Zap2it
June 17, 2009
Should 'Hawthorne' stick around?
By Rick Porter
"Hawthorne" premiered on TNT Tuesday night after a round of mixed-to-negative reviews. But now that critics have had their say, we want to know what you thought.
The medical drama starring Jada Pinkett Smith as the patients-first, rule-breaking head of nursing at a Virginia hospital, premiered to solid ratings: About 3.8 million people tuned in. That's well below the level of TNT's biggest show, "The Closer," but still a pretty good number for a cable series. It should finish in the top 20 for the week.
(TNT's other Tuesday drama premiere, "Saving Grace," drew a shade under 3.5 million viewers. That's just above its average for last season.)
Here's what some critics had to say about "Hawthorne." You can weigh in yourself in the comments and the poll below.
Mary McNamara, LA Times: "'Character-driven' shouldn't mean boring, and the front-loading of righteous pro-nurse speechifying by Christina doesn't do 'Hawthorne' any favors."
David Hinckley, New York Daily News: "The pieces are in place for a solid drama-with-humor, the kind that cable channels are serving like aspirin these days. The problem is this show hasn't quite figured out yet how to integrate all the components into a uniform tone and direction."
Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune: "... has the painfully earnest, painfully obvious aura of something that was made by people who've never seen an episode of 'ER,' 'House' or any of the canny star vehicles that cable channels have cooked up in recent years for top-notch actresses."
Alessandra Stanley, New York Times: "Christina doesn't fit the TNT mold of unconventional heroine; she couldn't be more predictably valiant. And that is oddly counterintuitive at a time when television increasingly savors imperfection."
Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe: "Smith's Christina, also the widowed mother of a rebellious teen girl, is so unblemished, she's blandly off-putting. When a show wants me to worship a character this feverishly, I can't help it, I resist."
© 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
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