We’ll say this for ABC’s new Texas-set, Albuquerque-shot spin-off of its functionally unkillable Grey’s Anatomy medical drama franchise: They’re not skimping on the adjectives with this thing. The network has already been describing the currently untitled show as “edgy,” owing to its setting in a rural West Texas medical clinic—”the last chance for care before miles of nowhere.” Now, we find out that it’s also going to star a character who’s both haunted and cynical—the complete package!—played by Shondaland veteran Karla Souza? Be still, our aggressively descriptive hearts!
This is per Variety, which reports that Souza—who last teamed up with ABC for the relatively light Home Economics, after making her name on TV with a starring role in Shonda Rhimes’ How To Get Away With Murder—has officially signed on to the new series as “Dr. Carolina ‘Lina’ Hall,” a character described as “a haunted and cynical doctor who runs a medical center in a small town in West Texas.” Which sounds pretty quiet and sedate, as far as these things go—but this is the Grey’s universe, so we have to assume that some of the stuff she’s haunted by must include bus explosions, and the aftermath of various torrid affairs, possibly ended by bus explosions.
ABC had been developing the new show for a minute now, albeit not developed enough to bother actually giving it a name, we guess. In fact, the series was hypothetically supposed to be airing this fall, but got delayed after it failed to secure a California tax credit for itself. (Tax credits: Still the most boring thing that keeps having material impacts on the shows you watch and enjoy!) In any case, the series is a co-creation between Rhimes and Meg Marinis, a long-time writer and producer on the mothership Grey‘s series. Depending on how you want to count them, the show will be the third or fourth Grey‘s spin-off to date, after Private Practice, Station 19, and the web-only Grey’s Anatomy: B-Team.
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