‘The Pitt’ has us thinking of our favorite medical dramas
With the recent influx of medical dramas on TV this year, we ranked our top 3 of all time.
Your presence is required in the emergency room, stat.
In the history of TV, a few genres always call out to us: The cop show. The lawyer show. And yes, the doctor show, too. The 2024-25 TV season, ending this month, saw a resurgence of medical dramas, from Max’s “The Pitt” to Netflix’s “Pulse,” all packed with camera-ready doctors and nurses in scrubs ready to heal patients and romance their fellow residents.
If you’ve watched all 15 episodes of “Pitt,” one of the year’s biggest word-of-mouth hits, and you’re hungry for more chest tubes and intubations, look no further than this list of the 15 best medical series of all time. From the obvious (yes, you’ll find “ER” high on the list) to the surprising (the Brits have quite a few good entries), we hope watching some of these series (all now streaming) might heal something in you, too.
15. ‘Chicago Med’
(NBC, 2015- )
Many of the shows on this list aren’t just some of the best medical dramas, but some of the best TV shows of all time. “Med” doesn’t make the latter list, but when it comes to a reliably dramatic, lightly humorous and addictive medical procedural, the series, produced by Dick Wolf, delivers week in and week out. There is no need to reinvent or transcend the genre here: We’ve got good-looking doctors saving good-looking lives. It’s not a guilty pleasure so much as easily pleasing.
How to watch ‘Chicago Med’
Streaming on Peacock. Season 10 airs on NBC (Wednesdays, 8 ET/PT); Season 11 is due this fall.
14. ‘Diagnosis: Murder’
(CBS, 1993-2001)
A delightful and adorable merge of the detective and medical genres, the long-running series was anchored by a mustachioed Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloan, a former Army physician who consults with the local police department on murder cases. He often helped his son, Steve, a detective (played by Dick’s real-life son Barry Van Dyke). If a medical drama could be described as “cozy,” it would be this one.
How to watch ‘Diagnosis Murder’
Stream on Pluto TV.
13. ‘Northern Exposure’
(CBS, 1990-95)
The big-city doctor who moves to a quaint small town and is healed himself is a quirky, lovable trope of the medical genre that has produced series like WB’s “Everwood,” CW’s “Hart of Dixie” and even Netflix’s tear-jerker “Virgin River.” But the balance of schmaltz, humor and melodrama was never better than on “Exposure.” You’ve got the biggest snob of a doctor, Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow), and the most remote small town you can find (Cicely, Alaska), leading to the biggest cultural clash you can find. But the series wasn’t just about small-town jokes; it was a show about how we make our communities, all wrapped up in a warm fur parka.
How to watch ‘Northern Exposure’
Stream on Amazon Prime.
12. ‘Getting On’
(HBO, 2013-15)
If you’re going to make a show about aging, caregiving and death, a very good place to start is enlisting actresses like Laurie Metcalf, Alex Borstein, Niecy Nash and Mel Rodriguez, as this underrated HBO black comedy wisely did. Set in the geriatric recovery unit of a struggling California hospital, “Getting On” tackled the bleakest parts of medicine head on and found ways to laugh. The humor was of the cerebral, physical, cynical and quite often gallows varieties, but always heartfelt.
How to watch ‘Getting On’
Stream on Max (with Sling) or Pluto TV.
11. ‘The Knick’
(Cinemax, 2014-15)
The hospital can be a place of abject horror, and no one understands that better than director Steven Soderbergh, who directed, shot and edited “The Knick.” Set in 1900, when medicine was starting to change from luck and superstition to actual science, it follows Dr. John Thackery (a stunning Clive Owen), who’s trying to make surgery a legitimate form of care. Gory and visceral (the bloodiest show on this list by far), “Knick” is the kind of series that makes you deeply uncomfortable, yet you can’t look away.
How to watch ‘The Knick’
Stream on Max with Sling TV.
10. ‘This Is Going to Hurt’
(AMC, 2022)
If medical shows are based on a foundation of hope and aspiration, this series about a mid-level doctor in the U.K.’s National Health Service is built on abject despair. Stuck in a crumbling, underfunded and under-appreciated system, OBGYN Adam (Ben Whishaw) tries to keep the babies he delivers and their mothers alive, against odds that seem aggressively stacked against them. In the series’ version of modern healthcare, the doctors, patients and the entire healthcare system are all hurting. Based on the memoir of a real doctor, the stories and tribulations feel achingly real, and Whishaw’s sly smile and tongue-in-cheek delivery keeps the depressing stories from becoming too morose.
How to watch ‘This Is Going to Hurt’
Stream on Sling TV, Hoopla, Acorn TV and AMC+
9. ‘House’
(Fox, 2004-12)
What if Sherlock Holmes was actually a doctor? Elementary, my dear Dr. Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein). It all seemed easy with Hugh Laurie as the prickly and enigmatic Dr. Gregory House, a diagnostic physician specializing in discovering what weird malady plagued the patient of the week. The medical accuracy was low, the sarcasm was high and the series had an addictive quality, much like House’s eventual relationship with pain medication. You can also thank the series for launching the careers of Olivia Wilde and Kal Penn.
How to watch ‘House’
Stream on Hulu, Amazon Prime and Peacock.
