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No Heroes as NBC's 'Trauma' Fails to Deliver - a JEMS Review
A.J. Heightman
Editor-in-Chief, JEMS
The new series Trauma premiering Monday night is being billed by NBC as "the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field." The show's Website says it's "like an adrenaline shot to the heart, an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics." Unfortunately having had the opportunity to view the pilot in advance of its September 28 premiere, I think the series is ripe for "Do Not Resuscitate Orders".
I realize that, having been raised watching the epic Emergency! TV series, I have a bias for shows that portray emergency personnel as professional in appearance and attitude, disciplined and ethical and compassionate to their patients.
I also realize that it's 2009 and writers and producers like to inject sex into every episode, and have characters with cocky, rebellious 90210ish cast members who bring a host of personal problems to work, but this series bubbles over with a cast that should be stationed on Wisteria Lane, not the streets of San Francisco.
The premiere of Trauma doesn't begin with a well-dressed crew checking their drugs and equipment before their first run. It starts with the sights and sounds of the boyfriend/girlfriend crew having sex in the patient compartment of their rig.
Then, before you can get the words "I can't believe it" out of your lips, you hear the dispatcher (who obviously knows the way the crew starts their shift), tell "Naughty Nancy" Carnahan to button her blouse and respond to an emergency call.
You're next brought to the rooftop resuscitation of an electrocuted patient who gets a helicopter response in the middle of the city. It's here you're introduced to the wacko of the show, helicopter paramedic Reuben "Rabbit" Palchuk, a raucous dude with an attitude as big as his helicopter. The show's promotional hype says Reuben "oozes bravado to match his talent, but there's a hint of vulnerability in there too... which charms the panties off all the girls. They don't call him "Rabbit" for nothing."
Hold on, it gets worse.
Turns out, "Rabbit" is also a sexist who personally selects the male member of the sex crew to accompany the patient because he doesn't want a female medic in "his" helicopter.
Don't be mad, be sad, because, when the chopper lifts off the roof, instead of departing and gaining altitude like every well-trained aeromedical pilot in the nation does, the pilot of "Angel Rescue 2" swoops down between the skyscrapers and collides with a sightseeing helicopter that's also flying between the buildings. Everybody on board the choppers dies except for (you guessed it) "Rabbit".
Reuben the rebel lives to fly another day.
The show flashes forward a year and "Rabbit" returns to work cockier than ever and equipped with a new, post-traumatic "I can't die" attitude. He takes his new, young, petite, ex-Iraq war chopper pilot on a high-speed, reckless ride down the hills of San Francisco, telling her it's like the scene in Steve McQueen's movie "Bullitt".
"Bullitt"? "Bullitt" was released 1968, 41 years ago. Even I don't remember Bullitt!
If Rabbit's law-breaking ride doesn't ruin our image enough, he proceeds to rip the door off a drunk's car as the man attempts to get in his parked car. Then he cons the inebriant into believing the incident was his fault. Don't fret though, because Reuben, ever the gentleman, strolls into the nearby bar to retrieve a pitcher full of ice for the man to put his amputated fingers in.
Just when you think this show can't get any worse, you're taken to a corny multi-vehicle car-versus-gasoline truck MCI (caused by a text-messaging jerk), and forced to watch some of the most unethical EMS behavior you'll ever see.
First, "Rabbit" lands in his chopper and waltzes up the highway and hears the text-messaging patient whining that "he wants to go in the helicopter". Without skipping a beat, Reuben injects him with Versed and walks away.
Then, stoic Cameron Boone, a black paramedic who carries emotional baggage (and a strained marriage) after witnessing his friends die in the aeromedical crash, encounters a pretty blonde patient with a minor arm injury and "re-triages" her so she can get a ride in the helicopter with him.
While "Rabbit" gets set to ride shotgun and leave Cameron alone in the back of the chopper with the target of his affection, his rookie helicopter pilot, Marisa Benez, welcomes him to "Booty Airlines".
There is a happy ending to this magical series premier though. Despite detesting "Rabbit" for his bad attitude and for surviving the crash that killed her boyfriend, she closes out the show by hopping in bed with him.
Johnny and Roy, please don't watch this show. Stop by my house and we'll do shots of Ipecac instead.
A.J. Heightman is Editor-in-Chief of JEMS
Editor-in-Chief, JEMS
The new series Trauma premiering Monday night is being billed by NBC as "the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field." The show's Website says it's "like an adrenaline shot to the heart, an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics." Unfortunately having had the opportunity to view the pilot in advance of its September 28 premiere, I think the series is ripe for "Do Not Resuscitate Orders".
