"Pulse" Trailer: Netflix’s New Medical Drama Takes Emergency Room Chaos to a Whole New Level, Starring Strange Darling's Willa Fitzgerald

Willa Fitzgerald leads a trauma team battling life-or-death cases—while a hurricane bears down on Miami.

Medical shows are a dime a dozen, and it seems like every other show these days delves into the mechanics of the emergency trauma unit. But that doesn’t stop their popularity. And it doesn’t stop TV executives from greenlighting numerous medical shows each year. Viewers just can’t seem to get enough of the drama that unfolds in these tense, life-or-death situations where a person’s life, quite literally, hangs in the balance. There’s something inherently dramatic about that tension—the resolute decisions doctors have to make, often with very little time to come up with a correct judgment, that draws TV watchers in every time.

And we hate to admit it, but you can count us as among the countless watchers who just love seeing fake doctors scream, “Quick! Give me 10 cc of epinephrine! STAT!” or “Stay in there, guy! We just need to jumpstart your heart with this here defibrillator! Clear!"

Netflix's new medical procedural show, Pulse, has that going for it. It has all the elements you'd come to expect from a show like this: stress-inducing situations, split-second medical decisions, and patients on the brink.

But this new series isn’t just another typical E.R.-style drama. Okay, yeah, we’re sure those familiar medical tropes will certainly be there, but it does feature two key factors that set it apart from the rest of the pack.

For one: actress Willa Fitzgerald! Come on! Who didn’t love her in last year’s breakout horror thriller Strange Darling? With that dynamically devilish performance, Fitzgerald proved she was a talent ready to break out in a big way.

And now, in this upcoming Netflix show Pulse, Fitzgerald is leading the ensemble cast as Dr. Danny Simms, a third-year resident who has just been appointed as the new chief resident of Miami’s busiest Level 1 Trauma Center—the place where all of the most critically injured emergency patients are rushed in, sometimes all at once.

The other key factor? Well, apparently, the show will not only feature an overly exhausted and overworked medical team dealing with the typical workplace dynamics and office politics as they try to save as many lives as they can, but they must also navigate the chaos of a horrific hurricane heading straight toward the city.

A damn hurricane in Miami—who would’ve ever thought?

Now George Clooney and Anthony Edwards didn't have those conditions to worry about on “E.R.”—well, at least, not until around season 3 or 4, anyway.

So, in addition to the usual medical chaos, you can expect plenty of power outages, flooded hallways, emergency evacuations, and desperate life-or-death decisions in this new Netflix series created by Zoe Robyn (Hawaii Five-0), who also serves as co-showrunner alongside veteran executive producer Carlton Cuse (Lost, Bates Motel, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan).

Joining Fitzgerald as part of the medical staff in the show are Colin Woodell (The Continental: From the World of John Wick), Jack Bannon (Pennyworth), Jessie T. Usher (The Boys), Chelsea Muirhead (Warrior), Daniela Nieves (Vampire Academy), Jessy Yates (Law & Order SVU), Justina Machado (One Day at a Time), Néstor Carbonell (Lost), Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), and many more.

Pulse is due to premiere on Netflix, April 3rd. Watch the newly-released trailer, above, and pray you never have to be admitted to the emergency room while a Category 3 hurricane turns your hospital bed into a floating device.

Here’s the show’s official synopsis:

As a hurricane barrels towards Miami’s busiest Level 1 Trauma Center, third-year resident Dr. Danny Simms (Willa Fitzgerald) is unexpectedly thrust into a promotion when beloved Chief Resident Dr. Xander Phillips (Colin Woodell) is suspended. Amid the worsening storm and an onslaught of trauma cases, the hospital goes into lockdown, and Danny and Phillips must find a way to work together - even as the bombshell details of a complicated and illicit romance between them begin to spill out. The rest of the ER is left to process the fallout of their relationship while balancing their own challenges, both personal and professional, as they work under the pressure of life-or-death stakes. Because for this tight-knit group of doctors, saving their patients’ lives is often less complicated than living their own.