Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Pulse’ is a medical drama series that takes place at the Maguire Medical Center in Miami and focuses on the challenges faced by the team of doctors who have to maintain their professional composure while dealing with personal challenges. The main focus is on Danny Simms, a third-year resident who is on track to become Chief Resident but has stirred up trouble by making a sexual harassment complaint against her boss, Xander Phillips, with whom she has a complicated relationship. Created by Zoe Robyn, the series presents a tense portrayal of what it means to be a doctor and how the pressure of one’s professional life can crumble their personal one.
Pulse’s Fictional Premise Examines Complex Professional Relationships
‘Pulse’ is a work of fiction that imagines the personal and professional struggles of the residents who give their blood and sweat to the place. While the hospital and their profession as doctors play an integral role in the story, for the creators of the show, it had always been about the characters and the relationships between them. Carlton Cuse, who serves as the co-showrunner with Zoe Robyn, revealed that they wanted to explore the importance of a person’s co-workers in their life, especially when they spend most of their time in the confines of their workspace. Cuse wanted to dive into the complications that can arise when one forgets to draw a line between the private and professional.
A major point that Cuse and Robyn wanted to put forward was the fallibility of the characters. They did not want to represent the doctors as superheroes who are always there to save the day and can do no wrong for the patients. Instead, their intent was to keep the characters deeply human and show how much their individual struggles can reflect on their work and, sometimes, permanently impact the lives of their patients. Their ambitions, ideals, and feelings can easily get in the way, and that’s what makes them all the more relatable.
Danny Simms and Her Conflict Sits at the Heart of Pulse’s Story
Before the creators of the Netflix series decided to set the story in the tense environment of a hospital, they created the fictional character of Danny Simms and charted out her relationship with her boss, Xander Phillips. They did not look towards any particular doctor or medical professional to sketch her out, but they did know that her relationships and decisions would become the crux of the story and drive the narrative. Because so much of the drama focuses on Danny and Xander’s relationship, the show’s creators wanted to portray both of them as realistically as possible. Instead of making one of them out to be a villain and the other a hero, they explored the nature of both characters in the context of their starkly different backgrounds and honed in on these differences that eventually sow the seeds of conflict between them.
The most important thing was to put both of them face to face with the consequences of their actions, especially circling around the gray area of the situation they landed themselves in. At the same time, the writers also made a point to focus on the good things about their relationship rather than just highlighting the bad parts. At the same time, they also wanted to present a realistic response to the news about their conflict. The idea was to show how an outsider, who doesn’t know anything about what really happened between them, might see them, especially Danny, after the news of the complaint comes to light.
At the end of the day, Cuse and Robyn intended to present a story that could warm people’s hearts while also giving them something to reflect upon. Apart from focusing on the mess of professional relationships and the dirty game of ambition, they also wanted to shine a light on the importance of friendships that eventually have your back, no matter what. Even with all the high-stakes situations and the constant pressure faced by the characters, the idea was to make it a wholesome watch for the audience that would allow them to connect with the characters and empathize with them despite their faults and, above all, to enjoy the ups and downs of the story and have fun watching the show.
Read More: Where is Netflix’s Pulse Filmed?
