This casting choice is foregrounded in promotion, interviews, and reception, with Chestnut and creator Craig Sweeny acknowledging its political dimensions and backlash from audiences labeling it DEI-driven cultural appropriation. Episode synopses confirm the core premise remains a standard medical-mystery procedural (rare genetic cases solved via deduction, team dynamics, and Moriarty subplots) without identity-politics lectures or systemic-oppression framing as central drivers.

The swap influences casting and character presentation but does not alter the foundational medical-detective structure or require ideological themes for the stories to function. Audience pushback, including social media criticism of the "Black Watson" as inauthentic to Doyle's vision, corroborates the intentionality without evidence of broader activist subplots in Season 1.