This year, crime dramas aren’t the only genre dominating the airwaves: Medical dramas are creating waves as well. They’ve always been popular, thanks medical drama ER, but conventional. Enter newer shows, like those we’ll be talking about here, and the medical drama genre has been altered from a mere medical procedural and reinvented to include more realistic perspectives, classic fictional characters, and their own brand of uniqueness. While we’ve been exposed to plenty of medical dramas this century, 2025 isn’t even half over with, and we’ve already seen some of the most unforgettable medical shows in years, including The Pitt.
One of the top shows of 2025, and Max’s most-watched original title globally, The Pitt is the first medical drama to provide us with a truly realistic look at the functioning of an emergency room and those who run it (i.e., doctors and nurses) and those who control it (i.e., the administrators). It examines the high-stakes intensity and challenges healthcare workers face in today’s America, as seen through the lens of working front-line heroes.
Season 1 stretches out over 15 episodes and follows Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) in real time through one 15-hour shift as the head doctor at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room, which is severely underfunded and understaffed. Each episode represents one hour of the grueling schedule. As he leads his staff and a group of new residents through a shift from hell, he’s also secretly battling his own trauma and post-traumatic stress from the loss of his mentor during Covid and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Still, he keeps it together and does what he’s best at: saving lives.
The Pitt is intense, emotional, fast-paced, and so well-written and performed, you’ll forget you’re watching a work of fiction. Our characters are complex, our stories are complex, and this shift is complex. Look for this one to win an Emmy.
The Pitt isn’t the only medical show making waves this year, though. Here are six more of the best medical dramas streaming in 2025.
1. Pulse
This medical procedural is a first for Netflix, and while it is a medical drama operating more on the soapy side at first, it unfolds throughout the season and starts focusing more on hospital emergencies.
Pulse follows third-year resident Dr. Danielle “Danny” Simms (Willa Fitzgerald)—flawed and fallible—as she’s unexpectedly promoted to chief resident at Maguire Hospital in Miami after the doctor who held the title, Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell), is suspended. Now, the two must find a way to work together, even as bombshell revelations about their secret romance come to light and explode around their co-workers. The pair’s connection is the reported nucleus of the show. Oh, and did I mention the first half of the series takes place during a huge hurricane? No pressure, though.
Where The Pitt features the superheroes that work the front lines, Pulse focuses on the real people who must navigate relatable issues of working together in a pressure cooker as relationships form and disintegrate.
Stream It On: Netflix
2. St. Denis Medical
Okay, so it’s not a drama but a sitcom… well, it’s more of a mockumentary sitcom. Its focus is medical, though, and it provides just as much drama as it does comedy. St. Denis Medical follows the overworked doctors and nurses working at the titular underfunded Oregon hospital, trying their best to treat patients while keeping their own sanity in check.
Devoted nurse Alex (Allison Tolman) has just been promoted to Supervising Nurse in the ER, working alongside an eclectic staff. Her boss, Joyce (Wendy McLendon-Covey), strives to turn the hospital into an international medical destination while Dr. Ron (David Alan Grier) has seen it all, done it all, and is 100% over it all. They also must work around Dr. Bruce, a talented but overly arrogant, oblivious trauma surgeon, who operates with a world-class god complex and a complete lack of awareness that will have you rolling your eyes and laughing out loud. They’re all doing their best to keep their wits about them and not lose their patience in a hospital full of patients, all while caring for each other like a family.
Dr. Ron’s dry, complacent attitude is one of the funniest things about the show, and we all know how funny McLendon-Covey is, thanks to her time on hit shows like Reno: 911 and The Goldbergs. St. Denis Medical is a comical, heartwarming, feel-good medical show that you’ll look forward to watching.
Stream It On: Peacock
3. The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call
Although it’s Korean, The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call is one foreign medical drama you should be watching. There are few skilled trauma surgeons in Korea and even fewer of them who do rebelesque things like ride a motorcycle into an active war zone, carrying a backpack full of blood and supplies.
