Medicinal

Medicinal is a medical drama offering multiple points of views and arguments, primarily from the perspective of a pair of multiracial doctors during their burgeoning friendship. It is a medical procedural set in the medical examiner's office / morgue culture of a major, metropolitan city where our two protagonists are based. Medicinal explores larger, universal topics that have more to do with the human condition within the parameters of race, class, orientation, and religion within the context of American culture. It is a story that finds commonalities and disparities within issues regarding healthcare and treatment in lower and elite class environments, while making statements about the political experiments and educated solutions provided by the thinking doctors involved in each isolated instance, despite the subsequent implications. Structurally, each season of Medicinal -- ten or twelve episodes -- will be presented as a non-linear narrative during selected time periods and days. The first season begins during the height of the Trump presidency in 2018 when our two recent board-certified, residency graduate protagonists meet in Los Angeles, California as they begin a year-long Forensic Pathology Fellowship, their final step towards becoming medical examiners. They will be the only two characters to be featured throughout the entire series. Other characters may progress to a following season or make major reappearances. Story arcs may feature ongoing homicide investigation efforts, culled from actual homicides, but may not reveal resolutions. Each episode is a fully conceptualized storyline involving the traditional collaboration of the forensic pathologists, homicide detectives, and the court system, utilizing technical assistance from each department. More than an exercise in realism, Medicinal brings doctors of color to the forefront of a medical drama, examining the obstacles they confront from both patients and colleagues, whilst trying to maintain a sense of normalcy within their personal and professional lives. As medical examiners, they are experts in death investigation, autopsy performance, death certification, and traumatic injuries and intoxications. Every day they risk their lives daily to the effects of crime, mental trauma, sociopaths, and exposure to illness and infection. Because the series relies on our two protagonists' "bromance" to propel each episode, following is a careful description of the lead characters and the supporting players from the first season. MAIN CAST DR. CAYENNE ARCENEAUX A Lafayette, Louisiana born & bred descendant of Natchitoches Parish's Creoles of Color community, Cayenne, a-k-a "Tres", the youngest of two sons, is a Morehouse College undergraduate and a Morehouse School of Medicine graduate. His father, Ivy Ray, was a popular radio deejay and remains a sometime faith healer. His mother, Maudette a.k.a. Sweet, is a Blues woman/musician. Cayenne is also unapologetically gay (or same-gender-loving), which has caused some friction with his Baptist-with-a-vengeance mother. While his older brother Raymond was the first in the family to graduate college to become a Naval pilot, Cayenne was inspired to pursue medicine, after initially pursuing law, the moment Barack Obama became President of the United States. DR. APOLLO "OLLY" BEAUSANG Hailing from Greater Manchester, England, Olly is the biracial son of Irish General Practitioner & Home Office Forensic Pathologist, Dr. Ronan Beausang, and Jamaican-Brit mother, Fatima Heslep. He is third in a family of four and the only son. He is very close to his sisters, whom all have ventured into careers outside of medicine, including Opera, the Border Force, and cooking. Olly currently resides in Pendleton with his girlfriend of five years, Posy Woodchurch, near Salford Royal Hospital, where they are both on NHS staff. Though he did initially consider a career in the arts, Olly eventually followed in his father's footsteps because of the advantages available to him. A graduate of Peterhouse Cambridge Medicine, Olly applied for a Forensic Pathology Fellowship to further his career as a diagnostician. SUPPORTING CAST DR. MICCO EASTMAN LT. LAIRD TROOST Forensic Pathology co-fellows. DET. TRAVIS ISABEL Robbery-Homicide Division Detective. DR. WALKER MODINE Senior Medical Examiner. DR. PILAR OBRADOR Deputy Chief Medical Examiner. DR. HANITA CHATTERJEE DR. FORD SZARAGOSA DR. RASHARD EPPS Supervising forensic specialists.