Throughout TV’s long history, the medical drama has occupied a somewhat unique place in the landscape. Medical shows are often some of the most reliable on TV precisely because there’s so much drama built in to working in a hospital.
Personally, I’ve found the medical drama to be deeply comforting for years, even if I have no desire to be a doctor myself. Understanding the stress of people in the healthcare profession is fascinating in and of itself.
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These shows, several of which were awards juggernauts, are the best medical shows ever made. While many of them are dramas, there are also a couple of comedies that manage to squeeze their way onto the list.
ER (1994)
15 Seasons
Genre
Drama
Stars
Maura Tierney, Parminder Nagra, Linda Cardellini
Created by
Michael Crichton
Watch on Hulu
The show that, in many ways, set the template for every medical show that came after it, ER is set in a Chicago emergency room, and follows its nurses and doctors as they deal with the stress of working in emergency medicine. Featuring a cast that at times included George Clooney, Juliana Marguiles, and even John Stamos, ER is one of the great dramas in TV history, in part because it knew how to balance the dedication these doctors show to the jobs to the shambles that often defined their personal lives.
The Pitt (2025)
1 Season
Genre
Drama
Stars
Noah Wyle, Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball
Created by
R. Scott Gemmill
Watch on max
Is The Pitt a sort of sideways sequel to ER? Absolutely. Does it rule anyway? You bet. Told in real-time over the course of a single shift at a Pittsburgh emergency room, The Pitt is the kind of old-fashioned TV we don’t see anymore, only with more gore and cussing. The Pitt is, above all else, competence porn, a show about people trying their best to help as many people as possible inside of a broken system in a broken country. Filled with a cast of great actors, many of whom are likely to be unfamiliar to you, The Pitt seems designed to run for years, and we hope it does.
Scrubs (2001)
9 Seasons
Genre
Comedy
Stars
Zach Braff, Donald Faison, John C. McGinley
Created by
Bill Lawrence
Watch on Hulu
A show that gets at both the malaise and the silliness of life in a hospital, Scrubs is one of the few hospital comedies that has managed to find the right balance in tones. The series, which follows a group of young interns as they rise up the ranks of the hospital, is an often moving and even more frequently hilarious examination of all the ways that life as a doctor can be almost impossible. The frequent daydreams of the show’s central characters helped earn this series its reputation, but just as crucial are the episodes that leave you absolutely gutted.
Grey’s Anatomy (2005)
21 Seasons
Genre
Drama
Stars
Ellen Pompeo, Chandra Wilson, James Pickens Jr.
Created by
Shonda Rhimes
Watch on Netflix
One of the longest-running medical dramas in the history of television, Grey’s Anatomy took the template laid out by ER and made its version of a hospital drama even more about the personal lives of its characters. The show has, quite evidently, had its ups and downs over the course of more than 20 years on the air, but few things are better than the show’s first few seasons, when Meredith Grey was learning the ropes even as she was falling for one of the doctors she worked with. It’s soapy, it’s sometimes silly, and even then, it remains one of the most watchable things on TV.
House (2004)
8 Seasons
Genre
Drama, Mystery, Comedy
Stars
Hugh Laurie, Robert Sean Leonard, Omar Epps
Created by
David Shore
Watch on Apple TV+
A riff on Sherlock Holmes set in a hospital, House tells the story of a curmudgeonly doctor who specializes in cases that no one else can figure out. As he works with his team, they take on tough case after tough case, and come to unconventional conclusions about their patients. Anchored by a brilliant central performance from Hugh Laurie, House had its ups and downs over the course of its eight-season run. At its best, though, House could be one of the best shows on TV, and that’s because it was willing to take risks at basically every turn.
M*A*S*H (1972)
11 Seasons
Genre
War & Politics, Drama, Comedy
Stars
Alan Alda, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan
Created by
Larry Gelbart
Watch on Hulu
It’s easy to forget because it’s not set in a hospital, but MASH is really a medical comedy. The show follows medics working in Korea during the Korean War, and the entire series is something of a proxy for what it was like to serve in Vietnam. Because the show focuses on a medical unit, though, it doesn’t have to address many of the most severe traumas of the war. Even so, the series still knew how to blend the silly with the serious, and its series finale will likely hold the record for most-watched TV episode in history until the end of time.
The Knick (2014)
2 Seasons
Genre
Drama
Stars
Clive Owen, André Holland, Jeremy Bobb
Created by
Jack Amiel, Michael Begler
Watch on max
The rare medical show set in an era before modern medicine, The Knick tells the story of a pair of innovative doctors operating in New York City in an era before antibiotics existed. Part of the show’s brilliance comes from the way it uses its characters’ limited medical knowledge to its advantage. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Steven Soderbergh directed every episode of the series, and seems to love immersing his viewers in this century-old version of New York City.
St. Elsewhere (1982)
6 Seasons
Genre
Drama
Stars
William Daniels, Norman Lloyd, Ronny Cox
Created by
Joshua Brand, John Masius, John Falsey, Mark Tinker
Watch on Hulu
A show that was designed to be more realistic than much of what was on TV at the time, St. Elsewhere is less about medical miracles than the everyday realities of being a doctor in a Boston hospital. St. Elsewhere was especially concerned with the systems behind hospitals and the way American medicine fails both its physicians and the people who are looking for help. Although it could be clever, St. Elsewhere‘s defining tone was cynical solemnity about a system that, all these years later, still isn’t working any better than it did then.
