If you happened to see the premiere of the Showtime series "Nurse Jackie" back in June, you'll be at least a little bit shocked when you watch the premiere of NBC's "Mercy" next week.
Shocked by the similarities, that is.
They're both shows about nurses, so some similarities are to be expected. But this almost seems beyond coincidental:
Nurse Jackie (Edie Falco) is a super-good nurse who is, nonetheless, messed up by her drug problems; nurse Veronica (Taylor Schilling) in "Mercy" is a super-good nurse who is, nonetheless, messed up by her tour of duty in Iraq.
Both Jackie and Veronica have strong personalities and they use them to bulldoze people.
Both Jackie and Veronica are married; both are having affairs with someone who works at the same hospital.
Both shows feature a young, naive, neophyte nurse who wears brightly colored scrubs in childish patterns.
Both shows feature a token male nurse — and, in both cases, he's gay.
In the pilot episodes of both shows, Jackie and Veronica (who know more about doctoring than the doctors) are each concerned about a patient who comes in with a head injury. They both make suggestions to their respective doctor (who is younger than they are) about how the patient should be treated.
The doctor ignores them, and the patient dies. So Jackie and Veronica each dress down the doctors.
This is not to suggest that one show copied the other — both were in development long before "Nurse Jackie" debuted. But, again, the similarity in that plotline alone seems beyond coincidental.
Executive producer Gail Berman (who used to be Fox's top programmer) was quick to point out that the nurses on "Mercy" are considerably younger than "Nurse Jackie." And that shows like "ER" and "Chicago Hope" co-existed, as do "Grey's Anatomy" and "House."
"This is the way it works. You're looking for compelling character, good storytelling — actually, I think incredible storytelling — great drama," Berman said. "So I think it's very possible to do both, and I'm really not concerned with the overlap."
Executive producer Lloyd Braun (who used to ABC's top programmer) recalled that when that network was pitched "Grey's Anatomy," it followed a string of failed medical dramas on ABC. And a bunch more on other networks.
"Nothing worked. Except 'ER' was working," Braun said. "But it got to the point where, when we were developing 'Grey's Anatomy,' to be perfectly honest, there were times where I was, like, 'I cannot believe we're developing another medical show.'
When it came time to set the schedule that season, "Grey's Anatomy" was the last show Braun and then-ABC Entertainment president Susan Lyne ordered. "We were dragging our feet about picking up 'Grey's' even though we loved it because it was, like, 'We can't possibly put another medical show on the air,'" he said.
And they only did so because a couple of other ABC execs convinced them "Grey's" was different.
"When we read 'Mercy,' we had all those concerns about we knew there were other nurse shows being developed," Braun said. "And we certainly knew there was no shortage of medical shows, but there was a freshness and a tone to this show and an exploration of characters that was different than what we had seen. And at the end of the day, I really think that's what the audience cares about."
He's right that that's what the audience wants. But "Mercy" is about as fresh as stale bread. There's nothing here we haven't seen before, and there's absolutely nothing surprising in the first hour of the show (which premieres Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. on Ch. 5).
The characters in "Mercy" seem like TV versions of real people. In other words, they don't seem real at all.
And there's not a plotline in the pilot that doesn't telegraph where it's going. And that was even before NBC ran umpteen commercials that give away plot developments in that opening hour.
"Nurse Jackie" manages to take a familiar format and create characters that ring true and are engaging.
"Mercy" does not.
And that is the biggest difference in two shows that, on the surface, seem so similar.
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com