Rob Lowe on ‘Code Black’: What Works, What Needs Work
During its first season, Code Black was a better-than-average medical procedural that consistently clocked just-average ratings. To boost the show’s vital signs for its sophomore year, both CBS and the show’s producers decided that it needed an additional dose of star power. Enter Rob Lowe, who is the first face we see in the Season 2 premiere. Playing Col. Ethan Willis, a combat doctor with the U.S. Army’s CCCRP (Combat Casualty Care Research Program) newly assigned to Angels Memorial Hospital’s perpetually busy ER, the actor quickly wipes away any lingering traces of the self-aware grin he flashed in his late, great comedy series, The Grinder. This is Serious Rob Lowe, not to mention Seriously Fit Rob Lowe, with new bulk befitting his status as a military man.
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And the premiere affords him plenty of opportunities — both egregious and believable — to show off whatever Army training he received in preparation for the role. When we meet him, Willis is en route to a shark attack scene on a Malibu beach, riding shotgun in a chopper alongside Angels Memorial’s own Dr. Leighton, older brother of resident, Angus Leighton (Harry Ford, one of the few first-year residents from Season 1 to survive the between-seasons personnel changes). Once on the ground, Willis barks commands at the rest of the team, making the kind of split-second decisions he did in the field when bullets were flying over his head. And when his fellow doctor takes a serious 20-foot tumble out of the chopper as it’s taking off, Willis barely hesitates before leaping out of the open door and splashing down into the water below. This guy is literally Chris Traeger’s ideal boyfriend.
Other than Lowe’s introduction, it was business as usual on Code Black. While the shark attack victims took the A-plot, B-level cases included a father who intended to be present for his estranged son’s wedding day, but wound up in the ER instead, and a woman complaining of post-hysterectomy pain that turns out to be deadly serious. Willis also attended to the injured Dr. Leighton while Angus hovered nervously nearby. Each of these emergencies came to a definitive conclusion, some happy and others less so, indicating that Code Black isn’t about to completely change its episodic storytelling model simply to accommodate its newest cast member. On the other hand, the final scene did indicate that there’s some kind of deeper secret embedded in Willis’s past that gives him a reason to stick around Angels Memorial besides his official military orders.
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What Works: In general, Code Black is on firmer ground when it focuses on cases rather than interpersonal relationships, but the premiere introduces some potentially promising dramatic conflicts between doctors. For example, one of the new residents, Charlotte (Nafessa Williams), is revealed to be a former actress who has since transitioned into medicine, earning her the skepticism of patients and colleagues alike. Meanwhile, Willis’s smoothly executed transition into the ER establishes him as an ally of the ostensible main character, Leanne (Marcia Gay Harden), in her ongoing turf war with chief of surgery (and newly-named ER chief) Mike (Boris Kodjoe). The Lowe/Harden/Kodjoe triumvirate is clearly going to be a source of tension going forward, and this trio of actors is more than capable of taking advantage of that.
What Needs Work: Now that “Daddy” (Leanne’s ER-given nickname) has a new best friend in the form of Willis, poor “Mommy” is being left behind. Luis Guzman’s head nurse Jesse Salander is back as the male matriarch of the Angels Memorial emergency room, but he and Harden barely share any screentime in the season premiere — a shame, since their relationship was one of the best parts of the first season. And while Charlotte makes an impression thanks to her intriguing personal history, the other residents feel like generic background fodder. Given Code Black’s recent penchant for shedding supporting cast members, it seems almost unnecessary to learn their names.
Our Burning Questions: What’s your diagnosis about Willis’s secret past, Code Black fans? Did he lose a buddy on the battlefield? A wife and/or child on the homefront? Or maybe just a contact lens on that shark-infested beach?
Code Black airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS.
