Check Out NBC’s New Jekyll And Hyde Pilot, Do No Harm

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Harm

Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale of a man at war with his darker side has been made and remade countless times in the hundred-plus years since it was first published. It’s easy to understand why people continue to try and put their own spin on the story of Jekyll and Hyde, even if their attempts are forgettable more often than they’re notable. Current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat got it mostly right with his 2007 Jekyll. The Christian Slater-starring My Own Worst Enemy sank without making much of a splash. Now NBC is returning to the well once again with Do No Harm. Which column will it land end, the good or the bad? Well, you can check out the pilot at the bottom of the post and decide for yourself.

So what do we know about Do No Harm? It stars Steven Pasquale, better known as “That guy from Rescue Me. No, not that one, the other one.” It was created by David Schulner, who has previously worked on short-lived shows such as The Playboy Club, The Event, and Kings. So, not a great batting average, but hey, if you make a hit, people will forget the misses that came before it.

Pasquale stars as Dr. Jason Cole, a neurosurgeon who is constantly dosing himself to suppress his nasty alter ego, Ian Price. Unfortunately, even with the drugs, Price emerges each night at 8:25 p.m., and then proceeds to do lots of things Jesus wouldn’t do, the better to ruin the life of his fuddy-duddy daytime self. Here’s how creator Schulner described the interplay between Cole and Price:

Ian’s a little bit like a cat. The cat wants to play with that mouse. He doesn’t want to kill it because what fun would that be? So Ian’s going to do a lot of stuff to Jason. And then what’s great about Jason’s character… Jason’s just as smart as Ian is and is sometimes two steps ahead of Ian, so there’s traps in place. There’s safeguards, there’s fail-safes. So it’s a constant cat and mouse chess game between the two of them. But Ian is not toothless. There’s a true danger to him. He’s truly menacing, and that’s why Jason’s character needs to get rid of him.

Do No Harm premieres Thursday, January 31st at 10/9c.