Night Shift takes place in the same hospital as its predecessor. You'll see a lot of the same cast and some new faces as well. It is explained that two of the doctors from the regular show, Dr. Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) and Dr. Peter Drake (Jason Thompson) were "sentenced" to the night shift for performing a surgery for free. Apparently, the administration frowns highly upon that. Indeed the administration frowns on anything that isn't charging the patients outrageous prices. One of the main underlying plots of the series involves the impending takeover by the HMO. Those HMO guys are really sneaky and underhanded.
Then there's also Robin's ex, Jason Morgan (Steve Burton). The first episode, he brings in Damien Spinelli (Bradford Anderson) for a gunshot wound to his foot. Somehow they both are stars in the show and appear just about every episode. Jason Morgan is the strong, silent type. He doesn't say much, but he saves the day a lot. Spinelli is a very annoying guy, but he's at least interesting. He keeps showing up because he's in love with one of the student nurses, Jolene Crowell (Amanda Baker). She's one of three women trying to finish up nursing school doing their internship at General Hospital. They work under the amazing Nurse Epiphany Johnson (Sonya Eddy). Epiphany cracks a whip and everybody jumps, including the chief. Everyone jumps except the janitor, Toussaint Dubois (Billy Dee Williams). Epiphany is quite nice to Toussaint.
There are quite a few more characters that I just don't have the space to go into here, including a drug addict anesthesiologist, a sex addict gynecologist, a traitor working for the HMO hiding among the staff, a heart surgeon who is the most perfect man I have ever seen, and many more. Did I mention that just about every single one of the men in this show are hot, seriously hot.
The only bonus feature included on the DVD is On the Set at Night Shift. It's pretty interesting to watch, but I would really have liked some outtakes or bloopers because I would bet they've got some funny ones!
To tell you the truth, I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started watching General Hospital: Night Shift. I was worried that having never seen General Hospital, I would be confused with what was going on. Honestly though, they do a pretty good job of making sure that you don't have to be already familiar with the characters to keep up with the story. I'm sure that it might have helped some to know them in advance, but you really don't have to. If you're a fan of Grey's Anatomy or any of the shows similar to it, I would recommend you go pick up General Hospital: Night Shift. It's not the world's most addictive show, but it will keep you going. Now we're just wondering how long until Season 2 so we can find out what happened, because they ended the season on a huge cliff hanger!
