HawthoRNe: This show stars Jada Pinkett-Smith as a nurse who is the real power in the hospital and breaks rules to advocate for her patients. (Nurse Jackie, anyone?) My problem with this show is that, despite the big RN in the title, the writers seem to forget that Christina Hawthorne is a nurse. They have her diagnosing patients and blatantly breaking major rules, and the doctors don't all look the other way and go, "Aww, that's just Christina." They've built it upon the idea that Christina is a renegade, but how long can they let her go on without being punished and losing her job?
Royal Pains: This is another medical show. It is about Hank, a doctor who got drummed out of a NY hospital for sticking with his principles. Because he crossed someone rich and powerful, he ends up blacklisted from every hospital and medical practice in the city and then his fiancee dumps him. To cheer him up, his brother Evan takes him to the Hamptons for a weekend. Hank ends up saving a girl's life at a fancy party and endears himself to the rich vacationer crowd. He becomes a concierge doctor who makes house calls to the wealthiest people in town.
Sounds like a great show on paper, right? Well, so far every episode has been centered around Hank performing "MacGyver medicine" -- doing a tracheotomy with a ballpoint pen and that sort of thing. It's been fun to watch, but how many times can the writers put Hank on a secluded island or in a quarantined house before it starts to become repetitive and unrealistic?
Drop Dead Diva: This is the show that should have been a two-hour movie instead. It is about a skinny model named Deb and an overweight lawyer named Jane in LA. Deb gets in a car accident and dies at the same time that Jane is shot by someone aiming at her boss. As Deb is being processed in the afterlife, she gets angry and presses a button on the angel's computer that ends up putting her soul in Jane's body. So we have Deb in Jane's body and she has Jane's intelligence but Deb's memories.
To me there isn't more than six episodes of story here. Deb/Jane has Deb's best friend and the guardian angel to help her out, so it won't take long for her to figure out that she needs to fake being Jane. Only two episodes have aired, and the writers have already given us the "I didn't realize I was being so mean to fat girls when I was skinny" storyline. What else is there?
I will continue to watch these shows because there's slim pickings during the summer for a TV addict like me. However, I won't shed a tear if these shows get canceled after a few weeks or don't return next summer.
3 comments:
I totally agree. I don't really watch medical shows much, just because they make me slightly grossed out (I know, I better get over that quick, huh?), but there are definitely a ton of those shows out there with no depth. I saw the previews for HawthoRNe, and actually, Brad is the one who said it's amazing networks bother airing these shows, knowing full well that they can't possibly last more than a few episodes. We've just stuck to watching reruns of the good stuff. :)
ABM doesn't have a problem watching reruns, but some time has to elapse between viewings for me. For instance, one of our favorite shows was "Charmed". I haven't watched it since it went off the air in 2006, but enough time has passed that I could probably sit through some of the early episodes from 1998. A show has to be off the air long enough for me to actually forget some of the plot lines before I can enjoy the reruns.
I never thought HawthoRNe or Drop Dead Diva had a chance. Too overly dramatic.
I have a soft spot for Royal Pains only because they filmed it near me. Still they even mentioned in the last episode how he couldn't find any more ways to help people with household items.
They don't take it too serious and the next episode should tell if this is a gimmick show like Monk has become or does it have depth like ER.
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