Over the past few decades, it has been widely agreed that the world is in the middle of a golden age for television. While there is no denying that many of the best drama series ever produced have come out during the last several years, however, sitcoms seem to have taken a back seat in a major way of late. As a result, it can be very hard for viewers to know which comedy series they should be watching.
Fortunately, the NBC sitcom St. Denis Medical is so great that it shouldn't be flying under the radar. Before that, the same network also produced one of the most underrated sitcoms from the last several years, Superstore. Funnily enough, both of those shows involved Josh Lawson and the Mortal Kombat actor has recently compared his St. Denis Medical and Superstore roles.
Josh Lawson explained his St. Denis Medical character is much more positive than his Superstore one
Between 2015 and 2018, Josh Lawson portrayed the self-obsessed pharmacist Tate Staskiewicz in 9 episodes of Superstore. After leaving that show, Josh portrayed Kano in the modern Mortal Kombat movie adaptation and then joined St. Denis Medical's cast as Dr. Bruce. At first glance, Dr. Bruce and Tate's arrogant facade may make viewers believe that the characters are virtually the same. However, the Superstore and St. Denis Medical characters are different in a pivotal way that Josh explained.
"I think Bruce is a very positive person. If you take Tate, who I played in Superstore, in some ways, they share something which is a bit of a god complex, right? They definitely have this overabundance of ego. But where they're different is Tate is quite rage driven. He's quite angry being stuck in this job. Bruce is not that at all. In fact, Bruce is quite blissful and nothing's a problem, because Bruce is here! I find that is quite liberating, actually, that Bruce is like, 'Why would anyone have a problem with anything? I'm here and I can solve everything.' And in some ways, you don't mind spending too much time with him, because of that deluded positivity."
To Josh's point, many of his scenes from Superstore featured Tate the pharmacist spinning out and complaining about some aspects of his job. Even when Tate would be busy boasting in one way or another, his remarks would often return to the theme of his frustrations that someone as great as him was stuck in a job that forced him to deal with retail customers.
On the other hand, St. Denis Medical's Dr. Bruce always seems to delight in being able to ride in and save patients from their maladies. Sure, Dr. Bruce prefers to speak at his patients and then ignore their remarks, but he seems very happy with the life he has built for himself.