Pulse

I need to preface this by saying while I'm not a medical professional, I have unfortunately spent a lot of time as a patient in E. D.s and the medical writing here is not bad. It seems fairly accurate. In other words they say the right things. So the show has that going for it.

I haven't seen The Pitt, which everyone is raving about right now. But I have watched most medical dramas since "E. R." because I enjoy them. There've been some good ones lately (for example, "Transplant" is a hidden gem and much better than this series).

I watched all ten episodes of Pulse in a day. I usually don't do that but I did want to say that I finished the "season".

This is despite the fact I did not at all like many of the characters including the lead (female) doctor -- Danny Simms. I found her incredibly annoying and never really understood (and I tried!) what her numerous problems are. She is just incredibly unlikable.

There are similar issues with the other major characters. I feel incredibly ambivalent about them and in the end did not at all find Doctors Phillips, Cole and Elijah likable or even relatable. Basically they are, all of them, not very nice people. There's nothing really redeeming about them.

But I shine a light on the Simms character as she's so prominent in this show and is just such an unpleasant person.

There are a couple of characters that I did like: Luis and Gabriel (both are RNs and I think Luis is the Charge Nurse -- an important role in the E. D.).

So the character drama part of this show pretty much sucks. The medical part is not bad and in fact I did get caught up in the stories of the patients. But those stories are secondary to the character drama plots and they are not enough to carry this series.

I also very much like the music.

The timey-wimey aspect where we see flashbacks did not bother me -- it seems it has become fairly standard and they do "warn" you with various clues so you're not surprised.

Bottom line is that I'm not looking forward to another season of this.

My wife and I were looking forward to this show; especially since we live in Miami and I was in the medical field but this was inherently bad. A show is almost assuredly over when you have no one to root for. Most of these characters are unlikabke. The flashbacks are jarring because we have to figure out when it's a flashback without any visual clues. The dialogue is ridiculous with many doctors and nurses talking about personal issues in front of patients. Uh uh that's rarely done. This was mostly boring soap opera and little medical stuff. As others have stated this can't hold a candle to The Pitt ( an excellent medical show ) or even Doc or Chicago Med. We will check out another ep or two but we're not holding up much hope. We will see.

Post: Yep tried one more ep and lasted just 10 minutes into ep 2. This is just so bad. Doctors contradicting each other and fighting to do a procedure in literally every. Single. Medical. Scene. Just no. Avoid. What a shame......

In particular, I couldn't stand Dr. Philips. I really couldn't tell whether we were suppose to hate him or love him, but I definitely hated him.

I was excited to see Jessie T Usher in something new because I loved him in the Boys. But his character wasn't that interesting. It didn't have to do with his acting as much as just a lackluster script. The same went for Willa Fitzgerald. She's a great actress, but even her prowess couldn't overcome this script.

I would have given it a 5 out of 10, except I just truly could not stand any moment when Dr Philips was in the show and he was there a lot. He is the typical rich boy with rich boy problems (aka none but he angsts wildly still). There's nothing original about his rich boy character. Cole was also the atypical arrogant womanizer surgeon with no depth or originality.

The CGI during the hurricane scenes was also really weak. If you're going to lean so heavily on the hurricane element in the script, then at least have good CGI for the few outside shots.

After watching it, I have only one question... What was that even supposed to be? Why - and more importantly, how - did Netflix release something in this condition? They have a post-production team, right? How could they allow such an unfinished, raw product to go public?

This is unacceptable.

Let's start with the main point: 80% of the project is full of mistakes.

Everything feels incomplete. The medical storyline is more of a circus than proper drama. The characters' personal lives? Empty - just like the characters themselves: underdeveloped, filled with forced drama and not a single genuine emotion. Chemistry between the lead actors? Forget it - it simply doesn't exist. As for the supporting characters, there are way too many of them. They only overcomplicate the story without moving the plot forward.

This should've been a feature-length film - tight, focused, and concentrated. Instead, they stretched it into a series for no good reason. The result? It's neither ER, nor Grey's Anatomy, nor The Resident, nor House, nore Pitt ... The casting is awful. The acting? Like something out of a school play. The dialogues are written just for the sake of talking - meaningless, with no rhythm or purpose.

And the flashbacks? There are way too many. So many that by the end, they become nauseating.

If I had to point out a positive, it would be a nod to the director - a few scenes managed to shine through and show a sense of style, despite everything.

And, of course, Willa Fitzgerald - my absolute favorite. If it weren't for her, I would've stopped watching during the exposition. She's the only one who carried this entire mess. As always - professionalism, charisma, and that smile. Bravo. Keep it up.

Started off strong, ended... well, on a literal wave - that's how the series closes.

It's decent. Ok it's not gonna win awards but it's enjoyable. Stop comparing it to other shows and enjoy it for what it is. Acting isn't bad at all, scripts are a little predictable but it's enjoyable and entertaining. The only issue I had with it (I binged it in one day) was the time jumping back and forth with flashbacks. Made it a bit confusing as to whether you were in past or present. Totally recognising some character traits from people I've worked with. People saying it's dull - no it's pretty close to real life! It's not as far fetched as other medical shows. Shame it came out at a similar time as The Pitt (I'm in uk and haven't got it yet) so everyone watching both are comparing!