The medical drama is one of TV's most enduring formats. ER invented the template. House broke it. Grey's Anatomy made it last forever. Scrubs made it funny. These shows didn't just entertain — they defined what a generation expected from hospital television.
But something interesting has happened in the last few years. A new wave of medical dramas has arrived, and rather than retreading the same ground, the best of them are doing something the classics never quite managed: they're getting it right. Click on each pairing below to find out why.
If you loved
ER
NBC · 1994–2009
You'll love
The Pitt
Max · 2025–present
The Classic
ER ran for fifteen seasons and invented modern medical drama as we know it. It was the first show to make the emergency room feel genuinely chaotic, exhausting, and human. Noah Wyle's Dr. Carter became one of TV's great character arcs. Nobody came close to replicating it. Until now.
The Successor
The Pitt is made by veterans of the ER writers' room, stars Noah Wyle, and follows a single 15-hour shift in a Pittsburgh trauma centre in real time. Real nurses and doctors have called it the most accurate medical drama ever made. It is not a coincidence that it exists.
The connection
"The Pitt isn't trying to be ER's spiritual successor — it just is one. Same DNA, same chaos, same Noah Wyle. But thirty years of medical television have made it sharper, more honest, and frankly more devastating."
If you loved
House M.D.
Fox · 2004–2012
You'll love
The Resident
Fox · 2018–2023 · Netflix
The Classic
House M.D. was built on one idea: what if the smartest doctor in the room was also the most insufferable person alive? Hugh Laurie made it work for eight seasons through sheer force of character. The medical mysteries were the hook, but House himself was the show.
The Successor
The Resident takes House's cynicism about the medical system and turns it into the whole point. Based on a non-fiction book about malpractice and hospital corruption, it follows a young doctor learning that the institution he works for is as broken as the patients inside it. Darker, angrier, more relevant.
The connection
"Where House asked 'what's wrong with the patient?', The Resident asks 'what's wrong with the system?' It's the same rebellious energy pointed in a more uncomfortable direction."
If you loved
Grey's Anatomy
ABC · 2005–present
You'll love
Pulse
Netflix · 2025–present
The Classic
Grey's Anatomy is television's great soap opera dressed in scrubs. Twenty-two seasons in and it is still somehow airing. It works because it never pretended to be anything other than what it is: deeply emotional, occasionally absurd, and completely addictive. You watch it for the people.
The Successor
Pulse is Netflix's attempt to do Grey's properly for the streaming era. Set in Miami's busiest Level 1 trauma centre during a hurricane — it has the romance, the messy relationships, the impossible odds, and the ensemble cast that made Grey's a phenomenon. Condensed, sharper, less bloat.
The connection
"Pulse is what Grey's Anatomy would look like if it premiered today. Same emotional core, same guilty-pleasure instincts — but with ten fewer seasons of baggage and nowhere to hide."
If you loved
Scrubs
NBC · 2001–2010
You'll love
St. Denis Medical
NBC · 2024–present
The Classic
Scrubs was the one medical show that understood comedy and tragedy weren't opposites — they were the same thing. It was funnier than it had any right to be, and then it would quietly break your heart. It earned its emotional moments precisely because it never took itself too seriously.
The Successor
St. Denis Medical is a mockumentary-style comedy set in an underfunded Oregon hospital. It has the warmth, the workplace dysfunction, and the sneaky emotional gut-punches that made Scrubs so beloved. Real medical workers have praised it for getting the day-to-day exhaustion exactly right.
The connection
"St. Denis Medical is doing what Scrubs always did — using comedy to say something true about what it actually costs to work in medicine. It's the warmest show on television right now."
If you loved
ER
But want something different
You'll love
The Trauma Code
Netflix · 2025 · Korean
The Classic
ER's genius was in making medicine feel urgent and human at the same time. The chaos was never gratuitous — it served the story. Thirty years on, it still holds up as a masterclass in ensemble storytelling where every character, no matter how minor, felt real.
The Successor
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call is an eight-episode Korean drama about an unconventional trauma surgeon dragged into a struggling hospital. It has ER's energy and warmth — filtered through Korean drama's distinct emotional register. An 8.4 on IMDb. Eight episodes. No excuses.
The connection
"If you think medical drama peaked with ER and has been coasting ever since, The Trauma Code is the show that will change your mind. It's only eight episodes. There is genuinely no reason not to watch it."
★ The Wildcard — Apple TV+
Berlin ER
Coming 2026 · Co-created by a real ER physician
It hasn't aired yet, but Berlin ER already has everything going for it. Set in Germany, co-created by a former emergency room doctor, following a British doctor rebuilding her career after professional collapse — it is the rare upcoming show that feels genuinely different rather than derivative. Apple TV+ has an extraordinary track record with foreign-language drama. Keep this one on your radar.
Medical dramas have always worked because they put people in impossible situations and ask them to remain human anyway. The best of this new generation isn't just continuing that tradition — it's deepening it. The classics gave us the template. What comes next is using it in ways we didn't see coming.
