The Resident boss on scrambling to adjust to a shortened season: "It was a fast-moving, very intense, unfamiliar situation for all of us"

TVLine

"We figured it out as we went," showrunner Todd Harthan says of concluding Season 3 Tuesday night with Episode 20, well short of its 23-episode season order. "We had the luxury — in this particular season, anyway — where the last three or four episodes are so intense because it’s the culmination of our (Red Rock storyline), and so many personal relationships have been building up over the course of the season. So this year in particular, our last five episodes were all feeling like satisfying, big episodes. When this all hit, we did make some adjustments when Episode 20 became our finale, and we did have the luxury of other pieces of shot footage, and we said, 'Oh, wait, what if we take this puzzle piece and move it into Episode 20, to give it more of a cliffhanger-like feeling?' It was crazy. It was intense. And ultimately, it’s a TV show. For us, it was about doing the best we can, but let’s be realistic that the things happening in the rest of the world are far more serious."