Network, cable shows prey on viewers' sympathies by placing teens in peril
June 17, 2007
BY DOUG ELFMAN
I don't know why everyone was having so much sex, and then babies, between 1992 and 1994. But apparently, TNT thinks there are a lot of viewers now raising 12- and 14-year-olds who wish to see teens like theirs in peril on TV shows.
In the season premiere of "The Closer" -- billed as "ad-supported cable's No. 1 show" -- Detective Brenda snoops the murder of an entire family, and the very bloody topper is that even the family's 12-year-old daughter gets stabbed a bunch.
Brenda groans to her boss, "You consider gettin' out of bed at 3 in the morning and examinin' a 12-year-old girl who's been stabbed through the heart. What about her needs, Will? What about that?"
Then comes the debut of TNT's "Heartland." It's a doctor show set in an organ-transplant hospital, and the first case is a 14-year-old girl in dire need of a new heart. (Or is it a liver? Who can keep up with the melodrama?)
This post-9/11, your-children-are-in-danger theme has been fearmongering rampantly for at least the past TV season, especially in premiere episodes.
During last fall's debuts, boys and girls were: blown up (in Fox's "Vanished"); held hostage (Fox's "Standoff"); murdered (CW's "Runaway"); dug up from mass graves (Showtime's "Dexter"); driven over (NBC's "The Black Donnellys"); and choked nearly to death (CBS's "Jericho").
Clearly what's happening here is pandering. Putting young hearts in harm's way is a narrative shortcut to draw viewers' attention and sympathy. Will the little girl get her heart? Will the little girl's murder be avenged?
Keep your fingers crossed for the little tykes. They're so cute/dead!
You have to hand it to last week's fantastic season debut of FX's "Rescue Me." No kids were in jeopardy. But the show's firefighters did try to save some cats. I'll consider feline endangerment a step in a new direction.
The critic's question is this: Do the perishing daughters help make "The Closer" and "Heartland" any good? Yes, in the case of "The Closer," and no, in the case of "Heartland."
"The Closer" serves a pretty good tale on occasion, and this newest slaying is an acceptably average whodunit solved with an acceptably average twist.
But half of the Kyra Sedgwick vehicle is well-done character development: Will she eat chocolate again? How will she meet her budget without laying off a detective? Will she stop being gun-shy with her man?
Those personal details, mixed with a few sleek caper scenes, give the show its watchability. It's a good distraction.
The dialogue can be cleverly efficient, too. Here's how Brenda explains why she wants to question a suspect before arresting him: "Arrest, lawyer, the end." That's nice.
On the other hand, "Heartland" should be titled "Heartstrings" for all the hankies it dabs at viewers' tear ducts.
There's the 14-year-old dying girl in the hospital bed, of course. But then there's central character Dr. Nathaniel Grant (Treat Williams) ,who is gruff (like "House"), and has the ability or hallucinations to see dead people.
When he eyes patients who have received organ transplants, he sees the ghosts of organ donors.
"I know how this sounds, but sometimes I can see the donors in my patients," the doctor says to some sad guy.
I know how it sounds to me. It sounds like "Heartland" is borrowing from that short-lived CBS show from this season, "3 lbs.," the one where the great Stanley Tucci saw his character's ghost daughter when he looked at patients.
"Heartland" borrows from/parallels "The Closer" in other ways.
For one thing, Dr. Grant is a smoker on the side, the way "The Closer's" Detective Brenda is a closet sugar-rusher.
And Dr. Grant puts off women who lust after him, just as Detective Brenda puts off her mate. In "Heartland," a hot nurse keeps asking Grant to go eat with her, but he says he has hearts to wait for. There will always be hearts to wait for.
In the "Closer" opener, Brenda's guy wants her to frolic on the weekend, but she has a homicide to investigate. "You always have a murder!" he gripes.
One thing "Heartland" doesn't borrow from is cinema. There have been at least two great organ donation movies. Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro were awesome in "21 Grams." And David Duchovny and Minnie Driver were lovely in "Return to Me."
Those films, though, focused on organ recipients. "Heartland" concentrates mostly on doctors, as dying children wait in the wings for their emotional cues. Is that wise?
