I had seen some middling reviews, but Robert Bianco's Escape head trauma by avoiding NBC's 'Trauma'' was worse:
Things go boom.
Here's hoping you like loud noises and big explosions, because those are about the only things this medical drama has in its puny, if flashy, little head. Just don't get used to them; it takes money to crash helicopters and blow up trucks, and all you have to do is look at NBC's final prime-time slot to see the network isn't in the mood to throw cash around.
Pity viewers when the bucks are no longer supplying the bang, because all that will be left are the world's whiniest EMTs, a mixed group whose jobs have them (pause to take in the title) traumatized. Well, who isn't? One hour of Trauma, and you'll be convinced that what America needs now is a show where people buck up and shut up.
Will Trauma be another show filmed in Bill Gorman's back yard (San Francisco) that quickly goes by the wayside? Journeyman shot several scenes right around the corner from me a couple of years back. And it was enough to get me to watch the show, but it still got canceled anyway.
I can't wait to see Monday night's numbers.
Update: speaking of San Francisco, here's what San Francisco Chronicle critic Tim Goodman had to say:
If you don't live in or near San Francisco, NBC's newest drama, "Trauma," is just a not-very-good medical series.
If people like Heroes, they are sure to like Trauma.
Trauma has been trashed almost unanimously, at least as far as I know. At this point one more on the pile is hardly news.
FTA: “Nancy, who fits another medical show stereotype: the nurse/paramedic who knows more than all the doctors combined.”
The writer is poking at the promos for NBC’s Mercy? Oh man did that get annoying, seeing the same one twice a commercial break.
“a show where people buck up and shut up.”
I hope that’s Stargate Universe. Be damned if what little I watch is filled with defeatists. The later promos were promising there.
… what was this about again?
It’s a shame because I believe that this is the most expensive pilot ($8 million) and new series ($4 million per episode) of the season.
I wouldn’t be surprised. Every episode looks like it will be a special/visual effects bonanza.
You know why NBC has to fill the 10 o’clock slot with Jay? They approve pilots like Trauma and Mercy.
This reminds me that I used to have an “Emergency!” lunch box. It featured a boy who had gotten his head stuck between two pickets in an iron fence.
Robert, why can’t you wait? You know it’s going to end in tears. Unless you’re a sadist and like to see NBC crying once again in the foetal position.
It’s just your typical style over substance crap complete with trite storylines, cliched characters and an over reliance of the San Francisco vista.
1337, how can every episode be a special/visual effects bonanza? Like the article says it costs a lot and I can’t see NBC coughing up pilot episode costs per episode, which means the action will eventually have to be subdued and then a focus on the characters and dialogue will come into play. Shock horror.
What will suprise me is if anybody will actually watch the whole entire pilot episode without switching off. The promos have been so obnoxious.
hollywood reporter and newsday are nicer to trauma. just read their reviews
It really seems like they sank the money into special effects that should have gone into getting better writers. Explosions and crashes mask only so much. If the dialogue, stories, and characters are bad, I don’t think this show will have much audience on a regular basis.
If you do live in San Francisco and points near, then “Trauma” is a not-very-good medical series with lots of familiar sites you can ogle like a postcard from your beautiful hometown. Secondarily, you can tune out the dialogue and listen to see if they get city-specifics right
The above is probably the reason I’ll even watch the show (well at least the 1st episode). It would probably be amusing to see if they blow up one of the bridges. There is also always the earthquake episode that seems to be a given even though the last major earthquaker here was in 1989.
I think Trauma will get a full season, it has a better chance than Mercy anyway.
From Mo Ryan at the Chicago Trib:
To say that “Trauma” (8 p.m. Central Monday, NBC; one and a half stars) is better than “Mercy,” NBC’s other new medical show, is not exactly an endorsement. After all, “Mercy” set the bar so low that many informercials could clear it.
“Trauma” is just standard-issue bad, not mind-blowing, please-make-it-stop bad.
Nice.
Mo Ryan ain’t kidding. I would rather watch an infomercial than watch Mercy any day. But then, I would rather watch paint dry than watch Mercy any day. Or climb Mt. Everest without oxygen than watch Mercy any day (they both deprive you of the will to live, you see).
I always thought Trauma looked awful. NBC just can’t catch a break, can they?
NBC is going for a ride on Mondays. ABC, and CBS will ride them. The question is how Lie To Me on FOX will fare.
Q says:
September 28, 2009 at 1:06 am
You know why NBC has to fill the 10 o’clock slot with Jay? They approve pilots like Trauma and Mercy.
*****
mercy was a mess…they couldn’t have found a more unlikable cast.
I heard them flying their helicopters way too close to Potrero Hill here in SF. They are Definitely still doing big expensive location work.
BTW Don Johnson’s epic filmed here for more than a few years. It was an arguably “fantastical” depiction of a SF detective that over-relied on SF vistas yet, it lived on…
Decided to take a chance on TV and watch the premiere of Trauma. Don’t know if it’s gonna be around long. Heavy on action with (very)improbable scenarios(crisis developing within crisis). Kind of lame scripting with melodramatic corny plot line.
I really liked it—-and I don’t even watch TV all that much, and especially don’t watch action flicks. Especially thought Anastasia Griffith shows a lot of promise. From Alaska———–
Is it me or did that pilot have more commercials than actual show?! I thought most networks limit commercials on pilots to try and draw-in an audience. At least I had a DVR, but still.