Three Rivers Fall Season TV Preview 2009

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Three Rivers Fall Season TV Preview 2009

From our 2009 fall series TV preview

Three Rivers seems to be a pretty standard heroic-surgeon show centered on a Pittsburgh transplant team at what the CBS site describes as "the top transplant hospital in the US." We say "team," and the show does include a character named Pam Acosta (right) who seems to be a nurse. There is also an inexperienced transplant coordinator named Ryan Abbott, who has not been identified as a nurse, though these coordinators often are nurses in real life. But there is little doubt that the show is most interested in inspiring worship for renowned transplant surgeon Andy Yablonski (Alex O'Loughlin) and the remaining three major characters, all of whom are surgeons. The CBS site describes Acosta (Justina Machado) as Yablonski's "no-nonsense operating assistant and best friend," while TV Guide says she is "Yablonski's feisty nurse and confidant." So it appears that she is a nurse, although we guess she could turn out to be a physician's assistant. But either way, available promotional material pretty clearly paints her as Yablonksi's appendage, rather than as an autonomous professional. Previews, in which the Acosta character is hard to find, suggest that even the patient interactions outside of the OR will be overwhelmingly conducted by the surgeon characters. One preview includes a clip of the actress who plays one of the physician characters noting that working on the show made her "realize how fragile we are, but also what heroes doctors are." That likely sums up Three Rivers pretty well.

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