In its April/May 2012 issue, TBI ( a well known media outlet that for years has been providing the international TV community with key strategic business information on the production, distribution, broadcasting and financing of TV programming around the world.) — brought us an outstanding article about new TV medical dramas like ‘Mountain Medic’, ‘Royal Pains’ and ‘Saving Hope’ to name a few.
In the article titled “Medical Drama Under The Miscroscope” the magazine presents a balance between what the public thinks of the genre, a common thought being that with the end of “House” it would also be the end of medical dramas on TV, and presenting their own analysis of the new TV medical dramas and what they have to offer.
Below you can read the analysis of “Saving Hope” and the scan of the article.
UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: SAVING HOPE
Many TV critics and other observers complain that medical dramas tend to cover the same ground. “Whether the characters are dressed in blue or white, it’s always the same format,” says Bertrand Villegas of TV consultancy The Wit.
For just that reason producers and broadcasters have been seeking out different characters and fresh storylines. One such show is Saving Hope, which will be launched at MIPTV by eOne Television. It is produced by Ilana Frank who has a first-look deal with eOne, following the success of her cop drama Rookie Blue, which airs on ABC in the US.
The show, which features a narrative delivered by the spirit of the hospital’s chief of surgery, Charlie Harris, who is in a coma, explores the relationship between spirituality and science in a medical context.
“Part of what I thought was really insteresting about this, and a different way into a medical drama, was this whole idea of faith,” says Noreen Halpern, the outgoing president of dramatic programming for eOne Television.
The spark for this aspect of the show was when the child of writer-creator Morwyn Brebner was critically ill and Brebner found herself praying, although she was not a woman of faith at all.
“She was working on the idea of a medical drama at the time, and it just struck her that it’s so interesting that in the world of medicine that these very diametrically opposed philosophies can exist: Western medicine, which is very much about rules and principles and science, and the idea of faith, and how much does faith have to do with healing? And I think that’s what really has struck a chord for a lot of people,” Halpern says.
“Medical shows have a history of succeeding. There are great life and death stakes built into the fabric of a medical show. But then you add this twist of faith and spiriatuality — Is it just about science? Is it just about medicine? — And I think that is a really interesting way into a very traditional franchise.”
