I had not heard of this show until I came across this
Tumblr post, in which there's talk about John Hannah being in it, and he's now a silver fox. Which led to a comment about his co-star in The Mummy movies, Oded Fehr, is also a silver fox. The thread alone is an illustrated delight, but it also led to this
Ardeth Bay/Jonathan Carnahan fic, which is also a delight.
But I digress...
Transplant is a Canadian show (that actually gets to stay Canadian) that's now airing on NBC in the US. I watched the first two episodes
online, and set my DVR to catch the third, which I haven't watched yet.
The storyline is interesting, with Dr. Bashir “Bash” Hamed (Hamza Haq) living in Canada as a Syrian refugee, along with his younger sister. Because of the war, he's got battle tested skills in emergency medicine, but it also means he can't get his transcripts from medical school, which makes it impossible to be a doctor again. For those who managed to get out, the ones in charge don't exactly want to reward them with the means to make a living elsewhere.
Bash has been working at a Middle Eastern diner, and one relatively quiet night turns to chaos as a truck crashes into the building. This happens very early in the pilot episode, and at that point, we don't know anything about him being a doctor, and they're playing into a bit of paranoia about him possibly being up to something, which continues through much of the pilot. It's kind of uncomfortable to watch, and it should be.
He proceeds to treat people with what he has right there in the severely demolished restaurant, even though he himself is also injured, and I gotta say I had to look away for a lot of it. I don't watch many medical shows, but I've watched a few Canadian ones due to actors I like being in them, and they get a little too graphic for my tastes. Probably didn't help that I didn't feel good at the time and was thinking I'd have to go to the ER myself. Once at the hospital, he's trying to get out without being treated, reinforcing the idea that he's Up To No Good, and even the police wonder if perhaps he was the driver. No one knows he treated people, including the doctor in charge of the ER he's in, who happened to be in the restaurant and ended up with a side order of brain surgery to save his life. The doctors can tell people were treated, and think their co-worker did it, including his own surgery, before losing consciousness.
As you'd expect, All Is Revealed, and the doctor he treated is also one who didn't hire him pre-events in the pilot, so he decides to do it now. The problem is not only does he not have his original transcripts to prove what training he had, but his time working in a war zone means he improvising in ways a hospital cannot without risking patients and the abundance of legal reasons. Which means he can think outside of the box, because he doesn't know what the box even looks like. He's basically having to relearn how to be a doctor.
I like Haq's work as the lead, I always enjoy watching the aforementioned John Hannah, and Torri Higginson has a role as well. I also like Sirena Gulamgaus as Bash's young sister, Amira. The only thing that's iffy for me is the medical squick, but I can usually look away if it's really gross.
It's been renewed for a second season on CTV, which aired it from late February through May 2020, but that doesn't necessarily mean NBC will carry it if they're not happy with the ratings on their network. Even if it doesn't meet their expectations, they might still air the second season if COVID-19 is still a production issue and they need something.