Pilot Review: Saving Hope

Saving Hope (NBC)
Premiered June 7 at 9pm

The broadcast networks don’t save their best shows for summer. Therefore hopes, if you’ll pardon the word, aren’t high for this medical drama that may or may not have a supernatural twist. I say that mainly because it’s entirely unclear from the pilot episode exactly what the comatose Dr. Charlie Harris is capable of since he stands idly by watching things most of the time and only has one quick conversation with a deceased John Doe, gleaning crucial information about his identity that he doesn’t even try to share with anyone. Absent an explanation or even a spotlight, events at Hope Zion Hospital in Toronto are less than exciting, and there’s not much appeal to be found anywhere. After spending six seasons complaining and spitting out sarcastic dialogue on “Smallville” as Lois Lane, Erica Durance has found a somewhat calmer but equally irksome and hardheaded part as surgeon Alex Reid, who is likely to be influenced considerably by the comatose status of her fiancé. No one else in the cast deserves mention, not simply because of their unknown status in the United States but because their characters are so uniformly unspectacular. I initially thought that this was a Canadian series from the spring being imported for airing in American television over the summer, but it’s actually airing new episodes simultaneously on CTV in Canada and on NBC here in the United States. That means people in both countries will get to experience this lackluster medical drama at the same time. Lucky them.

How will it work as a series? That remains to be seen, since this pilot was the opposite of indicative of what the show will be like, though I worry that future episodes may be just as disjointed and pointless, featuring medical show tropes and stale characters and nothing more than a hint of a less-than-original from-the-beyond twist.
How long will it last? Judging this show is difficult since it’s not going to bring in the same kind of numbers as regular primetime programming, but it did well compared to what NBC aired last year. A modest thirteen episode order should be just what this show makes it through, and I wouldn’t expect much fanfare after that.

Pilot grade: D+