by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
Treat Williams’ seminal performance in the film Prince of The City, in 1981, established him as a top-tier actor. He went on to make hundreds of films and television appearances. Lately, Williams made a modern TV comeback on Everwood and Brothers & Sisters as Sally Field’s character’s love interest. Now, he stars in his own one-hour hospital drama on TNT, Heartland, as an overworked heart-transplant surgeon.
Alas, it’s yet another hospital drama, but instead of focusing on who’s doing what to whom (like Grey’s Anatomy), this drama has a soul. The drama is gleaned from the life-and-death issues of patients on transplant lists, often dying before they receive their donated organ. Nonetheless, it’s character-driven and there are the usual sexual tensions and conflicts among the doctors and staff. However, this dramatic yin-yang is balanced with bigger concerns.
Williams plays Dr. Nathaniel Grant, a dedicated lung and heart transplant specialist in a small hospital, St. Jude, which is devoted to transplants. His ex-wife, Kate, played skillfully by Keri Matchett, is the transplant coordinator. She lines up the organs and counsels the patients. Dr. Grant is romantically involved with one of the nurses, Jessica Kivala (Morena Baccarin), who is protective of him and endures his ex-wife’s snide remarks without even rolling her eyes. For Dr. Grant it’s not that awkward, he has moved on, but for his ex, it’s an uncomfortable situation. She shares custody of their daughter but, because Dr. Grant works so much, the teenager mostly stays with her mom.
The scenarios are built around the emotional toll of finding and performing transplants. Kate has the stressful job of approaching braindead victims’ family members to allow the hospital to harvest their organs for transplant. She is compassionate and sensitive to their grief. Her mission is to get them to sign the forms that allow the organ harvesting, but she doesn’t push it if the grieving family member is adamant about not doing it. It’s a subtle hint for people to sign their donor cards so their loved one’s don’t have to make that choice for them.
Interestingly, Dr. Grant is often caught in his own moral dilemmas, involving transplant patients who didn’t follow their post-transplant protocol. One man got a new liver and continued to drink, destroying his transplanted liver. Dr. Grant refused to operate on him, but the son desperately wanted his dad to live. So, Dr. Grant made an exception and did the transplant for the son.
This fictional hospital is about saving lives through organ transplant, but it’s more complicated when the transplant list’s integrity is compromised, which results in highly stressful situations. Who lives and who dies? Can the surgeons and transplant coordinators play God? These tension-filled conflicts lead to the strong emotional drama that carries the show. Dr. Grant’s love life is a minor concern. Although Kate can get catty with Jessica, she clearly harbors bitterness about her ex’s affair with Jessica, which broke up their marriage. In contrast, Dr. Grant is nice to Kate and he, at times, has regrets. But obviously, he loves Jessica and is over his relationship with Kate.
As the show dramatizes, not all transplants are successful. Sometimes, even with the anti-rejection drugs, the patient gets terminally ill and has to have another organ. It doesn’t always happen fast enough, and therefore the patients die, which is the worst-case scenario for Dr.Grant. He does everything in his power prevent that from happening.
This show is the best TV series Treat Williams has been involved with since he left Everwood. It’s a quality show with a stellar cast and intelligently-conceived scripts. TNT and other cable stalwarts are proving that they can launch quality shows such as this and The Closer. The Closer is followed by Heartland on Monday nights starting at 9 pm.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
