TRAUMA Premiere, 20 Sep 09

[Dustdevil]

I figure we may as well have a thread to express our disgust for this new show in before it is cancelled.

Video Link: http://www.emtcity.com/index.php?app=videos&do=view&id=10 - Admin

When It's On: The series premiere of 'Trauma' is Monday, September 28th a 9p (8 Central). In the pilot, San Francisco's team of first responders deal with a tragedy involving their own.

http://connect.jems.com/forum/topics/no-heroes-as-nbcs-trauma-fails

No Heroes as NBC's 'Trauma' Fails to Deliver - a JEMS Review

Posted by JEMS Web Chief on September 27, 2009 at 8:47pm

A.J. Heightman

Editor-in-Chief, JEMS

The new series Trauma premiering Monday night is being billed by NBC as "the first high-octane medical drama series to live exclusively in the field." The show's Website says it's "like an adrenaline shot to the heart, an intense, action-packed look at one of the most dangerous medical professions in the world: first responder paramedics." Unfortunately having had the opportunity to view the pilot in advance of its September 28 premiere, I think the series is ripe for "Do Not Resuscitate Orders".

I realize that, having been raised watching the epic Emergency! TV series, I have a bias for shows that portray emergency personnel as professional in appearance and attitude, disciplined and ethical and compassionate to their patients.

I also realize that it's 2009 and writers and producers like to inject sex into every episode, and have characters with cocky, rebellious 90210ish cast members who bring a host of personal problems to work, but this series bubbles over with a cast that should be stationed on Wisteria Lane, not the streets of San Francisco.

The premiere of Trauma doesn't begin with a well-dressed crew checking their drugs and equipment before their first run. It starts with the sights and sounds of the boyfriend/girlfriend crew having sex in the patient compartment of their rig.

Then, before you can get the words "I can't believe it" out of your lips, you hear the dispatcher (who obviously knows the way the crew starts their shift), tell "Naughty Nancy" Carnahan to button her blouse and respond to an emergency call.

You're next brought to the rooftop resuscitation of an electrocuted patient who gets a helicopter response in the middle of the city. It's here you're introduced to the wacko of the show, helicopter paramedic Reuben "Rabbit" Palchuk, a raucous dude with an attitude as big as his helicopter. The show's promotional hype says Reuben "oozes bravado to match his talent, but there's a hint of vulnerability in there too... which charms the panties off all the girls. They don't call him "Rabbit" for nothing."

Hold on, it gets worse.

Turns out, "Rabbit" is also a sexist who personally selects the male member of the sex crew to accompany the patient because he doesn't want a female medic in "his" helicopter.

Don't be mad, be sad, because, when the chopper lifts off the roof, instead of departing and gaining altitude like every well-trained aeromedical pilot in the nation does, the pilot of "Angel Rescue 2" swoops down between the skyscrapers and collides with a sightseeing helicopter that's also flying between the buildings. Everybody on board the choppers dies except for (you guessed it) "Rabbit".

Reuben the rebel lives to fly another day.

The show flashes forward a year and "Rabbit" returns to work cockier than ever and equipped with a new, post-traumatic "I can't die" attitude. He takes his new, young, petite, ex-Iraq war chopper pilot on a high-speed, reckless ride down the hills of San Francisco, telling her it's like the scene in Steve McQueen's movie "Bullitt".

"Bullitt"? "Bullitt" was released 1968, 41 years ago. Even I don't remember Bullitt!

If Rabbit's law-breaking ride doesn't ruin our image enough, he proceeds to rip the door off a drunk's car as the man attempts to get in his parked car. Then he cons the inebriant into believing the incident was his fault. Don't fret though, because Reuben, ever the gentleman, strolls into the nearby bar to retrieve a pitcher full of ice for the man to put his amputated fingers in.

Just when you think this show can't get any worse, you're taken to a corny multi-vehicle car-versus-gasoline truck MCI (caused by a text-messaging jerk), and forced to watch some of the most unethical EMS behavior you'll ever see.

First, "Rabbit" lands in his chopper and waltzes up the highway and hears the text-messaging patient whining that "he wants to go in the helicopter". Without skipping a beat, Reuben injects him with Versed and walks away.

