I have read a lot of people’s hatred of the new NBC show “Trauma.” And yes, it is spectacularly awful. It is a big steaming pile of crap, actually. But I think most of the EMS critics have missed the mark. I keep hearing a bunch of comments like, “I know EMS is 99% boredom but…”
Yes, EMS can be boring. But you wouldn’t show all the boring bits during a show, would you? Do detective shows have episodes about cops waiting to appear in court only to find that a plea bargain has been reached and they can go home now? Do you have a show about doctors and show them reading labs and writing prescriptions? Of course not. You would show the exciting bits and punctuate that with character development and personal stories. An EMS show would be no different.
The problem that I have with the show is that the setting is EMS. It would seem to the average viewer that this setting was chosen because of the exciting things that happen within that profession. And so, if someone went to the trouble to pick an exciting profession as the setting of the show, you would think that they would use the exciting things about that profession to drive the show. Right?
That’s where trauma fails. There is plenty of drama and excitement in the EMS setting, but it is almost as if the show’s producers were disappointed by the research they did into the field. I can see the conversation:
Writer: “We could do a show about the drama that ensues over a DNR. Half the family wants the patient to die peacefully, half of the family does not understand and a fight breaks out. We could use that to springboard into a dilemma about euthanasia. This is a real political hot button right now.”
Producer: “Nahhhhh, that’s boring. Not EXTREME enough. We need to blow a bunch of shit up!”
Writer: “Uhhhh, okay. Hey, we need some character exposition. Why don’t we have the crew respond to a hostage standoff. That’s exciting, right? We can have one plot where the police are negotiating and deciding whether or not to snipe the guy. We can use the downtime in the episode to have good character development and even flashbacks that flesh these characters out a little bit. Throw a little drama in and the crew has to work the bad guy in the end. What do you think?”
Producer: “Nope! We need daredevil pilots and EMT’s who are loose cannons, living by their own rules! We need lots of sex!”
Writer: “Okay…we can work that in. Hey, why don’t we have a character get a needle stick. Let’s make the patient HIV positive and perhaps even gay. Then we can have the character show some flaws over his prejudice and rage against homosexuality and use that as a pot boiler while the character learns that his prejudices are unfounded, and the incident was really his fault. We can even have the patient die for the super-guilt effect.”
Producer: Does the patient explode, burning the hospital down?”
Writer: “I hadn’t planned on it.”
Producer: “You are never going to go anywhere in this business kid.”
This is what kills me about this show. I could sit down today and come up with an entire first season of plots that would be exciting and actually TRUE TO THE EMS SETTING. You could have plenty of sex and inappropriate relationships. Lord knows that’s the norm in EMS. Hell, I could just do a quick Google search and come up with a few plots from the newspaper headlines in the Louisville area alone.
Why is this difficult? Why is this setting not good enough? This should be shooting fish in a barrel.
I think what the producers of “Trauma” really want is some sort of Sci-Fi epic that chronicles the adventures of a band of rescue specialists using jumpships to pick patients out of warzones on a futuristic planet where everyone has gratuitous sex while explosions shake the buildings. If that is the setting they wanted, why didn’t they just do that?
The Sci-Fi is being left to the cable channels (SyFy? or something Twittery like that). They probably think that this will appeal to the sex and soap opera audience and the equipment and explosions audience. A can’t miss idea, except it is probably going to be a complete miss.
The ratings show Trauma doing even worse this week. Apparently, appealing only to people’s basest instincts is not enough.
A show that reflects reality does not have to be only as exciting as Waiting for Godot.
The famous P.T. Barnum quote: “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.”
Is he finally wrong? As a medical drama in the vein of ‘ER’, ‘Chicago Hope’, ‘St. Elsewhere’, ‘House’ and countless others, this is a flop. Here is the problem. It is not really a medical drama. It is a cartoon-like war story. There are plenty of chances to appeal to people’s base instincts without blowing all this crap up. There used to be requisite car chases in dramas such as ‘The Rockford Files’ or ‘Simon and Simon’. (I use the term drama loosely for this stuff, but hey, ‘Trauma’ is in there too.) But it seems that today’s drama needs to be 60 minutes of solid car chase. Which in a weird way has become boring. Going back to A&P, our senses have adapted to this. CGI explosions are no longer exciting. We long for good character exposition in ANY setting, and we are not getting it. It was hard enough seeing bad actors chew the scenery of real sets. I guess they now just chew green screens?
I have a friend who is a technical advisor on that show. He was very frustrated with the fact that he would try to show them the way something was done in the “real world”, but they didn’t seem to care. Even the actors followed what he was trying to tell them but it would get changed. Better yet, they should use real medics that know the right techniques and save a lot of time and money. As far as the rest of the show … I don’t know. After everything I’ve heard so far I don’t think I want to watch it!