TV Review - Transplant (2020)

Ever since COVID-19 shutdown Hollywood, new TV shows on broadcast networks have been not so new. This series is from Canada. Back in February, this series aired on CTV, Canada's largest terrestrial network. When NBC needed content to fill its fall schedule, it bought this series. It's a bit of a progressive step forward because it's rare for a broadcast network to do a series that centers around a Muslim character and in fact has that Muslim as the titular and lead character. Actually, of all the examples that come to mind where American TV shows have featured a Muslim character in a significant, if not leading role, they have all been either on cable TV or Internet streaming services.

HBO's Oz (1997) gave us a Black Muslim who was in prison, but he fought for prisoner rights. Yes, the character was a criminal, but he was trying to reform. He was essentially a good, normal guy. In a lot of cop shows or even shows about FBI agents or those that deal with terrorism, the only Muslim characters where usually terrorists. Showtime's Sleeper Cell (2005) and Homeland (2011) are such examples. FX's Tyrant (2014) tried to rectify the trope of only having Muslim characters as terrorists, but that show was guilty of whitewashing where the focus was more on a white character in a Muslim country. Netflix's Master of None (2017) gave us a Muslim character who was a person of color, but he wasn't a person of faith or a practicing Muslim. Hulu's Ramy (2019) was the first, scripted program to give us a practicing Muslim who wasn't a terrorist but just a man living a normal, daily life. This is putting aside reality programs like TLC's All-American Muslim and Bravo's Shahs of Sunset (2012). Now, more and more shows are premiering with that same kind of normal representation, but still it's non-broadcast TV shows like Apple TV+'s Little America (2019), so the presence of this series is significant.

Hamza Haq (The Indian Detective and This Life) stars as Bashir Hamed, a Syrian immigrant who is now living in Toronto. He starts out working as a line cook in a tiny restaurant. He applies to work at a prestigious hospital as a trauma doctor in the emergency room. The first episode answers the question as to why a line cook would think to apply as an ER doctor. He surprises and defies expectations, as well as possible stereotypes, proving himself to be an incredible physician. Obviously, one wants the protagonist in a medical drama to be the best in his field, and this series very much props up Bashir as a hero. Unfortunately, he's almost too perfect and too much on a pedestal, which in a lot of ways saps the series of its drama.

Created by Joseph Kay, this series is very much suffering from the trope and myth of the model minority. Often this myth is applied to East Asian people, such as Chinese and Japanese people or those similar. Yet, that myth can and has been applied to other Asian people, such as those from India or nearby countries. Some might see this myth as being complimentary, but the myth can have deleterious effects because it reinforces certain bigotries or racial views. In terms of conversations about immigration, it also reinforces this idea that a person's value is determined exclusively on what they can do for white people and not simply because human life is valuable regardless of a person's vocation or job skills.

Obviously, any person no matter where they originate should contribute to society through some kind of vocation or job skill, but the character here is held up on such a pedestal and he is only able to exist if he's beyond the best and he has almost super-human skills. The opening scene has him treating a triage situation with multiple victims all by himself and even performing life-saving skills without proper tools in the dark, barely able to see and injured himself. Not only is he a veritable super-hero but he also is the nicest and sweetest person ever. He's practically perfect in every way. Even in the best medial dramas ever put to TV, such as NBC's ER (1994), the doctors aren't that incredible. Yes, that series was over 25 years ago, but even medical dramas of the past few years will give their protagonists some kind of flaw, which gave them somewhere to go. Dramatically speaking, this series has no where to go.

The series could be used as a bridge to explore other stories, but, as of the first, five episodes, the other characters and their possible stories don't engage all that well. I was never moved by any of them as I was the characters in just that first episode of ER. Arguably, I haven't been moved by any new medical drama in the past decade. Yet, I continue to like a series like ABC's General Hospital.

Rated TV-14.
Running Time: 1 hr.
Tuesdays at 10 PM on NBC.