Episode Pilot, Good Potential but tasteless characters
This show has a lot of potential, especially since being based on a foreign show with similar themes. Unfortunately, with the combination of acting, poor scene choices and cliché characters this show ends up as a hodgepodge of tasteless situations.The show starts with a boy (Charlie) narrating to the viewers in a coma. He begins to introduce the main characters in the show, each with a medical condition that forces them to live within a fictional hospital set in California. It starts like an episode of House where a character living their regular, every-day life is suddenly interrupted by an acute attack of a new onset medical condition. In this case, a spoiled teenage cheer leading captain, Kara, who treats the remaining team as scum beneath her shoe, collapses to the ground in the middle of an attempted pyramid. She is rushed to the hospital where we are then shown that she becomes temporary roommates with our narrator.
The show continues with introduction of the remaining characters including two troubled youths (Astro and Leo) who are first introduced as they are caught smoking marijuana in a hospital closet showing their rebellious attitude towards their caregivers and hospital policy. They are caught by Octavia Spencer (Nurse Jackson), who is shown to be the authority character with an edge, but who has a soft side for her inpatients. She takes them to their classroom, from which they were playing hooky, and we are introduced to an additional cast member, Emma- a young girl suffering from anorexia. They give insight to a possible love situation that may have existed between her and Leo, who has been in the hospital the longest, and is therefore the most experienced, knowledgeable and coolest.
We are then introduced to character Jordi, a boy who was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma from a foreign hospital and is here to become a new patient of Dr. Jack McAndrew, the hip, young, understanding pediatrician who cares for the unit of which all our characters stay. Jordi explains his situation to Dr. McAndrew, explaining that his mother died, and hasn't a clue of his fathers whereabouts, but would like the kind doctor to treat his disease (God bless Healthcare?). Dr. McAndrew reluctantly agrees and Jordi becomes our new inpatient, and new Red Band Society member. He is taken up to the unit where he is introduced to his new room mate Leo. After an initial face off, they become instant friends and decide to throw a party for Jordi's supremely fast surgery scheduled the next day.
Astro is supposed to be the suave character of the show, which he does rather well, but is placed in many poorly written situations where he is to exemplify his sexuality by succumbing to raging hormones. He seems to be the one with all the great ideas, including stealing an attending's car to go buy beer with Leo and Jordi. I will not comment on how easy it was to steal an attending's car from hospital valet, but they are caught, and not reprimanded for their actions after Astro fakes shortness of breath and collapses.
The party is finally thrown thanks to a pot-head philanthropist, and our characters magically make their way up to the roof to sing song and drink all under Dr. McAndrew's watch. This unrealistic feel good approach to hospital care is highly inappropriate, and I can only imagine is used to the viewers some sympathy to their characters life in a medical ward. Leo gives each character a red band which represents a significant event that happened to him during his stay in the hospital. It becomes a flavorless exchange of emotions, a scene which had much potential but becomes an afterthought.
But wait, the show hasn't forgot about Charlie! Charlie continues to narrate for us and even communicate with those who enter his "In limbo" space, like Emma during a medical episode where she becomes unconscious. His side of the story is rather tame and consists of a young gentleman who visits him on a regular basis to play him guitar songs. This man is revealed to be his father under the pretense of a hospital performer. During Emma's time in limbo Charlie explains his need for pizza to bring him out of his coma, and to explain to his father that his state is not his father's fault. The show ends with some brief scenes of intimacy between our new characters and seems unnecessarily rushed for substance in future episodes.
Overall, the show is highly cliché with overused motifs and would have greater potential if the writers placed a bit more emphasis on realism and more believable emotional connections.
score 4/10
sam-sawhney 18 September 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3088475/14243
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