Brilliant Minds creator, showrunner and executive producer Michael Grassi has a long resume when it comes to TV shows, but his latest on NBC has the Degrassi alum exploring the world of medical dramas — led by an out gay character.
Starring Zachary Quinto (read GLAAD’s interview with him), Brilliant Minds follows Dr. Oliver Wolf who is based on the real-life Dr. Oliver Sacks. His work was the basis for the Penny Marshall-directed 1990 movie Awakenings starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams but beyond that, there haven’t been many mainstream series or films based on the doctor.
In Brilliant Minds, the eccentric and what some might call unorthodox neurologist works with his team of interns as they explore the complexities of the human mind while dealing with their own relationships and mental health. The series also stars Tamberla Perry, Ashleigh LaThrop, Alex MacNicoll, Aury Krebs, Spence Moore II, Teddy Sears, and Donna Murphy.
In a recent interview with GLAAD, Grassi said that he and the writers room worked with real-life doctors to dramatize real-life medical cases. “Not only is it inspired by Oliver Sacks and his real life, it’s also inspired by his medical cases or medical cases he wrote about,” said Peabody Award-winning and GLAAD Media Award nominee Grassi.
The second episode is about a disembodied woman which was a real life Oliver Sacks case and episode three is a mixture of a few of his cases. There is also an episode where the bride killed her husband which was also inspired by a real Sacks case.
In episode seven titled “The Man, which airs on November 11, we are introduced to a John Doe patient who is in a coma. Dr. Wolf finds a way for this patient to communicate with visitors, himself, and his interns. As the story unfolds, we start to learn more about the patient, Chechnya, and its cruel treatment of LGBTQ people.
Read the full interview with Grassi below:
What do you think Brilliant Minds brings to the world of TV medical dramas?
I’ve always loved medical dramas. I remember growing up watching ER with my mom and being riveted. I started thinking, “Okay, what would a medical drama I create look and feel like?”. I was lucky to have a framework of Oliver Sacks and his real life cases and also his life story, which was so compelling and so interesting. He really dedicated his life to destigmatizing mental illness. How do I make it entertaining, cinematic, visual and interesting?
The biggest thing I remember thinking was, “Okay, do I want to create this show or not?” The opportunity to create a series with a gay lead on a big NBC medical drama felt like an opportunity that I couldn’t say no to, and it was probably one of the most exciting things about creating this project.
Was there something in particular about Oliver Sacks that made you want to put all of your energy into a series built around him?
It was the culmination and combination of so many parts about him. I love that he was so passionate about his patients and his work, and at the same time, he also lived this really big, larger-than-life life. He rode motorcycles, he swam in the Hudson River. He felt like a character that almost didn’t feel real. He really felt special and unique.
I feel like his sexuality is a big important part of him, but it’s also not all of him. Oliver Sacks came of age at a time when it was illegal to be gay in the UK. I kept on thinking about that while creating the show. I thought, “Well, I’m creating a present-day version of Oliver Sacks that’s contemporary.” I really wanted him to feel like someone who’s allowed to be out and gay and proud of his sexuality. It’s not a secret, but at the same time that was such a big part of Oliver Sacks.
We tackle some of those things that Oliver Sacks struggled with with his sexuality. When he came out to his mom in real life, his mom said, “You are an abomination. I wish you were never born.” I didn’t want to do that in our present-day version. We wanted to create a version that felt honest to our storytelling and it is explored in episodes seven and eight. I think what inspired me the most was the combination of all of these elements that made him such a complex, three-dimensional, full character who was just bursting with life and passion.
The last thing I’ll say is Oliver Sacks, a lot like our Dr. Wolf, dedicated his entire life to helping his patients not only get better but to live their best lives and know that they matter. At the same time, he neglected living his own life in so many ways.
In “The Man from Grozny”, we are introduced to a patient in a coma from Chechnya where LGBTQ people are persecuted. A lot happens in this episode and it is dense with a gay-fronted story. Without giving anything away about the episode, how did you and the writers want to frame this particular story without falling into queer TV traps or “kill your gays” tropes?
That’s such a good question. We wanted this patient to be a three-dimensional patient who lived a full life and has agency. That’s a big part of that story — knowing what the patient’s story is and our doctors understanding that. And while our doctors might want something for this patient, it was important to make sure that the agency was in the patient’s hands.
Sometimes we want to unlock someone’s story and we want to help them, but sometimes helping them is not necessarily what our idea of helping them is. We worked with our doctors on this in the writers room. This is something that felt like a story that comes up often with patients who are in ICUs and chronic care, but it’s not a story we see explored on television very often. So it was about how we address this honestly. How do we have all of our doctors struggle with the ideas presented? As the audience struggles with it, Dr. Wolf struggles as well. We just really wanted to tell a story that’s difficult but also an honest one.
On the more romantic side of the narrative, we are introduced to Dr. Josh Nichols and it’s clear that there is “Will they? Won’t they?” energy between him and Dr. Wolf. This is very popular on network shows but we don’t see it often with queer couples. How did you approach queering such a traditional episodic trope?
When I first started developing the show, I was like, “He obviously needs to hook up with someone in the pilot” — and I was just like, “Wait, that’s not true to Dr Wolf and his character.”
He has a lot of walls up. He feels like somebody who holds his patients really close but holds a lot of the world far away — except for Carol (Tamberla Perry), who he lets in in sort of his strange way. It felt more natural to our character, Oliver Sacks, and our storytelling to do a slower burn. What’s been really nice is we’ve put Wolf and Dr. Nichols, who’s played by Teddy Sears in conflict for a lot of the season. They have different views on what’s best for their patients and you see them spar medically, but you also see them sort of take steps towards each other. We see them team up to do a surgery, which is very real and very, very new. They take this risk together, and they have to deal with the outcome and the emotional fallout of that. It made them both raw and open to finding each other in a way that feels unexpected, and that moment at the end of episode seven feels like a leap of faith, and it feels like the walls are down.
You’ve worked on tons of shows that have different audiences like Riverdale, Schitt’s Creek, and Pretty Little Liars. How do you think Brilliant Minds speaks to where you are at in your career and life right now?
So funny… a lot of those shows that you referenced, were so inclusive, and even though they were different genres and tackled different things, they had this spirit of “Come find yourself in here in some way, shape or form”. It’s sort of a landing spot. I think about that a lot with our show as well. Oliver Sacks had a warmth to him, and I want our show to have that warmth as well. I want our hospital, characters, and relationships to be a safe landing spot. I did a lot of YA, and I did a lot of lighter fare — even Degrassi was something that I did. I feel like I’ve grown up a little bit, and I feel like I’m getting to tell grown-up stories with this show.
Strangely, at my very first writing job, which was Degrassi — the creator said over and over again whenever we were in the writers room, that she wants young viewers to walk away and know that they’re not alone. I feel like that’s something I think about with Brilliant Minds. If we can reach one person out there and they can watch the show and know that they’re not alone, I feel like we are doing our jobs.
Watch Brilliant Minds Mondays at 10/9c on NBC and streaming the next day on Peacock.