I mean, just think of all those 6-year-old and 10-year-old actors in the world who are just dying to die for ratings.
delfman@suntimes.com
BY DOUG ELFMAN
I don't know why everyone was having so much sex, and then babies, between 1992 and 1994. But apparently, TNT thinks there are a lot of viewers now raising 12- and 14-year-olds who wish to see teens like theirs in peril on TV shows.
In the season premiere of "The Closer" -- billed as "ad-supported cable's No. 1 show" -- Detective Brenda snoops the murder of an entire family, and the very bloody topper is that even the family's 12-year-old daughter gets stabbed a bunch.
Brenda groans to her boss, "You consider gettin' out of bed at 3 in the morning and examinin' a 12-year-old girl who's been stabbed through the heart. What about her needs, Will? What about that?"
Then comes the debut of TNT's "Heartland." It's a doctor show set in an organ-transplant hospital, and the first case is a 14-year-old girl in dire need of a new heart. (Or is it a liver? Who can keep up with the melodrama?)
This post-9/11, your-children-are-in-danger theme has been fearmongering rampantly for at least the past TV season, especially in premiere episodes.
During last fall's debuts, boys and girls were: blown up (in Fox's "Vanished"); held hostage (Fox's "Standoff"); murdered (CW's "Runaway"); dug up from mass graves (Showtime's "Dexter"); driven over (NBC's "The Black Donnellys"); and choked nearly to death (CBS's "Jericho").
Clearly what's happening here is pandering. Putting young hearts in harm's way is a narrative shortcut to draw viewers' attention and sympathy. Will the little girl get her heart? Will the little girl's murder be avenged?
Keep your fingers crossed for the little tykes. They're so cute/dead!
You have to hand it to last week's fantastic season debut of FX's "Rescue Me." No kids were in jeopardy. But the show's firefighters did try to save some cats. I'll consider feline endangerment a step in a new direction.
The critic's question is this: Do the perishing daughters help make "The Closer" and "Heartland" any good? Yes, in the case of "The Closer," and no, in the case of "Heartland."
"The Closer" serves a pretty good tale on occasion, and this newest slaying is an acceptably average whodunit solved with an acceptably average twist.
But half of the Kyra Sedgwick vehicle is well-done character development: Will she eat chocolate again? How will she meet her budget without laying off a detective? Will she stop being gun-shy with her man?
Those personal details, mixed with a few sleek caper scenes, give the show its watchability. It's a good distraction.
The dialogue can be cleverly efficient, too. Here's how Brenda explains why she wants to question a suspect before arresting him: "Arrest, lawyer, the end." That's nice.
On the other hand, "Heartland" should be titled "Heartstrings" for all the hankies it dabs at viewers' tear ducts.
There's the 14-year-old dying girl in the hospital bed, of course. But then there's central character Dr. Nathaniel Grant (Treat Williams) ,who is gruff (like "House"), and has the ability or hallucinations to see dead people.
When he eyes patients who have received organ transplants, he sees the ghosts of organ donors.
"I know how this sounds, but sometimes I can see the donors in my patients," the doctor says to some sad guy.
I know how it sounds to me. It sounds like "Heartland" is borrowing from that short-lived CBS show from this season, "3 lbs.," the one where the great Stanley Tucci saw his character's ghost daughter when he looked at patients.
"Heartland" borrows from/parallels "The Closer" in other ways.
For one thing, Dr. Grant is a smoker on the side, the way "The Closer's" Detective Brenda is a closet sugar-rusher.
And Dr. Grant puts off women who lust after him, just as Detective Brenda puts off her mate. In "Heartland," a hot nurse keeps asking Grant to go eat with her, but he says he has hearts to wait for. There will always be hearts to wait for.
In the "Closer" opener, Brenda's guy wants her to frolic on the weekend, but she has a homicide to investigate. "You always have a murder!" he gripes.
One thing "Heartland" doesn't borrow from is cinema. There have been at least two great organ donation movies. Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro were awesome in "21 Grams." And David Duchovny and Minnie Driver were lovely in "Return to Me."
Those films, though, focused on organ recipients. "Heartland" concentrates mostly on doctors, as dying children wait in the wings for their emotional cues. Is that wise?
I mean, just think of all those 6-year-old and 10-year-old actors in the world who are just dying to die for ratings.
delfman@suntimes.com
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