NBC’s ‘Brilliant Minds’ Sets Itself Apart From Other Medical Dramas With A Tender Gay Love Story

Love is in the air for onetime adversaries Dr. Oliver Wolf and Dr. Josh Nichols on the latest episode of “Brilliant Minds,” NBC’s new medical drama.
In “The Man from Grozny,” which aired Monday and is available for streaming on Peacock, Dr. Wolf (played by Zachary Quinto) shares a passionate kiss with Dr. Nichols (Teddy Sears) following weeks of growing tension between the two men.
“It’s one of the most beautiful scenes of the season,” series creator and showrunner Michael Grassi told HuffPost. “When I created this show, I was excited to have the opportunity to tell relationship stories in a hospital with a gay protagonist. After we’ve sort of set up all our chess pieces, we finally get to do it. This is our opportunity to have a real romantic lead.”
Like most “Brilliant Minds” episodes thus far, “The Man from Grozny” begins with Dr. Wolf trying to find a way to treat an ailing patient ― in this case, a man named Roman (Alex Ozerov-Meyer) who arrives at New York’s Bronx General Hospital with locked-in syndrome, unable to move or speak after a cycling accident.
After Dr. Wolf and his associates restore Roman’s ability to communicate via a brain computer interface implantation, they learn the patient is a gay man and an undocumented immigrant from Russia’s Chechnya region who is fleeing anti-LGBTQ+ persecution in his homeland. And though the character’s story ends on a bittersweet note, it prompts Dr. Wolf to rethink his own romantic life.
“It was important to remind people [of] some of the freedoms we have in the U.S. ― and to tell that through a love story,” Grassi said. “Roman dreamt of moving to America, where he’d see his boyfriend on the street and they could kiss and no one would be looking at them because nobody cares. And Dr. Wolf has that opportunity today.”
The character of Dr. Wolf is based on Dr. Oliver Sacks, the British neurologist and author who endeared himself to a generation as the “poet laureate of contemporary medicine,” in the words of The New York Times.
Sacks died in 2015 at age 82, having spent much of his life both closeted and celibate. Grassi, however, envisioned Dr. Wolf as a modern character who would confront mental health issues in the present day. As such, the series maintains the deep-rooted fear of intimacy Sacks expressed in his writings while giving his fictional counterpart ownership of his queer sexuality.
“Oliver Sacks came of age at a time when it was still illegal to be gay in the U.K.,” Grassi said. “I didn’t want to tell that story with Dr. Wolf ― I wanted him to be a contemporary character who was out and proud. Still, I wondered, how we could challenge him to think about himself and his romantic life? Maybe through one of his patients.”
Fortunately for Grassi and the rest of the “Brilliant Minds” creative team, Quinto and Sears arrived on set with a shared professional history. The two actors first demonstrated their on-screen chemistry as ghost husbands on the first season of “American Horror Story” in 2011.
As satisfying as Dr. Wolf and Dr. Nichols’ kiss at the end of “The Man from Grozny” is, viewers can expect their burgeoning romance to hit a few more snags as the series progresses. In next week’s episode, “The Lovesick Widow,” Dr. Wolf’s mother, Muriel (Donna Murphy), attempts to interfere with the relationship.
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That plot point, Grassi said, is based on Sacks’ real-life experience being rejected by his mother after he came out to her as gay. On the show, Muriel’s actions aren’t driven by homophobia but rather by her memories of the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ’90s.
“She saw a lot of death, and she’s scared,” Grassi said.
And as is the case for many co-workers who end up in relationships together, Dr. Wolf and Dr. Nichols will spar over how to treat their respective patients ― disagreements that will inevitably carry over into their personal lives.
“They have different views on medicine,” Grassi said. “So seeing them come into conflict over what’s best for a patient while navigating a relationship is going to make for some juicy situations in our hospital.”