In the months that followed the quiet April 2023 premiere of Jury Duty, an Amazon series, the show became a sleeper hit. It went on to receive four Emmy nominations, including one for Mekki Leeper in the category of Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. “If I learned anything” from the show, Leeper says, “it’s probably that it’s most worthwhile to just do stuff with people you enjoy, that makes you laugh.” That same sense of fun comes through in Leeper’s latest series, the mockumentary sitcom St. Denis Medical, which premiered this week. Set in a hospital in rural Oregon, the show stars Leeper as Matt, a recently hired nurse. “It’s just a hard comedy in a time when there aren’t many hard comedies,” says Leeper. “I don’t think it’s a show that exists to stress you out in any way.” The series is sure to draw attention, and co-stars David Alan Grier and Wendi McLendon-Covey are as funny as ever. —Jack Sullivan