NBC’s new fall series, Trauma, seemingly has a similar log line to shows the network has featured in the past. It’s a little bit ER, some Saved, and a whole lot of Third Watch. Truthfully, I didn’t know much about the new show other than the cast included one of my favorite up and coming actors, Kevin Rankin (Friday Night Lights), and that it was about an EMS service and ER based in a metropolitan area. After having seen the pilot episode, I’ve got to say it is a show I’m going to be paying a lot more attention to.
In my real world life, I get to spend a little bit of time with EMS professionals, and have even taken some intermediate training (I never really got to use that EMT certification, though). Based on that, I’ve always been drawn to shows about EMS teams, especially when the shows examine the emotional toll that the job can have. Every type of First Responder job has their specific stresses, and for Paramedics, it is making split second life or death decisions for people they’ve only known seconds, and will never see again. Most of the pros I’ve been around handle it well, but you can always find the ones that get a bit detached from reality, and those that desperately seek that same attachment.
The show is well cast, with many “Oh, I know that Guy!” recognizable faces. This to me is indicative of a casting team that is putting together a group of actors on the verge of breaking out. Cliff Curtis (Live Free or Die Hard), Derek Luke (Miracle at St. Anna), Anastasia Griffith (Damages), Aimee Garcia (George Lopez), Billy Lush (Generation Kill), and the always great Jamey Sheridan (Stephen King’s The Stand) round out the cast (and yes, I credited Sheridan with The Stand because I will always remember him as Randal Flagg).
As the pilot starts, we begin to get a strong sense of who these characters are (and you know me, I love characters). Even the nicknames, (Rotor, Rabbit, Naughty) tell us about them. Just as we start to get a feel for things, though, BAM!! (Yes, BAM is accurate, but they threw in some SKREETCH, and some CRASH! just in case). What we thought we were learning starts to get thrown out the window, and we find our characters, well, broken. The know-it-all develops a real God complex, the heart finds herself alone, and the family man can’t find a way to bring his baggage home. How these people handle this experience, and even how it affects others who didn’t experience it first hand, is going to be interesting to watch. The only concern I have is Sheridan’s character, an ER doc, doesn’t really interact with the whole cast. He is the sage, father figure type, and I hope he doesn’t get lost in the shuffle as the show goes to series.
It’s great to see a show like this based in San Francisco (and shot on location). Two of my favorite (yet canceled) recent shows were based there, and it’s nice to see the city back on TV (Journeyman and Eli Stone, in case you were wondering). It breaks up the monotony of so many shows being based in New York, Chicago, LA, and DC. With all of the Law and Order spin offs, it seems like half of the cable box is in NYC, and it is refreshing to see the change.
I, like many, was disappointed by NBC’s decision to give us all of this prime time Leno, and had truly planned on trying to skip at lot of the networks new offerings this fall, and only watch Chuck and Heroes. However, with a new lineup that includes shows like Trauma, Community, and Day One, I’m afraid that I have already had to rethink that decision. Trauma takes a familiar precept but makes it character driven, and chucks in lots of explosions just in case, so I know I’ll be tuning in Monday nights.
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Jun 13, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
How did I miss this show? I hope you are going to watch Flash Forward and V.