[1] It takes place in an overcrowded and understaffed emergency room in Los Angeles, California, and is based on a 2013 documentary film by Ryan McGarry.

[6] The show centers on the fictional Angels Memorial Hospital, where four first-year residents and their colleagues must tend to patients in an understaffed, busy emergency room that lacks sufficient resources.

[8] Rob Lowe also joined the main cast as Colonel Ethan Willis, a Combat Casualty Care doctor assigned to Angels as part of a U.S. Army training program.

[26][27] The pilot episode was filmed at the original Los Angeles County General Hospital facility, which has since been decommissioned and turned into mixed use office space.

[10] Production designer Richard Toyon took extensive photographs of the hospital, and when the show went to series, he re-created the facility at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank.

[10] Much of the props and set dressing — including gurneys, beds, lights, X-ray holders, clipboards and textbooks from different eras — were bought as surplus from L.A. County General.

[10] Seitzman wanted to make the concept of "Code Black" literal and show it to audiences in a direct way, so the production team created a fictional machine they dubbed the Code-Black-ometer.

It was made from old push-button consoles, and Chevy taillights, and it lights up with the increasingly urgent stats codes from green to yellow to red to black.

The site's critical consensus reads: "While not reinventing the stethoscope, Code Black is an above-average medical drama, with appropriately theatrical storylines that make up for sometimes cheesy dialogue.

[32] Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Overlaid with "Vice"-like shots of panic and bloody aftermath, Code Black wants the soap and sentiment of Grey's along with the broken-but-driven main character of House.

"[33] Rob Lowman of the Los Angeles Daily News wrote: "Season 1 Review: It can never have the immediacy of Ryan McGarry's documentary about County/USC that inspired it, but the series does capture the film's spirit and that is a welcome change when it comes to medical dramas.