TV Show review
Review basis: 6 seasons · through January 17, 2023
January 21, 2018 · 42 min · TV-14 · Canceled
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
The Resident is a Fox medical drama that ran for six seasons from 2018 to 2023. It follows senior resident Conrad Hawkins and idealistic intern Devon Pravesh at Chastain Park Memorial Hospital in Atlanta as they treat patients while battling hospital administrators who prioritize profits, budgets, and liability over care. The core narrative repeatedly frames US healthcare as a broken business that harms patients, with standout episodes on racial bias in Black maternal mortality and doctors fighting to treat an uninsured undocumented immigrant despite costs and ICE involvement. A recurring gay plastic surgeon appears from season 4 onward, and the cast includes prominent Black and South Asian doctors in competent lead roles.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for The Resident.
Woke representation / casting
Prominent roles for Black female surgeon Mina Okafor (tough and skilled) and South Asian doctor Devon Pravesh as a core character; recurring openly gay plastic surgeon Jake Wong from season 4.. Some industry-adjacent comments on minority representation from cast, but reviews note limited cringe or tokenism compared to peers. Not extreme quota signaling or story-world mismatch.
Woke political dialogue
Main dialogue and arcs focus on profit motives, bureaucracy, and ethical conflicts in medicine. Specific episodes include direct talk of racial/unconscious bias in maternal care and access barriers for undocumented patients. Not constant lectures or identity-first framing across the series.
Identity-driven story themes
Core premise is institutional critique of corporate healthcare and profit-over-patients model. Clear spikes in identity framing in the racial bias maternal mortality episode (explicitly promoted around disparities for Black women) and the undocumented immigrant treatment story (access and cost framed against enforcement). Recurring gay character adds visible LGBTQ element, though background rather than central.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Repeated, central portrayal of US hospitals, admins, and insurance as villains that devalue patients for budgets and liability. Doctors repeatedly act as moral rebels against the system. This is strong anti-corporate/institutional messaging on American medicine. Overlaps with left-leaning systemic critiques but stays focused on healthcare business practices more than broader anti-patriarchy, anti-whiteness, or cultural norm attacks.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Original series with no established source material, canon characters, or historical figures reinterpreted through identity lenses.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Specific complaints from some conservative viewers and online posters targeted the undocumented immigrant episode (ICE/admin conflict, cost framing) and racial bias maternal mortality story as liberal or woke. Review aggregators noted politically motivated low scores tied to these plots. No major news-driven controversy, boycotts, or sustained public debate treating the whole series as activist propaganda. Most criticism stayed on medical realism.
Creator track record context
Key input from Roshan Sethi (bias focus in medicine plus later personal queer South Asian representation work) and Hayley Schore (co-wrote pre-Roe abortion access drama Call Jane). Writer Nkechi Okoro Carroll brings repeated Black-centered social issue storytelling from other series. Other writers and directors mostly standard procedural or mainstream credits with milder or no public activist patterns. Antoine Fuqua as EP adds some left-leaning political action on voting access. Overall mixed but pulled upward by principals with social-justice-adjacent or identity work.
Production
