Pulse is an American medical drama television series created by Zoe Robyn. It premiered on Netflix on April 3, 2025, as the first Netflix original English-language medical drama.[1] The series received mixed reviews.
Pulse is a hospital drama series that follows the personal and professional lives of emergency and surgical residents at Maguire Hospital, a level-one trauma center in Miami during the race for Emergency Medicine Chief Resident. It shows the aftermath of a sexual harassment complaint while the city is hit with a hurricane and an influx of patients.[2][3]
Willa Fitzgerald as Danielle “Danny” Simms, a third-year resident in Emergency Medicine at Maguire Hospital in Miami, Harper's older sister. She has deep empathy but can be brash and impulsive. She had a romantic relationship with Xander, however, after a series of circumstances, they broke up, and she reported him to HR for sexual harassment
Colin Woodell as Xander Phillips, Chief Resident of Emergency Medicine at Maguire Hospital. He is from one of Miami’s most powerful and wealthy medical families with an influential lineage, he had a romantic relationship with Danny, however, after a series of circumstances, they broke up and he was reported to HR by Danny for sexual harassment
Jessie T. Usher as Sam Elijah, a third-year Emergency Medicine Resident, Danny’s best friend, who is ambitious and competitive
Justina Machado as Natalia Cruz, Chair of Surgery and Emergency Medicine
Jack Bannon as Tom Cole, a British Junior Surgical Resident
Daniela Nieves as Camila Perez, a third-year medical student who is very optimistic, doing her trauma rotation at the hospital
Chelsea Muirhead as Sophie Chan, a surgical intern, under Tom's training, who is willing to endure anything in her quest to become a surgeon
Jessy Yates as Harper Simms, a second-year Emergency Medicine resident and Danny's younger sister
Néstor Carbonell as Ruben Soriano, a senior general surgeon attending who is Tom's mentor and teacher
Jessica Rothe as Cass Himmelstein, a senior ER nurse, daughter of a golf pro, who is dating Tom
Arturo Del Puerto as Luis, the ER charge nurse who is beloved by his staff and he is equally protective
Ash Santos as Nia Washington, an EMT who is injured in the hurricane
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Pulse has an approval rating of 48% based on 27 critics' reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Checking off all the trendy tropes of modern medical dramas with disorganized execution, Pulse has its finger on the genre's zeitgeist but pales in comparison to its contemporaries."[8]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 48 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[9]
A review in Variety said, "Despite the sound acting, the poorly formatted narrative, an appalling depiction of sexual harassment and a few insufferable characters don’t exactly make for a pleasurable watch".[10]Time criticized the series' "underdeveloped" #MeToo-related storyline.[11]
^Pulse (Drama), Willa Fitzgerald, Colin Woodell, Jack Bannon, Genre Arts, Letter Zed, Netflix Studios, April 3, 2025, retrieved April 13, 2025{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