When It's On: The series premiere of 'Trauma' is Monday, September 28th a 9p (8 Central). In the pilot, San Francisco's team of first responders deal with a tragedy involving their own.
CONNECT: During and after the show's premiere Monday night, login to this post on JEMS Connect and add your comments, thoughts and own review of 'Trauma'
Online
Also on JEMS.com
- Member Discussion: NBC's New Drama 'Trauma': Are You Going to Watch?
- First Report: NBC's New 'Trauma' Set for Fall: What Do You Think?
I realize that, having been raised watching the epic Emergency! TV series, I have a bias for shows that portray emergency personnel as professional in appearance and attitude, disciplined and ethical and compassionate to their patients.
I also realize that it's 2009 and writers and producers like to inject sex into every episode, and have characters with cocky, rebellious 90210ish cast members who bring a host of personal problems to work, but this series bubbles over with a cast that should be stationed on Wisteria Lane, not the streets of San Francisco.
The premiere of Trauma doesn't begin with a well-dressed crew checking their drugs and equipment before their first run. It starts with the sights and sounds of the boyfriend/girlfriend crew having sex in the patient compartment of their rig.
Then, before you can get the words "I can't believe it" out of your lips, you hear the dispatcher (who obviously knows the way the crew starts their shift), tell "Naughty Nancy" Carnahan to button her blouse and respond to an emergency call.
You're next brought to the rooftop resuscitation of an electrocuted patient who gets a helicopter response in the middle of the city. It's here you're introduced to the wacko of the show, helicopter paramedic Reuben "Rabbit" Palchuk, a raucous dude with an attitude as big as his helicopter. The show's promotional hype says Reuben "oozes bravado to match his talent, but there's a hint of vulnerability in there too... which charms the panties off all the girls. They don't call him "Rabbit" for nothing."
Hold on, it gets worse.
Turns out, "Rabbit" is also a sexist who personally selects the male member of the sex crew to accompany the patient because he doesn't want a female medic in "his" helicopter.
Don't be mad, be sad, because, when the chopper lifts off the roof, instead of departing and gaining altitude like every well-trained aeromedical pilot in the nation does, the pilot of "Angel Rescue 2" swoops down between the skyscrapers and collides with a sightseeing helicopter that's also flying between the buildings. Everybody on board the choppers dies except for (you guessed it) "Rabbit".
Reuben the rebel lives to fly another day.
The show flashes forward a year and "Rabbit" returns to work cockier than ever and equipped with a new, post-traumatic "I can't die" attitude. He takes his new, young, petite, ex-Iraq war chopper pilot on a high-speed, reckless ride down the hills of San Francisco, telling her it's like the scene in Steve McQueen's movie "Bullitt".
"Bullitt"? "Bullitt" was released 1968, 41 years ago. Even I don't remember Bullitt!
If Rabbit's law-breaking ride doesn't ruin our image enough, he proceeds to rip the door off a drunk's car as the man attempts to get in his parked car. Then he cons the inebriant into believing the incident was his fault. Don't fret though, because Reuben, ever the gentleman, strolls into the nearby bar to retrieve a pitcher full of ice for the man to put his amputated fingers in.
Just when you think this show can't get any worse, you're taken to a corny multi-vehicle car-versus-gasoline truck MCI (caused by a text-messaging jerk), and forced to watch some of the most unethical EMS behavior you'll ever see.
First, "Rabbit" lands in his chopper and waltzes up the highway and hears the text-messaging patient whining that "he wants to go in the helicopter". Without skipping a beat, Reuben injects him with Versed and walks away.
Then, stoic Cameron Boone, a black paramedic who carries emotional baggage (and a strained marriage) after witnessing his friends die in the aeromedical crash, encounters a pretty blonde patient with a minor arm injury and "re-triages" her so she can get a ride in the helicopter with him.
While "Rabbit" gets set to ride shotgun and leave Cameron alone in the back of the chopper with the target of his affection, his rookie helicopter pilot, Marisa Benez, welcomes him to "Booty Airlines".
There is a happy ending to this magical series premier though. Despite detesting "Rabbit" for his bad attitude and for surviving the crash that killed her boyfriend, she closes out the show by hopping in bed with him.
Johnny and Roy, please don't watch this show. Stop by my house and we'll do shots of Ipecac instead.
A.J. Heightman is Editor-in-Chief of JEMS
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jad Walther on -
Maybe one or two more, but I can't see this lasting longer then 6 episodes. What a joke of a TV show!!
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Permalink Reply by Medman25 on -
I dont know, how many have they filmed? It might last the season with no renewal. Why cant we have a show like cops for fire/ems would it really be that hard.
