Trauma Fall Season TV Preview 2009

 
From our 2009 fall series TV preview

September 13, 2009 -- Trauma is an action-oriented NBC show about gonzo San Francisco EMTs that one executive producer says focuses on "the half hour leading up to the double doors of ER." There are no nurse characters, but one of the medics actually has an MD. According to the NBC site, character Nancy Carnahan got the degree "to make dad the doctor proud," but became a paramedic instead of doing an internship. Another major character is Dr. Joseph Saviano, "the godfather of San Francisco City Hospital," who treats Nancy "like a daughter," which appears to entail pushing her to step up to medicine. The site also informs us that Saviano treats the character who seems to be the lead paramedic like "his screw-up younger brother he knows could be a brilliant physician if he wasn't just this side of crazy." So it appears that one theme, a sadly familiar one for Hollywood paramedic characters, will be whether some of them have what it takes to ascend to the pantheon of physician gods. No indication yet whether any will aspire to nursing; previews suggest that the show views emergency care as basically about transferring patients from paramedic to physician. The previews also feature daring rescues, things blowing up, ER-style Big Vehicle Drama, and untreated adrenaline addiction.