Netflix Orders First Medical Procedural ‘Pulse’; Justina Machado Cast In Series From Zoe Robyn & Carlton Cuse
Grey’s Anatomy has been among Netflix’s top draws for a decade. Now the streamer is venturing into the medical procedural genre that has been a broadcast staple with its first original, Pulse. The series comes from first-time creator Zoe Robyn (The Equalizer) who serves as showrunner and executive producer alongside veteran Carlton Cuse (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, Locke and Key). Justina Machado (The Horror Of Dolores Roach) is the first series regular cast in the show, whose first two episodes will be directed and executive produced by Kate Dennis (The Handmaid’s Tale, New Amsterdam).
Like Grey’s, Pulse will be mixing medical cases and office romances. In it, while the staff of Miami’s busiest Level 1 Trauma Center navigate medical emergencies, young ER doc Dani Simms is unexpectedly promoted to Chief Resident amidst the fallout of her own provocative romantic relationship.
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Machado plays Natalie Cruz, a brilliant and politically-savvy doctor, who oversees both administration and medicine in her role as the Chair of Surgery and Emergency Medicine.
Bradley Gardner, Emma Forman and Michael Klick also executive produce the series, which is slated to begin production in March in Albuquerque.
While Netflix introduced “binging” to TV viewing with its original series featuring heavily sterilized storytelling, the streamer has been looking to broaden out the scope of its offering by introducing procedurals, including legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer, which started at CBS. It also has had a lot of success with acquired procedurals such as Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS and Suits.
This marks the first series creation and first executive producer and showrunner credit for up-and-coming TV writer Robyn who started her career on is a writer on CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 in 2017 as a staff writer, rising to co-producer before moving to another CBS/CBS Studios procedural, The Equalizer, where she has been since 2020, most recently at a producer level.
The greenlight for Pulse comes after Robyn and Cuse worked with a writers room last year to craft scripts.
Cuse recently wrote and executive produced with John Ridley Apple TV+’s Katrina limited series Five Days at Memorial. Before that he co-created and was showrunner for the first two seasons of Prime Video’s Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. His extensive showrunner/co-showrunner credits also include Netflix’s Locke & Key, A&E’s Bates Motel, FX’s The Strain, ABC’s Lost and CBS’ Nash Bridges.
Machado recently starred in the Amazon/Blumhouse series The Horror Of Dolores Roach based on the popular Spotify podcast of the same name. She previously headlined Netflix/Pop’s acclaimed One Day At a Time reboot and recently guest starred on NBC’s Lopez vs. Lopez. Machado, who will next star in the independent feature The Throwback from director Mario Garcia, is repped by D2Management, UTA and GGSSC.
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