Trauma: Series Premiere

From the Executive Producer of Friday Night Lights, Peter Berg brings the fast paced world of EMT’s to our living rooms.  Wait did I say fast paced?  Oops sorry what I meant to say was…well to be quite honest I have no idea what to say about Trauma other than I didn’t hate it.  But I didn’t like it either.  Each accident you could see coming from a mile away and when the trauma team arrived well let’s just say it was pretty lack luster.  There was no sense of urgency among the actors.  I felt that just about anybody could have been responding to the accident.  There was a detachment between the action and the actors.  It was as if someone was standing behind the camera and literally telling them what to do next.  Which is strange considering that this is not the first show of this type to air on NBC.  ER was practically revered for it’s accurate portrayal of medical terms and traumas.  Hell even Third Watch was spot on when it came to emergencies and the reactions of the actors.

  The premiere starts off with a group of EMT’s responding to an accident on the roof of a building (the first accident you see coming from the beginning).  The only bonus points I gave this scene is almost at the exact moment I was thinking it was ironic that they were shocking a guy with electricity to save his life after being shocked by electricity that was trying to end his life Kevin Rankin’s (Lost, Bionic Woman) character Tyler Briggs said almost the same thing.   That was pretty cool, but unless millions of people were thinking the same thing as I was than I am pretty sure I was the only one who thought that scene was cool.  Unfortunately we don’t learn much about Kevin’s character in this episode but I am a huge Kevin fan so I am hoping that changes.  His partner played Cameron Boone, played by Derek Luke (Madea Goes To Jail, Antwone Fisher) we learn later has family problems and seems to be a serial cheater for reasons we will soon learn about. 

  Anastasia Griffith plays the resident tortured soul (to be fair they all seem to play that role except Reuben, more on that later) Nancy Carnahan who likes to have sex with her partner in the back of her rig (thats what they call ambulances) and give dull performances.  Don’t worry about her sex partner because he doesn’t last longer than the first 10 minutes or so, but that seems to be the cause of most of her pain.  Though they do hint at some troubled family history that will probably come more into play later on.  She gets a new partner in the middle of the premier and as much as I would like to tell you about him I honestly can’t remember anything except he looked vaguely familiar. 

  Finally we get to the only two people in this entire episode that interested me in the slightest Aimee Garcia (George Lopez, CSI: Miami) and Cliff Curtis (soon to be seen in The Last Airbender).   Aimee plays Iraq Vet Marisa Benez who I guess flew helicopters when she in the Army an Cliff plays Reuben Palchuck a crazy Helicopter pilot who barely escaped a crah in midair and now believes he can’t die.  Sounds lame I know but he plays it with such intensity and fevor that you can’t help but to like him.  I am looking forward to seeing the two of them play off each other in future episodes if I continue to watch Trauma because the bottom line is that even though I am a fan of 3 of the actors on the show I am not sure if that is worth investing any time in it.