Ball has a little bit of a different perspective. His parents, much like Dearden’s, undoubtedly influenced his role as the well-coiffed Dr. Frank Langdon, but not in terms of his craft. Arguably his parents could be technical advisors on the show as Ball’s mother was an ER nurse, and his father, a paramedic. So before Ball looks forward to season two, he’s often looked back at his own family history. 

“All my parents’ friends are all nurses, doctors, and paramedics.” Ball says. “My mom’s Facebook activity has never been higher. It is booming. Everybody’s super excited and super supportive, and the broader healthcare community has become really engaged in having conversations around the show, which is amazing. This is a community that really needs a space to talk.”

That discussion will undoubtedly continue in the months before season two debuts. And, according to Dearden, everything seems to be on schedule. 

“I think the writers are doing the same thing as they did before,” she says. “They wrote all 15 episodes at once, so we, as actors, came in with everything kind of set in stone. We go to bootcamp June 1, and then we shoot after that.”

As the finale wrapped, audiences were left to think about the proposed time gap between seasons. It’s yet another interesting layer to the storytelling, as audiences have no idea what to expect, or even if certain characters will return given the series’ real-time format. Some of the younger cast members might end up in a different department or a different hospital since their rotations would change. That anxious uncertainty is not simply reserved for the audience, either. The cast is most certainly feeling it, as well. 

“I’m getting really antsy because I’m thinking – can you just give us a hint? How, what, when? Is it a month later?” Dearden says with a nervous energy. “I remember reading somewhere, not hearing it, but reading somewhere that our showrunner and creator Scott Gimmel said it’s not going to be the next day, and it’s not going to be a year from then. Well… that leaves every other day. We legitimately have no idea what season two is.”