Then, stoic Cameron Boone, a black paramedic who carries emotional baggage (and a strained marriage) after witnessing his friends die in the aeromedical crash, encounters a pretty blonde patient with a minor arm injury and "re-triages" her so she can get a ride in the helicopter with him.

While "Rabbit" gets set to ride shotgun and leave Cameron alone in the back of the chopper with the target of his affection, his rookie helicopter pilot, Marisa Benez, welcomes him to "Booty Airlines".

There is a happy ending to this magical series premier though. Despite detesting "Rabbit" for his bad attitude and for surviving the crash that killed her boyfriend, she closes out the show by hopping in bed with him.

Johnny and Roy, please don't watch this show. Stop by my house and we'll do shots of Ipecac instead.

A.J. Heightman is Editor-in-Chief of JEMS

Edited October 1, 2009 by EMT City Administrator
Added link to view the show

[Medic One]

The show is already CTD FTD and at ten pm will be DRT.!!

[ptfd121]

Ah geeze! Let me know when the defibrillate someone in water while doing a handstand on the paddles, I'll be watching Emergency! on DVD instead of this madness.

[P_Instructor]

Go back to showing 'Mother, Jugs, & Speed' over and over on AMC.

[funkytomtom]

What did you expect? Realism? I don't think it really gives us a bad name any more than "House" gives doctors a bad name. There might be certain people who believe ems is really this way, but they are few and probably quite stupid anyways. A realistic ems show would tank quick: aesthetically unpleasing medics sit around station, watching tv, then respond to a situation where nuances play a much greater role than explosions or sex... I'll probably watch it just for kicks if I happen to be sitting around...

[Kiwiology]

Oh please what a lot of bullshit.

Did I mention that the San Francisco Fire Department is now having to "un-merge" medical after they cannabilized Department of Public Health EMS in the late nineties because they screwed it up so bad?

[dystorteddream]

wow gotta love idiotic representations of our job. And then we wonder why we don't get paid jack squat for doing what we do. Instead of celebrating those that come early, make sure their rigs are in tip top shape, do everything for their patients that is ethically possible... we're instead stuck watching the egotistical paragods who can't keep it in their pants and risk their life, their partner's life, and can't forget their patient's and the public's lives. We all know that the majority of us are type-a personalities, but that doesn't mean that all of us are in it for the EMS (extra marital sex). Maybe one day we'll be taken seriously, but until then... we'll always be too slow arriving when we're needed, or in the way when we're not.

[WolfmanHarris]

I'll watch it for the same reason I watched the first episode of "The Listener," morbid curiousity and perhaps a bit of masochism.

The show might make a good drinking game. Take a drink (or shot) every time you wonder what else is on. First person to change the channel has to chug and buys the pizza.

[P_Instructor]

There used to be a very low budgeted program produced by some Hollywood person who lost their daughter because of some accident, or she was saved, or whatever. This program was all 'real calls' whether EMS, Fire, Law, or Aeromedical. It was called "Emergency on Scene". I have a few video taped segments of it, all raw footage. This is what should be shown. Real stuff, not the 'ab-lib' dung that everyone thinks they want to see.

[JakeEMTP]

It seems like Hollywood has missed once again. If they would at least try and make it somewhat "real world" people might watch it. Jumping out of your helicopter with your cape on, popping someone with Versed and walking away is poor form and just down right wrong. I, like everyone else has seen the trailer for this trash. It's crap and left a funny taste in my mouth.

The sad part is, the lay public might just like this show and it will stay on forever to the determent of my chosen profession. Shows like this do nothing for EMS but coddle the cowboy mentality and attract whackers.

Ha! One of the comments from the JEMS crowd suggested a show like "COPS" for EMS. "Paramedics" was the closest thing to reality that we had and was a decent show but was thwarted by HIPPA. The reality is, a show showing the way things really are is boring and wouldn't sell. Can you imagine 2 out of shape EMT's complete with ballcap, "You can't force me to run into a burning building, I'm a volunteer" T-shirt sitting around eating "Cheetos" and watching Jerry Springer for hours until the tones go off? Not my idea of entertainment.

Disclaimer: Before some of you go off the deep end, My description was purely fictional, I hope. God knows no of you work for a squad like that!