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You Make the Call…NBC’s TRAUMA

ymtk-140x200 EMS’s best bet at getting a foot in the door of the American household has died.

NBC announced the cancellation of their Drama TRAUMA, despite it being one of the better shows on the network right now. They are likely watching the blogosphere and reading articles that were critical of the first episode and wondering how to cut their losses. Hundreds signed onto a Facebook group demanding the show be canceled. I asked those folks to submit story ideas or shut up. But no one listens to me.

Here’s an idea NBC, keep the show on.

No, really, hear me out on this one.

You’re just starting to get there, the characters are finally starting to sound less like models and more like EMTs. The accidents are more believable and I didn’t shout at the TV once last episode, and that’s saying something.

Sure it’s some writer’s dream of what EMS could be and not an accurate portrayal of EMS in San Francisco or any other City, but we know it’s only TV. Maybe close down the helicopters and make the medics actually transport. Show how we have to start IVs at 35 mph on City streets while keeping one eye on the V-tach and another on the airway.

Show at least a little something that will bring the industry, the administrations and, most importantly, the professionals you represent as your main characters behind your investment. We don’t get excited by explosions and gore, that’s our business. Imagine us making a show about TV executives, is 30 Rock accurate?

Somewhere in Iowa an EMT student watched wide eyed as someone like them was the center of a show. A young woman in Florida now wants to be a Paramedic because of this show. And a tired Paramedic in San Francisco enjoyed watching people dressed like him do some pretty cool stuff.

You canceled the show and now will fill it with some crappy sit-com reshuffled from the old Hollywood play list. Or worse, another cop drama. Enough with the cop dramas, we get it, they solve crimes. You had the chance to show the public how EMS providers solve mysteries day in and day out. Medical mysteries. You had House, CSI, Law and Order and a pinch of Baywatch all rolled into one…and you flushed it.

Did NBC do the right thing? You make the call.

Posted by Justin Schorr on October 30, 2009 • Filed under: Administrative, EMS Topics, News, You Make the Call • Tagged: NBC's TRAUMA, You Make the Call Admin

TRAUMA is stable, but still critical, and so am I

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We’ve been watching for a while now and it seems the Producers of NBC’s TRAUMA may have been listening.

There are facebook groups calling for the show to be canceled? Really, guys? I can understand wanting to see another episode of Wife Swap, but this show is fun to watch, admit it. Only about 20% of it is accurate, but then again…IT’S TV!

Aside from all the usual “But you went to Medical School” stuff and “I want to goto Medical School” (PS NBC – We all want to be Paramedics, not Doctors. This job is not a stepping stone, it’s a real Profession) industry line, there is one glimmering gem in the show that keeps me coming back.

And no, it’s not “That hottie…um…” It’s Kevin Rankin’s character on Medic 78, Tyler Briggs. The one on the right in the above picture, who looks like he has somewhere else to be.

We like Briggs because he has an inappropriate sense of humor, laughs when he shouldn’t, is always quick with a one liner and doesn’t freak out on emergency calls. Last night I caught up on an episode, the one when they were looking for the bit of tongue in a crowd. The back and forth with his partner was right out of a dozen jobs I worked.

“Why do I have to look for the tongue?”

“Because I’m the Paramedic, when you get that extra training, then you can stay here, but for now go look for it.”

Tell me you’ve never used that line on an EMT partner. And then tell me one of your medics never used that on you back in the day.

Another interesting point to ponder is that we know nothing about Tyler other than his job. We like that about him. He has no baggage, no side story, nothing to distract us from him as a caregiver. Perfect character so far NBC, now just do that over and over again and you’ll be all set.

One other suggestion, while I’m at it. Show us less of how the accident happened. Most of the intrigue of this job, and I think your viewers like about detective shows, is that we’re dispatched and arrive on scene not knowing what happened. Let your viewers share in the discovery with the crews as they arrive on scene and have to figure out what happened. All the pauses to see the lead up to an accident cuts into the flow of the show.

