There are few medical dramas that show off the real reason doctors are needed. Brilliant Minds did that bringing us a story of a doctor who sees more than patients.
Dr. Oliver Wolf, played by Zachary Quinto, is based on the real Dr. Oliver Sacks. The series is based on Dr. Sacks’s work, a man who treated the people and not the symptoms. Some of this was simply due to his own condition of face blindness, which is something our lead character has.
I talked with Michael Grassi about the creation of this series, including finding the rare and wild medical conditions and why this series is so important right now.
Why Brilliant Minds was the show to create
Hidden Remote: Brilliant Minds quickly became my favorite new show of the year because it’s so needed right now. Why did you decide that this was the series you had to create?
Michael Grassi: There were so many things about Brilliant Minds that made it a story I needed to tell. I think when I first started developing the show and talking to our partners at NBC and Warner Bros., I think one of the main things that we all really agreed on was that we wanted to make a show in which the resounding message was hope. We needed more hope than ever.
Another thing that we always talked about was that we wanted audiences to step away from each episode feeling good. Something I’ve gotten feedback-wise is that people just feel good after watching an episode. I think that’s a big part of why we wanted to make the show.
And then the thing too was just having a doctor on screen that genuinely cared about his patients and genuinely listened to them and went above and beyond. He treated them in a way we would all watt be treated within our medical system, which we know has it’s challenges and is broken in many ways.
I was also really excited to have a gay character at the center of a big network medical drama that’s also a hero. He’s a son, a best friend, and all these things, and he has so many things going on. The fact he’s gay is not necessarily the most interesting thing about him. It’s interesting, but not everything.
HR: I very quickly rooted for Nichols and Wolf to get together! They had so much chemistry.
MG: I love that you honed in on that. Zach [Levi] and Teddy [Sears] are so good. They just find all these little moments to make their relationship feel so lived in and so real. Even when we had conflict with them, there were little looks. When we brought them together, they just sort of find so many genuine moments. I love them together.
HR: I love that you brought conflict up, because I wanted to ask about that. So many other TV shows will have that one conflict and then the relationship is over. Life isn’t like that. Was it important for you to show the realism of conflict and working through it?
MG: 100%. One of the big these of our show in general for our patients is adaptation, but also for our doctors. I think putting them in situations where they disagree—and they can disagree—is part of what our show is about.
I think we’re living in a time when people will have different opinions and therefore cannot coexist, but I don’t think that’s the case on our show. I think people can have opposing views and opposing opinions on what’s best for a patient or themselves, but they can still find a way to work together and move forward together. I think that’s what makes them the sort of couple that people are rooting for. They’ve had conflict, and they’ve been able to find a path forward through it.
Bringing in the story of John Doe and the right to die in Brilliant Minds
HR: One of the conflicts was about John Doe. You broke me with this storyline, but in such a good way. Why did you choose to go the route you did with John Doe getting a voice just to ask to die? Most others would have given this patient a rehabilitation storyline.
MG: We talked about that a lot in our writer’s room. One of the things one of our doctors, Daniela Lamas, was that if we had brought him back to life completely and he was suddenly sort of regaining movement and that sort of thing, it’s very very very rare, and it doesn’t do justice to a lot of real patients and real families that are dealing with these kinds of situations.
At the end of the day, the story we really wanted to tell was how do we give patients agency in their own care? And to tell a story where we show this kind of end of life, which is a story about stopping machines, is not something that we get to see on television very often. But to tell it and to make it beautiful and also very real medicine, I think is a service to patients and to families that are dealing with these situations everywhere.
What was really interesting to me and all of us in the writers room as we were telling this story was to see Oliver Wolf, someone who is determined to save everyone, having to deal with helping someone find their path that is not one he necessarily agrees with. What does it look like when our doctors have different views?
They can debate this stuff in a way that feels like they can have different points of view on the medicine, but also find a path forward that is best for the patient. I think it’s a really important storyline, and I’m very proud that it’s out there.
HR: You brought in some really unique medical diagnoses like mirror-touch synesthesia and CTE. Maple syrup urine was the one that got me! Where did you find these disorders, and why did you bring them into the series?
MG: I think a big part of the fun of Brilliant Minds, is that it’s partly medical mystery. Finding these unusual conditions that are rare is part of what makes us lean in. It’s such a big part of what Oliver Sacks dedicated his life to. These ailments are scary and strange. How do you write about them or tell stories about people with them that are relatable?
Daniela Lamas brought us maple syrup urine syndrome, and I’m very grateful for that contribution. But when I first started developing this show, I did a deep dive on all things Oliver Sacks and all things neurological illnesses.
One of the things that was so fascinating to me was mirror-touch, and something that made me lean into that was what it would be like to be a doctor who has to feel everything that the patients are feeling at all times. Is that something that you can overcome? It’s really interesting to see how Van deals with it and how he has his coping mechanisms, like finding an anchor. What’s it like when something that’s perceived as a disadvantage is something that can serve him and help him as a doctor?
There are many more mysterious ailments that we want to tackle in upcoming seasons.
Brilliant Minds airs its two-episode season finale on Monday, Jan. 6 starting at 9/8c on NBC.
Stay up to date with the latest TV news and more with Hidden Remote.