The long-running hit seriesGrey’s Anatomyand the latest masterpiece,The Pitt,are joined by a new medical series, but it is a series no one ever needed.PulseisNetflix’s latest addition to the medical drama genre, which premiered on April 3.Pulsefollows third-year resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald) at a Miami hospital after she files a complaint of sexual harassment against her colleague and secret ex-boyfriendXander (Colin Woodell). The series explores their power dynamic in flashbacks and focuses on the ongoing difficulties as they are forced to work together during a natural catastrophe.
While the storyline had potential and could have been explored intentionally, the series shockingly still managed to completely miss the point. If it weren’t for the show’s controversial handling of an extremely important topic like sexual harassment and the abuse of power, thenPulsecould have carried some sort of meaning and taught a valuable lesson. Let’s dissect (no pun intended) everything that’s wrong with Netflix’s medical dramaPulse.
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‘Pulse’ Mishandles #MeToo
The backbone ofPulseis its storyline about power dynamics and harassment at work.However, the medical drama ended up disrespecting the #MeToo movement by giving a muddled message about the reality of Danny and Xander’s relationship. To begin with, Danny told Xander to stop flirting and pursuing her, but somewhere along the way, she fell for him for real. While, of course, it’s possible for a relationship to begin one way and become something else,Pulsedidn’t dedicate enough time to fleshing out this arc. The result is confusing and won’t do women in the workplace any favors.
In addition to this,Pulsecouldn’t have picked a worse release window, airing at the same time as the successful medical dramaThe Pittreleased its last episode.The Pitttries to be as real as possible(and succeeds), which means that one glance at Netflix’sPulseis enough to already be over it.The ongoing drama between Danny and Xander is comparatively far from reality, and it feels as though half of the conversation is missing.
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Stereotypes in ‘Pulse’
Pulsehas never had a pulse to begin with, because the main carriers of the series’ success, the characters, are like walking corpses filled with nothing but stereotypes. They are unlikable, at best. The main character, Danny, is, well, complicated. She is a boss babe when needed, but also steers conversations to a point where it’s impossible to follow. From baffling moments where she bursts into anger to cold interactions with her friends,Pulsewants its viewers to envision what the series simply didn’t add and have them make sense of the entire storyline. Sam Elijah (Jessie T. Usher) is Danny’s best friend, whose sole job in the series is to be in love with her, but act like he isn’t.
Then there is Tom Cole (what is going on with these names?), who is played by Jack Bannon and is theclassic bad boy alphawith a British accent, who loves money, prestige, and power but loves women even more. The main issue with this is that he is treating them with absolute disrespect, just playing with their feelings. That is until he meets one of his patients, Nia (Ash Santos), and somehow catches feelings. Shocker. However,even this isn’t enough to steer him away from his bad-boy trip. Double shocker.
Pulse’s strong focus on Cole’s disgusting behavior creates the belief that Xander can’t be all that terrible. While he is accused of sexual harassment and abuse of power, he is called back to work during the hurricane and even joins Danny’s side. Make it make sense. Of course,Pulsealso has Camila (Daniela Nieves), the cute doctor who is portrayed as a softie and wears makeup, and her complete opposite, Sophie (Chelsea Muirhead), who acts like she is in a constant state of grumpiness and doesn’t wear makeup.Pulseis stuck in the belief that makeup defines your character. Then there is Harper (Jessy Yates), who seems like an interesting character, but the series doesn’t move beyond her portrayal as Harper’s sister, who uses a wheelchair.
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Questionable CGI in the Medical Drama Series
The hope that, at least, the CGI would savePulseand have everyone disregard the controversial storyline and painfully bland characters was already crushed during the first episode.Grey’s Anatomyfixed its problemsat a later point, but instead of learning from its older sibling (or rather, very distant cousin),Pulsetook a trip back to a video game from the 2010s and frantically tried to makesomethingwork. Spoiler Alert: It didn’t.
A ridiculously bad bus crash scene in the first episode already set the tone for how truly terrible the hurricane scenes and operations would be. If there is something thatPulsesucceeds in, then it is showing how not to use CGI, how not to portray characters, and how not to explore #MeToo.Pulseis available to stream on Netflix.
