Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
Michael Muller photo of "Marisa Benez" aka MRSA and played by Aimee Garcia
Now that things have wound down after the premier of NBC’s new show Trauma I would like to offer my take.
I read a complete review here prior to the show premiering (A.J. Heightman is Editor-in-Chief of JEMS you can read it here.). I was involved in live chat during the show. I listened to the talk. I was amazed that the guys [Jamie Davis (Mediccast.com), Greg Friese (EMS EduCast), and Chris Montera (EMS Garage)] doing the chat/podcast were able to get Aimee Garcia (her blog on the show here) on the show to talk to us. That was wild!
If you would like to listen to the podcast you can click here.
Here are my thoughts.First and foremost, The Happy Medic said it best “TRAUMA is a TV show about Paramedics, not FOR Paramedics“.
We are talking about a primetime tv show that is centered around getting people to watch it. It is not a documentary, it is a tv show.
It was a premier…Therefore there HAS to be excitement = helicopters crashing…total carnage.
It is about paramedics…Therefore there has to be some technical skills = the cricotomy of the child in the car.
It is about people…Therefore they have to build characters = the ending of the show where everyone goes home.
It is in prime time…Therefore there has to be sex. Face it sex sells. The opening is one medic humping another medic like a rabbit.
It is a show…Therefore there has to be characters you love and others you love to hate (Rabbit aka Captain VERSED).
Face it. No one wants to watch two overweight, disgruntled, middle-aged, and ugly paramedics running bleeding rectums at the local old folks home all the while complaining about having to ride the box.
They want to see daring rescues, blood and guts, carnage, wrecks, broken bones, helicopters, and gore.
Much like you don’t see the guys on Rescue Me running alarm activations in downtown NYC.
As for paramedics and firefighters being critical of the show, that comes with the territory. I don’t blame them. They see their profession being twisted in Hollywood and feel slighted. That is acceptable. But like I said before, if the producers were to create a show based on the average everyday calls we run…they would not be producers much longer.
As for any effects that Trauma has on the Fire/EMS Service…I am not really sure there will be any. Last night during the after show podcast session, one medic posed the question if we thought that everyone will expect a helicopter on scene when they call 911. I don’t think so. If so, they will be sadly mistaken.
I think the show was interesting. I plan to tune in next week to see what is going on. I don’t watch a lot of shows in prime time network television. My wife watches Grey’s Anatomy…so I watch along. I am more of a Deadliest Catch, Andrew Zimmern, Man vs. Food, Anthony Bourdain kinda guy. I do enjoy watching Rescue Me when it is on though. I will see if I can fit in Trauma for a weekly viewRS.
I think the medics will watch it too. The ones who liked it will tune in naturally. The ones who hated it will watch to see what happens next and to scoff when something is not done quite like in the field.
What do you think?