8. ‘Call the Midwife’
(PBS, 2012- )
Although it only occasionally sets foot in a hospital, this period British drama about nurse/midwives in mid-century London loses none of the core elements that make a great medical series: Bloody emergencies, crying patients and families, lovable characters and endings that worked, whether tragic or happy. Set in an impoverished part of the city in the complex post-World War II era, “Midwife” explores topics besides healthcare, labor and delivery, becoming a social history of its time and place. Sentimental? Sure, but only in the way in which we want our heartstrings tugged.
How to watch ‘Call the Midwife’
Stream on Netflix; Season 14 airs on PBS Sundays (8 ET/PT) (check local listings)
7. ‘Nurse Jackie’
(Showtime, 2009-15)
A showcase for the always-impeccable Edie Falco, “Jackie” was a medical show with a hard edge to it. In “Sopranos” Falco’s onscreen husband Tony (James Gandolfini) got to be antihero at the center of the story, but her pill-popping Jackie was as complex and flawed as any of the other 2000s boys of that trend. Emmy-winning and magnetic, Falco’s performance was the sun the series revolved around, but it still left room for a great cast of characters in the New York hospital, including the always-lovely Merritt Wever.
How to watch ‘Nurse Jackie’
Streaming on Philo.
6. ‘St. Elsewhere’
(NBC, 1982-88)
“Elsewhere” was initially pitched as “Hill Street Blues” in a hospital. And while, over its six seasons, it lightened up considerably more than its crime-drama inspiration, it certainly helped change its genre as much as “Blues” changed the cop show. Fast paced, unafraid to be sad, comedic and weird all in the same episode, the series set the groundwork for decades of medical shows to follow. Plus, it featured both a young Denzel Washington and Mark Harmon walking Boston’s fictional St. Eligius hospital halls. Not too shabby for a very shabby hospital.
How to watch ‘St. Elsewhere’
Stream on Hulu.
5. ‘The Pitt’
(Max, 2025- )
It’s bold to put a new series that has only aired 15 episodes so high on this list, but Max’s “real-time” emergency room series is nothing if not bold. Each episode is one hour of a seemingly interminable ER shift in the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, where doctors are nurses are trying to “treat ’em and street ’em,” as their stressed medical center has too many patients and not enough staff. The first post-pandemic medical drama to really understand the effects of COVID-19 and our current political era on healthcare workers, “Pitt” is about the way we live and care in the here and now, without sugarcoating the burned-out and strapped state of our healthcare system. From “ER” producer John Wells and starring that venerable show’s second-most handsome veteran, Noah Wyle, we’d expect nothing less than the smart, heart-stopping action and emotion “The Pitt” brings. (More on “ER” below).
How to watch ‘The Pitt’
Stream on Max (with Sling TV).
4. ‘Scrubs’
(NBC, 2001-08; ABC, 2009-10)
Doctors on social media will often point to this sweet and sad sitcom as one of the most accurate medical shows around, both for the way it refuses to turn its medical problems into absurd fantasies and for how it captures the authentic emotional journey of being a doctor. Starring the irresistibly twee threesome of Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke as young doctors who grow up over the course of the series’ long run, “Scrubs” was funny all the time and heartbreaking when it needed to be. Just ignore the final “Med School” ninth season.
How to watch ‘Scrubs’
Stream on Hulu and Peacock.
3. ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
ABC (2005– )
Don’t you dare stand from a distance and judge “Grey’s Anatomy,” the longest-running primetime medical show of all time. Yes, it’s known for uber-tragedy, fluffy romance and throwing “Mc” in front of words like “dreamy” and “steamy,” but “Grey’s” is so much more than its two-decade reputation would have non-viewers think. What makes “Grey’s” work is its unabashed soap-opera tropes and themes, and never trying to be snobbier than it is feeling. Dozens of regular cast members, intra-office romance that makes us swoon and more disasters than any series but “9-1-1,” “Grey’s” is fundamentally imbued with soul and daring. It endures because, after more than 400 episodes, the energy and verve of its storytelling has not run out.
How to watch ‘Grey’s Anatomy’
Stream on Netflix and Hulu. Season 21 airs on ABC, Thursdays ( 10 ET/PT), with Season 22 due this fall.
2. ‘M*A*S*H’
CBS (1972–83)
“M*A*S*H” was many things: An adaptation of the hit 1970 Robert Altman movie, a hilarious sitcom, a drama about the toll of war, a tragedy, a cultural touchstone and, yes, a medical show. The way the series blended all these disparate elements into something not just coherent but transcendent was a stunning achievement. The Korean War-set series about medics at the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital premiered deep into the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and had something deeply important to say about warfare, healing and friendship. Its finale remains one of the most-watched television events of all time because it was one of the few shows that could unite us.
How to watch ‘M*A*S*H’
Stream on Hulu.
1. ‘ER’
NBC (1994–2009)
Could there be any other choice? NBC’s long-running, always rousing, often powerful drama, set in a Chicago emergency room, is the medical drama against which all other dramas have been judged, and will be for decades to come (just ask “The Pitt”). “ER” got it all right: The pace, the actors (Wyle of course, but also George Clooney! Julianna Marguiles! Maura Tierney!), the setting, the patients of the week, the plot twists and the couples. The unrelenting crises in the emergency room was the engine that kept it running for 331 episodes. The characters could never stop, and neither could we.
How to watch ‘ER’
Stream on Hulu and Max (with Sling TV).
