Last month, I took a trip to Vancouver to visit the set of “Rush,” a new drama that premieres on the USA Network Thursday night. It follows the story of Dr. William Rush, a freelance doctor who serves LA’s rich and discreet. If you have a medical emergency, he’s on call but wants cash up front, and doesn’t come cheap. Rush is internally conflicted, living a self-destructive life of partying and drugs, while remaining (mostly) loyal to his clients. He promises quality health care, without having to deal with insurance companies and without worrying about the Hippocratic Oath.

I’ve only watched the pilot, but what seems to be at the center of the drama is how Rush interacts with the people closest to him. They’re aware of his self-destructive tendencies but also see his positive attributes and navigate accordingly. He’s surrounded by his best friend, Alex, an overachieving doctor whose friendship with Rush inspires some internal conflicts; plus his fleeting love interest Sarah, his right-hand woman Eve, and his dealer Manny.

Below is an incomplete list of things I learned when visiting the set. But first let’s watch the trailer.

• The series stars Tom Ellis, a British actor playing the American doctor, who a lot of people seem to think that he has breakout star potential. “That’s what they keep saying,” Ellis said when I was among a group of reporters interviewing him on the set. But he’s charming and handsome, if that’s you’re “type.” An executive producer on the show, Craig Wright (“Six Feet Under”), said, “Tom has an amazing charm. Every now and then, actors come along that have all of the emotional power and intelligence to do a great job, but also have the ineffable, Cary Grant-thing, that sense of transmitting whatever scene they’re in that they’re cool and calm and collected and acting the way we wish we could act in that situation.” Co-star Larenz Tate (who plays Alex) said, “His American accent is spot-on, it’s amazing, but when that Brit comes out, ladies perk up.”

• At the heart of the show is the friendship between Rush and Alex, a med school friend, who has taken a more legitimate career path. Tate explained, “Alex is the polar opposite of Rush. Rush throws caution to the wind and Dr. Alex has a plan. He dots the Is and crosses the Ts. He’s worked extremely hard to get where he is and doesn’t want to jeopardize that. When Rush is asking him to go against protocol and break medical code, it really lets us know what their relationship is about… They envy each other’s lives. Of course, Rush would love to have a wife and family, but he can’t quite get it right. My character, Alex, is going to be the next ‘it-thing’ in the medical world, but when he gets a taste of the wild side, he notices that that is what’s been missing.” he also says, “They can’t do the same thing, but they can dabble in each other’s sort of world.”

• The day that I visited, filming was done in a location called “Casa Mia.” It is Vancouver mansion that also served as a location for the 50 Shades of Grey movie.

• Tom Ellis is from South Wales, not North. When asked about it, he said, “That’s some Wikipedia bullshit. I was born in South Wales; I was born in Cardiff not Bangor. I’m one of the majority of people from Wales who don’t speak Welsh.”

• Another area of humor in the show is Rush’s taste in music, which leads towards 80’s pop stars like Debbie Gibson. Ellis got a big laugh from reporters when he said, “I talked with Jonathan (Levine, writer/director) and he said ‘Just know that Rush has terrible taste in music’ and I said, ‘Great! So do I.'” He explains, “It’s surface, euphoric music that isn’t like Tom Waits, heartbreak, going into myself to talk about how miserable I am. It’s the opposite end of the spectrum. Katrina and the Waves’ ‘Walking on Sunshine’ helps him block out reality.” This is the playlist Ellis read off that he said he created for the character:

 

• Executive producer Wright said that viewers will get “good, in-your-face-provocative medical stories.” It tries to balance more serious medical emergencies with ones played a little more for laughs. In the pilot, Dr. Rush treats a character who had a, let’s say, sexual injury where something was broken. “I think these stories are based on true things. I think there are private doctors to the elite and it’s ridiculous stuff. Just look on the internet,” says Larenz Tate, adding, “If the broken penis is something that caught your attention, there’s going to be more of it, because it works and [the writers are] going to go with what works.”