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Permalink Reply by Joe P. on -
Medman25 said:I dont know, how many have they filmed? It might last the season with no renewal. Why cant we have a show like cops for fire/ems would it really be that hard.
Well, Discovery did have a show called Paramedics from 1999-2001.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramedics_%28TV_show%29
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Permalink Reply by Chance Gearheart on -
Saved! Was a better Paramedic drama than this. Ugh.
Joe P. Paramedics was killed by HIPPA. It was a great show. Discovery and TLC used to have a lot of good Medical Dramas, I remember whatching The Operation, Trauma: Life (and death, when I started watching it) In the ER, and Paramedics. Discovery Health continued it for a while. I was watching the operation as an 8 year-old. It was AWESOME. So was Rescue 911, but it lied to me and said I could save everyone.
Disney (Yes that Disney) actually had a show called "In a Heartbeat" on it's TV channel, when it was darker and edgier. It was on later in the evening, then after it was canceled ran from the 1AM to 2AM slot where I lived. It lasted one season, but as it was getting renewed for a second season was a victim of the Mouse's restructuring when it was becoming more "Kiddy friendly" back in 2003. It was actually one of the TV Shows, besides the oriignal Emergency tapes my mom used to own, that made me want to do EMS. It was also very realistic, about the programs in certain states that let high school kids graduate with their Basics and Is.
I give trauma about a season.
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Permalink Reply by Joe P. on
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I remember Operation. The one episode I remember was the laparoscopic knee surgery.
I can see how emergency programs are hard to get permission on. Everything else shouldn't be too hard, which is why it seemed like for a while half of TLCs programing was labor and delivery shows.
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Permalink Reply by TheCannulator on -
Do search for " medical emergency seven network Australia " .medical Emergency was and is our version of Cops and craps over this prime time farce with real patients and real ambulances!
Joe P. said:I remember Operation. The one episode I remember was the laparoscopic knee surgery. I can see how emergency programs are hard to get permission on. Everything else shouldn't be too hard, which is why it seemed like for a while half of TLCs programing was labor and delivery shows.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Rubin on -
I have no idea how this show will be received by the public. It doesn't have to be realistic to attract an audience -- just entertaining. I'm not even sure I know what qualifies as entertainment these days.
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Permalink Reply by ArcticKat on -
Sounds like it's about as realistic and plausible as, ER, Third Watch, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, CSI, the other CSI, and the CSI spin off, etc. etc. etc. Stupidity sells people, but I do hope this show goes the way of all those others that came before it...Rescue 77, The Listener, Mobile Medics...etc etc etc.
Paramedics are just not meant to be on TV, and I like it that way. We've always been the bastard step child of medicine and of Taxi services. No one knows how they should think of us until we save their lives, and even then, it was the doctor at the hospital who saved them.
Most people know that CSI or Grey's Anatomy are not realistic, but I'm sure that when the public gets a taste of this new TV show it will skew the public perception of EMS.
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Permalink Reply by Kyle Rice on
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I can say at least they had the dosages and terms correct, CPR was once again crappy on TV , I mean how hard is it to fake CPR with two hands and make it look somewhat realistic.
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Permalink Reply by Gul Dukat on -
Actually Saved gained a great deal of respect from me for one episode alone. I don't know the name of the episode but basically it showed the crew transporting a patient back to a nursing home after a dialysis treatment.
Obviously that show had the same problems all of these shows have when it comes to unrealistic treatment, unprofessional conduct, etc. But the fact that they broke threw the barrier of making all runs be either cardiac arrest or performing decompression on a 13 year old victim of a rhino attack made the show at least somewhat enjoyable for me.
Chance Gearheart said:Saved! Was a better Paramedic drama than this. Ugh.
Joe P. Paramedics was killed by HIPPA. It was a great show. Discovery and TLC used to have a lot of good Medical Dramas, I remember whatching The Operation, Trauma: Life (and death, when I started watching it) In the ER, and Paramedics. Discovery Health continued it for a while. I was watching the operation as an 8 year-old. It was AWESOME. So was Rescue 911, but it lied to me and said I could save everyone.
Disney (Yes that Disney) actually had a show called "In a Heartbeat" on it's TV channel, when it was darker and edgier. It was on later in the evening, then after it was canceled ran from the 1AM to 2AM slot where I lived. It lasted one season, but as it was getting renewed for a second season was a victim of the Mouse's restructuring when it was becoming more "Kiddy friendly" back in 2003. It was actually one of the TV Shows, besides the oriignal Emergency tapes my mom used to own, that made me want to do EMS. It was also very realistic, about the programs in certain states that let high school kids graduate with their Basics and Is.
I give trauma about a season.
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