Together medical and crime drama will forever make up the vast majority of scripted television. Although the schedules are already packed with medical shows (Greys Anatomy, House, Private Practice to name a few), 2009 sees the debut of no less than 7 new medical shows – Mental, Mercy, Trauma, Miami Trauma, Royal Pains, Three Rivers and Nurse Jackie. We will get around to all these shows, but we are going to start with Nurse Jackie 
Showtime has been having great success with their new shows in recent years, Dexter
Starring Edie Falco of Sopranos fame as Jackie, an emergency room nurse at All Saints’ Hospital in New York City, the show moves away from the doctors and focuses on the unsung heroes of the hospital. In the opening scene we learn of the nurse’s plight, they have been there and seen it all only be treated as a dog’s body by the young doctors who just because they lay claim to a title does not mean they are capable of doing the job. Of course everyone has to start somewhere, even nurses and that is why we are introduced to Zoe, a nurse fresh on the scene and desperate to make a good impression. Working 80 hour weeks is both chastised and encouraged by the hospital management which leaves the majority of Jackie’s life trapped within those walls. In between looking out for patients, training a new nurse, going for dinner with her English doctor friend, Jackie manages to carry on sexual relationship with Eddie who works with all pharmaceuticals. This last relationship is probably the most useful since Jackie suffers from a bad back that only snorting pain killers can keep at bay.
Ultimately we are presented with highly moral individual who is nearly blind to her own flaws, she knows she is good at her job and can’t let any injustice slip her by. We are very much on Jackie’s side, as she cuts corners, carries out revenge and chastises those who have not listened, but we know her behaviour cannot continue without some kind of blowback and that is what we are both waiting for and dreading.
Nurse Jackie delivered Showtime with its most successful premiere to date and was immediately picked up for a second season. No news yet on who is picking this Nurse Jackie up in the UK which is a shame as this is probably one of the best new shows so far this year.
Written by: Liz Brixius, Linda Wallem, and Evan Dunsky
Directed by: Allen Coulter
Starring: Edie Falco, Eve Best, Peter Facinelli, Merritt Wever, Haaz Sleiman, Paul Schulze
Date premièred: 8th June 2009
UK Details: None available.
left the airwaves and not doubt this was spotted by studio execs as 2 possible replacements are heading to a screen near you in the near future. Malcolm in the Middle creator Linwood Boomer has his new family comedy series The Karenskys, while former Malcolm in the Middle star Justin Berfield (Reese) has turned his hand to producing (alongside Jason Felts, Harvey Myman & Todd Holland) in the upcoming “Sons of Tucson”.
, but currently doesn’t look surpass either of these hits. I’ll be watching but my hopes for a new Malcolm in the Middle are now be rested on The Karenskys.
is set on board a space ship on a ten year mission to explore a distant star, the 12 man crew spend their time playing with
was pitched as ‘
in space’, and is a multinationally produced show made by Fox (US), BBC (UK), Omni Film, CTV, SPACE (Canada) and ProSieben (Germany). Set in the year 2052, man has already landed on Mars, but now they are going on a 6 year mission to visit other planets in the solar system (Optimistically hoping for 6 seasons?). The pilot sees the selected galactic adventures launch into space before a couple of astronauts get sick and one of those goes off the deep end and ventures out for a space walk. Two replacement astronauts are sent up including the first man to land on Mars who left 2 of his colleagues behind on the red planet to die. Unlike the reality show being produced for the earth audience in Virtuality, the crew of Defying Gravity are making a documentary. With love in the air, the astronauts lucky enough to hook up are hoping that Ridley Scott was right and that ‘in space no one can you scream.’
and 
to 
and 
, a 30 minute comic drama about a high school sports teacher who uses his God given gift of a huge dong to supplement his income. In the pilot episode Ray Drecker narrates his way through his dilemma, a jock in high school, he married his sweetheart and had a promising career as a professional athlete. However he is now divorced with 2 children, his house is falling down and an injury has left teaching his only option with the limited skills he has. Desperate for money he turns to a class in starting up a business and is told that everyone has a talent others will pay for. Ray struggling to find what he has to offer comes to the conclusion his wang holds the answer and decides to become a male a jiggalo. A woman in his business class loves the idea and takes on the role as his pimp, dressing him up, teaching him how to act and running a marketing campaign.
and has similar sensibility of people making the best of a bad situation. A slightly heavy handed pilot in terms of being spoon fed information, but this is a promising start and unlike other HBO shows which has seen characters enjoying wealth, this is a story about a man in a situation that more people can identify with. There is a fair amount of struggle for the main character to reach his goals and there are many, many issues left to explore. This could be the headline grabbing show HBO has been looking for, so much so that a second series has already been ordered.
struggled on Fox for a couple of seasons before the execs decided that it wasn’t doing well enough and cancelled it. But all was not lost as public outcry got the show back on the air, but it short lived and the show was cancelled again in 2002. For next few years DVDs continued to sell and the show syndicated on Adult Swim was still performing well. Fox said lets have some more and Seth has been the darling of the channel ever since. 
followed shortly after and then began rumours of a spin off show about Peter Griffin’s neighbour Cleveland.
has finally arrived. Cleveland leaves Quahog with son in search of his dream in Hollywood. On the way he passes through his home town and meets the girl he loved in high school who is now a single mother with a teenage daughter and smart alek toddler. Romance blossoms and Cleveland decides stay. While American Dad has a talking fish, Family Guy has a talking dog, The Cleveland Show has a talking bear. Other neighbours include the local racist redneck, a middle aged hipster who lives with his mum.
. Unfortunately there is little here to recommend in The Cleveland Show. The family looks like a black version of the Griffins and you have to wonder how much election of a black president factored into the commissioning of the show (after all the other black sitcom
just got cancelled leaving a gap in the market) but this show plays so heavily on stereotypes it boarders on offensive. They don’t hide this fact and even go as far as hanging a hat on it, “I hate it when white folks make a show they think black folk will watch.” Cleveland is not a character who excites very much, he kinda just goes with the flow, which means the people around him have to be over the top to generate the comedy. Even Stewie comments “What the hell, he’s getting his own show!”
