Under the Chief review

The setup

A new nurse is working the final night of her probation with two problems: the head nurse is angling to get her fired, while the chief cannot stop looking at her. Once the overtime crowd clears, the floor goes silent, and the head nurse predicts the rookie will not make it to morning. The chief responds by claiming her. In the one empty room left, her scrubs run a size small, he approves, and he cancels a board deadline to stay. Vanessa, told to keep visitors away, cannot believe it. It ends on his offer to let her refuse.

Episode 2

It opens on the nurse's mortified apology for cursing out her boss on her final probation night, which he takes as a selling point. She insists she is nothing like Vanessa; he says that is exactly why he chose her. Outside, the gossip runs on a loop: surely he is only teaching her, she could never be his type, and they have been gone a long time. A question through the door ends it, and the nurse declines to pause.

Who's who

• The new nurse: on her last probation night, short on allies and suddenly favored by the boss
• The chief: a senior doctor who cancels meetings on a whim and asks permission only at the end
• The head nurse: certain the rookie will wash out before sunrise and eager to help it along

Verdict: 5.7 out of 10

Workplace fantasy by the numbers, competently assembled. The probation clock and the hostile head nurse give the heroine a reason to say yes and a reason to fear it, which is more motivation than most setups bother with. The chief is a type rather than a person. Episode 2 has a cute turn, recasting the first cliffhanger as an embarrassed slip of the tongue, but most of its minute goes to gossip outside a closed door and a final question through it. Competent, rarely more.

Episode guide