Brilliant Minds’ showrunner Michael Grassi knows that the story he’s telling is not your typical story. Not just because of who Oliver Wolf is, but because the show’s main romance involves two men—something that is sadly, still very rare on TV, much less on network procedurals. And that’s part of what makes this story so refreshing, and also so important.
Grassi talked to Fangirlish about telling this story, Oliver and Nichols’ journey, and what we can expect to see in the rest of this season of Brilliant Minds.
“I think it’s refreshing and I think what makes it so such a big deal is that it’s not a big deal,” Grassi explained. “It’s not everything. Dr. Wolf is a doctor. He’s a mentor to his interns. Not a great mentor all the time, but he’s at least he’s trying to be a mentor. He’s a son. He’s a best friend. And he’s also gay and all of these things are what make him interesting, not just one thing.”
MORE: Here are the reviews for Brilliant Minds episode 7 and our in-depth interview with Alex Ozerov-Meyer about the episode.
Just this notion, that a character can be more than their sexuality, is something very rare in shows featuring LGBTQ+ characters, something Grassi acknowledged and made a point of going against in Brilliant Minds. “I think sometimes when you have the one gay character sort of on the sideline of the show that’s what their character is. It’s like ‘oh the gay character’ and that’s how you identify them. But I think what’s interesting about Dr. Wolf is that he’s all these other things,” Grassi added, noting that the character had a complex backstory, which makes both him and the storytelling exciting.
Plus, he’s not the only one, which is how the show can even tell the romance it’s telling, but it also makes Brilliant Minds so much richer. “Teddy Sears, who plays Dr. Nichols is another gay character on the show and I love when we learn about him as well,” Grassi told us, adding that “seeing these two sort of find their way and sort of have conflict along the way is, I think, played for what it would be like in real life.”
Grassi also teased there’s another LGBTQ+ character on the show, Aury Kreb’s character, Dr. Dana Dang, and she’ll be getting her own storyline.
The Brilliant Minds showrunner also spoke about the Oliver and Nichols’ dynamic, and how in the latest episode we get to see them experience ups and downs, yes, but there’s a definite focus on the moments of joy queer characters don’t always get. “I think joy is so important, and I even think about it within our medical show context, right? These doctors have really high-pressure jobs, they’re dealing with patients who are dealing with severe life or death stakes or huge emotional stakes, and I think that what Wolf brings is his humanity to these patients, and that humanity means empathy some days and sometimes it means humor and sometimes it means joy and sometimes it means helping the patients find their joy, and he’s working day and night and night and day to help patients live their best life.”
However, sometimes that comes at the expense of his own, which Grassi acknowledged is a balance Wolf will have to find. “He’s been neglecting to live his own life because he’s so focused on his patients, but now those walls are coming down a little bit, sort of episode by episode, and he’s trying to let people in. He’s letting the interns in a little bit, he’s letting Josh in a little bit, and you sort of see that he’s finding moments of joy for himself and I think those moments are really powerful.”
Particularly because there’s such a gifted actor playing them in Zachary Quinto. “I think Zach does such a beautiful job in these moments, he brings so much wit and so much life and so much warmth to them,” Grassi told us, adding that we’ll continue to get those moments. “Yes, we’ll continue to see more of those this season as their relationship progresses and they sort of find their footing.”
What are the obstacles? What are the questions? Grassi gave us a hint. “How are we going to be a couple at Bronx General when we’re treating patients they have different opinions on?” But that seems like the easier challenge, as Grassi shared that “Later in the season we’ll put them in some huge situations that sort of really test them and even put their lives at stake, so we’re going to enter some really interesting territory with these two.”
As for the specific situation between Wolf and his mom in “The Lovesick Widow,” Grassi explained that “It’s huge character growth for Wolf as well as his mom, and I think them working together and being put in this situation where they have a patient whose kids aren’t accepting is sort of reflecting back onto Wolf and how his mom made him feel when he was a kid.”
MORE: Here’re the reviews for Brilliant Minds episode 4, episode 5, and episode 6.
“I think the thing that was hard is that they never talked about it and I think that’s what Brilliant Minds is about, talking about things to de-stigmatize them and make them less scary for everybody. So, I think back then if Wolf and his mom had had a conversation, I think it would have been really helpful for them to move on.”
But now Wolf is in a position where he can confront his mom “about that time in the past where she sent Tom away and what that meant to him in his life and I think that’s really relatable for a lot of people, in that things have been left unsaid with parents or people from the past.” And it’s not a fix, but it’s a good start to see “Wolf work through that and also hear her point of view on it, that the reason she didn’t talk about it was because she was scared because of what she was dealing with in the hospital at the time.”
“I really think that it’s growth for both of them and I think that’s what a lot of the story of this season is, Wolf seeing his mom’s side of the story a little bit and I’m excited to continue telling that story.”
Color us intrigued. And excited. This season of Brilliant Minds has already been a pleasant surprise, and we cannot wait to fall in love with these characters even more.
Brilliant Minds airs on Mondays on NBC.
