big Little Lies never fully took advantage of Dungey’s gifts. The Resident should avoid that mistake and feature her every chance they get. A second season is needed so that Claire Thorpe can become an ensemble lead character.

6. A Settled Pace

The Resident‘s pace is fast and jumpy, just like an E.R. Although this is a nice parallel with the setting depicted, the show covers a rich and complex medical ethics issue in each episode.

To understand the concepts and feel the impacts of each medical ethics issue, the pace needs to slow down.

A show’s first season often tries to make a splash and set a rigorous pace. This helps new shows to keep viewers hooked and excited.

A second season will allow The Resident to set a more tension-filled, but not rushed, pace. Once settled in, the rich and important story-telling that The Resident is doing can provide the understanding of medical ethics viewers are craving.

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