I'm not one to dismiss a show after the pilot episode unless it's absolutely unwatchable. The pilot of Heartbeat wasn't great. Dr. Panettiere is an amalgamation of different TV doctor tropes, particularly 1 part House, 1 part Mindy(including a handsome British doctor), and 2 parts Grey's Anatomy. In the pilot, we see a flashback to our main character's first day on the job at her hospital, where she disguised herself as a different doctor so she could assist in a surgery because she thought the surgeon was dreamy. In the real world, a doctor committing an act of fraud like that would be in a lot of trouble, especially one just starting her career. But since this is a TV show, the handsome British doctor was impressed by her and happened to be wearing a t-shirt with a picture of her ex-husband, who by the way is a famous rock star. And apparently a famous rock star who has nothing better to do than hang around the house all day cooking for her and taking care of their kids. You know, like a typical rock star does.
Anyway, the show clearly has good medical consultants, because that part of the show was well done. So I decided to give Hearbeat a second chance.
And here's what Heartbeat did:
They started the second episode with our lead character getting a fire truck to fake an emergency so she could follow them and drive her Porsche over the speed limit. And when she gets to the hospital, the administrator that she frequently clashes with decides to overlook the gross misuse of emergency workers because she got to look at hunky firefighters. The plot of the episode was even worse. A pair of middle-aged soul-singing conjoined twins come into the hospital and find out one of them has cancer. Did I mention one of the twins is a lesbian and the other is straight?
Two episodes was enough for me. The show isn't funny enough to be a comedy, but it has a light-hearted attitude that keeps it from being a believable drama. Everything gets wrapped up neatly, and no one really has to deal with consequences from their misbehavior aside from briefly hurt feelings. Add in the ridiculous soap opera touches, and it's just a mess of a show that betrays the solid cast they assembled.
Anyway, the show clearly has good medical consultants, because that part of the show was well done. So I decided to give Hearbeat a second chance.
And here's what Heartbeat did:
They started the second episode with our lead character getting a fire truck to fake an emergency so she could follow them and drive her Porsche over the speed limit. And when she gets to the hospital, the administrator that she frequently clashes with decides to overlook the gross misuse of emergency workers because she got to look at hunky firefighters. The plot of the episode was even worse. A pair of middle-aged soul-singing conjoined twins come into the hospital and find out one of them has cancer. Did I mention one of the twins is a lesbian and the other is straight?
Two episodes was enough for me. The show isn't funny enough to be a comedy, but it has a light-hearted attitude that keeps it from being a believable drama. Everything gets wrapped up neatly, and no one really has to deal with consequences from their misbehavior aside from briefly hurt feelings. Add in the ridiculous soap opera touches, and it's just a mess of a show that betrays the solid cast they assembled.