Enter war-seasoned surgeon and “trauma god” Baek Kang-hyeok (Ju Ji-hoon), who is hired to fix a struggling trauma unit inside of a major university hospital. He isn’t very well received thanks to his bluntness and unconventional methods, which go unappreciated. See, sadly enough (and quite horrifying), most of the doctors at Hankuk National University have had little to no trauma training, so of course they wouldn’t appreciate Hang-hyeok’s techniques. However, as he whips them into the shape of a top-notch trauma unit, he slowly wins over the team and finds his place amongst them.
The series focuses on the necessity of quick, effective trauma care, especially in a system where resources and funding are often prioritized over patient wellbeing. Featuring realistic medical cases, including those involving severe injuries and critical situations to highlight the skill and dedication of a trauma team, The Trauma Code explores the tension between the team’s desire to save lives and the hospital’s financial priorities, which almost always conflict with patient care.
Stream It On: Netflix
4. Call the Midwife
This British period medical drama is colorful and quite bingeworthy. Adapted from the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife offers an in-depth look at midwifery and family in London’s East End in the 1950s all the way to the early 1970s.
The series follows newly qualified midwife Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine), who is very naïve and unused to the harsh conditions of the borough, as she joins an eccentric, lovable community of nuns who are nurses at Nonnatus House. She thought she was being sent to a small, private hospital and never imagined she’d find herself at a convent. It’s an adjustment for her, being around the formidable Sisters, but Jenny gradually finds her way and develops lasting relationships with some of the nurses. However, she can’t help but be drawn into the lives and homes of the women she treats, who all live in utter poverty.
Call the Midwife offers up unique subject matter in the medical drama genre, focusing solely on women and midwifery, which is something we don’t get with other medical dramas. Sure, we see women giving birth but not with a midwife, and not through the kind of experience midwifery offers. Additionally, the show is gritty but funny, the plotlines are absorbing, and the acting is excellent. With over 120 episodes spread across 14 seasons, there’s plenty here for you to binge!
5. Watson
Morris Chestnut stars as Dr. John Watson in this medical drama that picks up six months after the death of his friend and partner Sherlock Holmes at the hands of Moriarty (Randall Park). Watson follows Chestnut as he resumes his career and opens the Holmes Clinic in Pittsburgh. As the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders, Watson only sees patients with strange, unidentifiable issues. However, he must soon face his past when evidence surfaces indicating that Moriarty is still alive, meaning he and Watson are set to write their own chapter of this fascinating story that has captivated audiences for more than a century.
Watson’s foundation is a solid investigative spine, serving as a modern version of one of history’s greatest detectives as he turns his attention from solving crimes to solving medical mysteries, conundrums, and crises. The show is a light-hearted, easy view compared to those complex medical dramas that leave us in the moment, emotions running high, and completely engrossed in the story. If you watched and loved House, chances are Watson is right up your alley.
Stream It On: Paramount+
6. Berlin ER
As we start to see more content filtering in from other countries, streaming giants are picking up some of the best, and Berlin ER is one of those. This medical drama that lodges you in deep in the heart of emotional depth to ensure a certain level of realism, and it works.
Berlin ER is a new German-language series that follows Dr. Parker (Haley Louise Jones) as she seeks a fresh start in Berlin after facing personal and professional turmoil in Munich. She’s talented but troubled, and when thrust into the chaotic environment of one of the city’s most overcrowded emergency rooms, she must face intense medical cases, demanding, resistant colleagues, and her own inner demons.
This gritty, graphic medical drama is both engaging and endearing, and it has received critical acclaim for unmasking the realities of a chaotic emergency room while drawing attention to the interplay between relentless pace and methodical control. Featuring an unsettling narrative arc, each episodic incident cascades into the next to create a procession of emergencies that mirror the disarray within the institution itself. Don’t let the fact that it’s German deter you: Berlin ER is available dubbed in English and with closed captions.
Stream It On: Apple TV+