There are at least two ways to think about NBC's new action medical ensemble The Night Shift.
First: It was so very, very good the network held it back until summer so it wouldn't get lost in the crowd
Second: It was so very bad, the network decided to burn off the eight episodes during the summer when nobody would be watching.
Judge for yourself when the series debuts at 9 p.m. today. I haven't had a chance to preview it yet, so you're on your own.
I know. I feel bad about that, but it happens sometimes.
Here's what we do know. The Night Shift follows the adventures of the men and women who work the hospital graveyard shift at (fictional) San Antonio Memorial, which serves 22 counties and receives a lot of its patients via med-flight helicopter.
Irish actor Eoin Macken (Merlin) is the first among equals in the ensemble. He plays adrenaline junkie TC Callahan who, after three tough tours in Afghanistan, now works in the emergency room.
Callahan "is about to learn that his toughest battles will be fought right here at home."
NBC also notes that it's on the night shift when "the toughest and craziest cases always seem to come through the door. Every night is a fight between the heroic efforts of saving lives and the hard truths of running an underfunded hospital."
Callahan works with an irreverent (naturally) team of graveyard doctors. They include his best friend Topher (Ken Leung, Lost) and protege Drew (Brendan Fehr, Roswell). They know how to let off steam with the casual prank or two, "but when lives are at stake, they are all business."
The new night shift boss, Dr. Jordan Alexander (Jill Flint, The Good Wife), just happens to be TC's ex-girlfriend. For her, trying to keep everyone in check is like herding cats.
The rest of the crew includes Paul (Robert Bailey Jr., Coraline), who is fresh out of medical school and still adjusting to the insanity of an ER; Krista (Jeananne Goossen, Alcatraz), also a new intern with something to prove; and Kenny (JR Lemon, A Madea Christmas), a veteran nurse who keeps the doctors focused and (as with most spunky TV nurses) isn't afraid to break the rules to get the job done.
Meanwhile, Dr. Landry de la Cruz (Daniella Alonso, Revolution) is the lone psychiatrist on the night shift and must deal with her co-workers as much as patients.
Freddy Rodriguez (Six Feet Under) plays hospital boss Michael Ragosa. He has to balance the pressures of cutting costs while battling the stigma that he is more interested in saving money than helping people.
Let the drama begin. Stat!
• UFOs. If ER wackiness isn't for you, how about little green men? If you get cable's Science Channel, then pull the shades and turn out the lights for Season 3 of Alien Encounters. It all begins at 9 p.m. today.
Science Channel asks, "How would the world react to an alien race arriving on Earth? How would the human race be forever changed by extraterrestrials? What would be the impact of human contact with aliens?"
Food for thought. We're also informed that 74 percent of Americans believe in the existence of aliens, and 15 million believe they've actually made contact with ET.
There will be six episodes this season and they pick up where last season ended with the dramatization of a Texas-size extraterrestrial mother ship exploding in low Earth orbit.
The alien pieces fall to the ground and begin altering humanity as we know it. Some pieces hit and destroy homes, buildings and cars while others are collected to harness alien advanced technology.
It gets juicer: Millions of children are born as human/alien hybrids with special, enhanced senses and powers. Genetic sequencing of the kids' genes reveals a code hidden in their DNA, and an experiment decrypts the code to reveal a mysterious blueprint.
Before you dismiss all this as piffle, note that the series takes the hypothetical alien questions to some rather erudite experts. They include astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi; Seth Shostak, SETI Institute senior astronomer; futurist John Smart; scientist and science-fiction author David Brin; George Church, molecular geneticist at Harvard University; Daniel Lidar, director of the University of Southern California Lockheed Martin Quantum Computation Center; and Carlos Barbas, Scripps Research Institute genetic biologist.
• Geek alert. Tune in to Syfy today at 9 p.m. for the debut of The Wil Wheaton Project. The comedy promises to be a creative weekly roundup on the world of sci-fi in 30 minutes.
"Who's got time to watch it all?" Wheaton asks.
For those out of the loop, Wheaton is an icon in the geek/nerd universe. He played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation and recurs as a fictionalized version of himself on The Big Bang Theory.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 05/27/2014