TV Review: General Hospital: The Night Shift - "Frayed Anatomies"

The spin-off of the daytime drama, General Hospital, General Hospital: Night Shift debuted on Soapnet last night, and if nothing else was made obviously clear, it was that we shouldn't plan for there to be too much semblance between the storylines of this and the parent drama.

Yes, they both take place at General Hospital in the fictional town of Port Charles, New York, and yes you will see plenty of familiar faces, with a splattering of new talent and one legendary performer (Billy Dee Williams plays Toussaint Dubois — an all knowing all seeing janitor). But other than the fact that both Doctor Patrick Drake and Doctor Robin Scorpio are being punished by working the hospital's Emergency Room on Saturday nights, very little in plot meshed with the daytime show.

Biggest case in point, as Robin and Patrick rush out to meet an incoming ambulance in the first few opening minutes, an SUV pulls up. Mac gets out from behind the wheel and opens the back door, and out steps Jason (Yes, just hours earlier on GH he was still in jail and when 3:00 rolls around, he will still be in jail on the daytime version), then an injured Spinelli.

But, let's back up a bit. With the show's opening, I was most impressed with the look and the feel of the show. We begin in the doctor's lounge and Dr. Robin Scorpio in the shower, but wait she's not alone, that would be Dr. Patrick Drake moving in behind her. We get a brief taste of some steamy scrubs action, before we hear both their pagers going off. We were warned, General Hospital: Night Shift was going to be grittier and sexier and so it is.

We go from the showers into the fire. The Emergency Room is loud, crowded, and Epiphany is barking the orders (much like during the day). There is a little boy who fell out of a tree who needs a neurologist and a patient on the way in with possible neurological damage (good thing we have two doctors with that specialty on the floor on this Saturday night). As Robin and Patrick bicker about who's going to take which case and Patrick barks about "where's my patient" as they wait for the ambulance, the camera pans and we see a pregnant woman approaching, a suspicious looking man wearing camouflage who seems distressed and distracted, and the above mentioned scene with Jason and Spinelli arriving plays out.

Article Author: Connie Phillips

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. …

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