Mekki Leeper, Kahyun Kim. NBC (2)
Every sitcom needs a fictional couple for fans to root for, so are St. Denis Medical‘s Matt and Serena our next Jim and Pam?
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly before St. Denis Medical‘s premiere on Tuesday, November 12, Mekki Leeper and Kahyun Kim (who play Matt and Serena) wholeheartedly supported the idea.
“They sure are,” Kim, 35, said before Lepper, 30, added, “Certainly in the sense that in the early seasons — which we are currently in — we’re wondering will they or won’t they?”
Lepper encouraged viewers to keep an eye on Matt and Serena as season 1 played out. “It is on our minds each and every day,” he noted. “And there’s just no way to tell [yet] if they will or if they won’t.”
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Creator Eric Ledgin wouldn’t rule out a potential romance between Matt and Serena, telling Us, “There’s definitely at least a one-sided will-they-or-won’t-they happening. So I can tell you it’ll definitely be a slow burn of something that we will track over time.”
After working on shows such as Superstore — which had their very own fan-favorite fictional couples — Ledgin didn’t want to follow the same steps with the characters on St. Denis Medical.
“Having worked on Superstore and feeling like I was part of that narrative, for me it was about not wanting to do that again with the central characters,” he admitted. “So it felt a little more fun to have this more sort of pie in the sky opportunity for someone to see if they can win over this person and have that be something that we track over time. It is fun to write but I also like that it’s not the central part of the show.”
St. Denis Medical follows overworked doctors and nurses trying their best to care for patients at an underfunded Oregon hospital. NBC’s newest mockumentary stars Wendi McLendon-Covey, David Alan Grier, Allison Tolman, Josh Lawson, Kaliko Kauahi, Leeper and Kim.
“It’s so fun to be in a mockumentary. I cherish the moments where I get to look into the camera and have that relationship,” Kim shared with Us. “Especially with Serena, it’s really fun because she’s so honest and you can really tell how she feels from her face. I love having that connection with the audience in that way.”
Leeper, meanwhile, called his time on the St. Denis Medical set “a blast,” adding, “I grew up wanting to be on a show like The Office or Parks and Recreation. Then I think there were some years where they weren’t making as many of those types of shows. It took somebody like Quinta Brunson [from Abbott Elementary] to blow open the doors again for shows like this to be popular.”
According to Leeper and Kim, the biggest challenge when making a show like St. Denis Medical is remembering to look at the camera.
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“It took a hot second to get used to. Personally — for me — once I got used to it, I took any moment I could to look into the camera. I love it,” Kim told Us. “It’s so fun to explore that space that I never got to because we’re so used to hearing, ‘Don’t look into the camera.’ So it’s a blast for me.”
Leeper found that filming a mockumentary offers “an extra dimension” for the actors.
“You have this whole bonus space that is never available and you can put truly whatever you want in it. It’s different for everybody because Wendi looks at the camera differently than David does,” he explained. “Ron and Serena, those are characters that are always exhausted of the person that’s in front of them. Joyce is trying to cover to make the hospital seem nice. Matt is always caught doing something embarrassing. So having that as a tool is amazing. Just getting to directly do a joke to the camera is just so fun and satisfying.”
St. Denis Medical airs on NBC Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. before streaming the next day on Peacock.