That being said, I am enjoying it for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we finally have Paramedics back in the public eye. Most may not like the manner in which it is being done, but I’ll take what I can get. Second, it really is entertaining when you just let it be a TV show and stop whining that “We don’t do that” and “That looks so fake.” So is most of television these days. Thirdly, I like seeing my friends and co-workers in the background and with bit parts as firefighters in the background. And personal props to an Lt from 13 for wearing a truck helmet in a recent episode. That’s the one with the red and white panels painted.

Keep watching, friends, keep watching. The show is improving from it’s odd beginning of sex in the rig (Gasp, no!) and ambulances taken to the park for beers (Eek!) and moving towards keeping the show about the service and the calls and less about the home lives of the characters.

Tyler Briggs is a success story in my book, don’t change him a bit.

“Keep pissing me off and I’ll make you clean this rig for a month” he is told be his medic.

In a great deadpan he responds like any EMT would:

“I already clean this rig.”

This actor paid attention on his ride-alongs.

Posted by Justin Schorr on October 29, 2009 • Filed under: Administrative, News • Tagged: NBC's TRAUMA

Are you already intubating TRAUMA?

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Medic 78

The Crew of Medic 77 – Kevin Rankin as Tyler, Derek Luke as Boone in NBC’s TRAUMA

The buzz is alive! NBC’s “new hit” TRAUMA premieres tonight, as I’m sure anyone who visits these pages and others already knows.

Thing is I’m already hearing from my co-workers and others that the show is doomed to fail.
“Looks so fake.” I was told by a fellow watching The Terminator.
“It isn’t like that at all, that’s not an accurate picture of what we do.” Said the woman who adores CSI:Las Vegas.

My point here is that this is not a documentary about EMS, that Project got knocked down, this is TV. A TV show not unlike the one with the yellow family that hasn’t aged in 20 years, or the genius doctor and his merry group of physicians treating the exotic, or perhaps my favorite show about spaceships and people that talk funny.

It’s TV. This is not the Emergency! of our generation, we know that, so lower the bar of expectations a bit my friends.

TV Paramedics never seem to do well for two main reasons.
1. No one wants to watch a show about what we ACTUALLY do. There is no good TV value in watching me help a 45 year old man claiming to have an asthma attack scream about how much I abuse him every week, without a single wheeze. Boring. Funny in the moment, but boring. The magic we on occasion create, when a patient actually responds to a complex treatment is rare and over quickly, mainly because we tend to move quickly to definitive care.

2. They follow the characters home. In my exhaustive 10 minute research on the subject of TV Paramedics, I’ve found that each had a really good chance of succeeding until the story followed them home.

Case in point:
Paramedic Wyatt Cole from TNT’s Saved was a great example of a Paramedic of the 21st Century. Apart from the whole “I graduated Medical School but I hate my father so I work on an ambulance” story line, he was a true caregiver who they showed actually caring. The show was clearly written by someone who worked in the field, since they had smelly regulars and a rival ambulance company pushing unwanted vagrants into their roll area. It was a fun medical show, but the home lives of the characters began to take up more of the show and before you knew it it was less of a Paramedic show and more of a show about a guy who happens to work in EMS.

Law & Order does so well because you know exactly what is going to happen every week. 30 minutes of Police doing amazing police things, a twist, an arrest, and then 30 minutes of lawyering. No homelife BS, no diversions, plain and simple. In the rare cases they do wander home, it’s part of the case.

TV isn’t meant to be real, guys and gals, it is meant to be entertaining. Tonight, when you’re angry that someone did something WAY outside their scope of practice, or says something like, “Don’t you die on me now!” take a deep breath and imagine Motorcop watching reruns of Chips, or Firegeezer watching Rescue Me, don’t get upset if it’s not an accurate portrayal of EMS in the US, heck from what I can tell it’s not even an accurate portrayal of EMS in San Francisco.

TRAUMA is a TV show about Paramedics, not FOR Paramedics. If it was, it would be on the BBC or Discovery Channel and actually ride along with Paramedics. Wait a minute, I swear I’ve seen such a program…

I will be watching it here at the Angry Captain’s place with an open mind and a hope for entertaining television. And even if it fails to make me cheer, I’ll keep watching it because it has helicopters and explosions, which are never a bad thing.

Posted by Justin Schorr on September 28, 2009 • Filed under: Administrative, EMS Topics, News • Tagged: NBC's TRAUMA