Parents' Guide to

The Night Shift

By Joyce Slaton, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Boilerplate hospital drama has gore, children in danger.

TV NBC Drama 2014
The Night Shift Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

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age 10+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Kidswillbekids
Kidswillbekids Adult
February 4, 2021
age 11+

Rly good would recommend

Whilst the show has go huge amounts of blood and gore it is all medical and season 1 ep 2 is the worst as there is dismemberment and nazi symbols so avoid this episode they are all on Netflix and the show is rated 12 for language violence sex and references andild drug misuse.

This title has:

Great role models
Too much violence
Too much swearing
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
Nancy R.
Nancy R. Adult
August 17, 2017
age 9+

Why

This is an ok show, but please tell me why they show the doctors in the military? Are these flashbacks of their time there? Is this a group that has left the hospital to do doctoring in the military? If so, it doesn't look like it. It looks like two separate tv shows. Once, I thought I had changed the channel! It is frustrating. There are a few actors that have been in so many other shows, that I find myself having memories of those shows. This is distracting. Also, not being able to remember what now defunct show they were on. Casting could be better. Recently, a really cute show, one that was very creative, was taken off. But they will put this retread stuff on. Pablum for the masses, I guess.
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What's the Story?

After three tours of duty in Afghanistan, T.C. Callahan, M.D. (Eoin Macken), is learning that his toughest job might be right here at home. On THE NIGHT SHIFT, at a San Antonio emergency room, by-the-books hospital administrator Michael Ragosa (Freddy Rodriguez) is newly in charge and tasked with the job of cutting costs and bringing the hospital's doctors in line. T.C.'s not so crazy about that idea, even while he supports his ex-girlfriend and professional colleague Jordan Alexander (Jill Flint), who's angling for the job of head night-shift doctor wrangler. While T.C., Jordan, and a cast of irreverent doctors and nurses care for the patients that crowd their workplace daily, they also carry on their own lives. With goofballs around like T.C.'s BFFs Topher Zia (Ken Leung) and Drew Alister (Brendan Fehr), there are times for pranks, but, when lives are at stake, these doctors are ready for serious business.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2):
Kids say (1):

Even if you haven't seen this show before, you'll probably feel like you have. The show follows so exactly in the rhythms of other medical dramas such as Grey's Anatomy that it feels like the writing and acting is just paint-by-numbers. And c'mon, it even looks like Eoin Macken is styled exactly like Grey's McSteamy (Patrick Dempsey). That alone may interest Grey's fans, and maybe they're the only ones who will find something to love about this limp, just-OK drama. Otherwise, it feels like a disappointing waste of a good cast. Ken Leung was so good on Lost, and anyone who was a fan of Six Feet Under surely retains an adoration for sharp Freddy Rodriguez.

The writing is also at times irritatingly illogical. In the show's pilot, T.C. and Topher (a TV name if ever we heard one) are called to the scene of an auto accident, where they daringly free a young boy who has a spinal cord accident, which T.C. then repairs in a risky surgery. So, wait. Two ER doctors leave their workplace to rush to the scene of an accident? Um, don't paramedics do that? And then they help rescue a kid from a smashed car? Um, don't fire fighters and highway emergency workers do that? And hey, what happened to all of T.C. and Topher's patients while they were spending hours at the accident site? Sloppy writing, just sloppy. For medical-drama junkies only.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about shows they've seen that are similar to The Night Shift. How is this show like those shows? How is it different?

  • TV and movie critics talk about a type of character called a "Mary Sue," who doesn't seem to be particularly exceptional to audiences but whom the on-screen characters talk about in unreasonably glowing terms. Who is the Mary Sue of The Night Shift?

  • Why are hospitals such an enduring setting for TV dramas? What's exciting or interesting about a hospital? Why does it make for interesting television?

TV Details

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