While most so-called reality TV shows are unwatchable and uninspired, there's a show about actual reality that begins tonight (Wednesday, 10 ET) on ABC, and sparkles like a diamond amid all the summertime TV coal. It's an eight-week documentary series called Boston Med, and it's captivating. [I review it on today's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, but other observations, as well as a link to the review, follow...]
Most of ABC's new summer offerings are scripted, and are disappointing. The Gates, despite Rhona Mitra, is a pale, diluted version of HBO's True Blood. Scoundrels, despite Virginia Madsen, is a pale, diluted version of FX's The Riches. And tonight's Rookie Blue, a Canadian import, is a pale, diluted version of just about every raw-recruit cop series ever made.
Ah, but Boston Med, which begins tonight and runs Thursdays through the summer, is a pleasant, unscripted exception. Like Hopkins, a previous ABC documentary series from executive producer Terry Wrong, it captures true life -- and true death -- in the rooms and corridors of a major medical institution. In this case, Wrong and his crew filmed, for more than a year, at three Boston facilities, and emerged with dozens of compelling, often overlapping stories.
My full Fresh Air review can be read now, and heard after about 5 p.m. ET, by clicking HERE.
Meanwhile, let me add two things.
One is that, in tonight's opening installment, you'll meet Pina Patel, a fourth-year resident who wonders whether, outside of her demanding and successful career, she'll ever find the right guy. This show should help: She comes off as absolutely charming.
Two is that, when this series concludes in two weeks, it does so with a special episode, about the world's second attempted face transplant, that is a knockout hour of television -- with a real-life story line as twisty and turny, and as emotional and engrossing, as anything churned out by Hollywood screenwriters. Even the gifted ones.
I'll write more about this series after viewers have had a chance to sample it. For now, just check into Boston Med, and check it out. You won't be sorry.