With Nurse Jackie, HawthoRNe, and Mercy all barrelling our way, television is lousy with new shows about nurses. But why? What is the reason for all this nurse-osity?
Over at NPR, I just revealed the true, secret reason these series are on the air. Check it out here!
1 response so far ↓
1 Michael // Jun 5, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I tie the new nursing shows together with “Mental,” a fantasy about a renegade doctor who breaks the rules because he . . cares. It’s pure pop-culture compensatory fantasy. A nation that jails more of its citizens than any other Western democracy, where racism and lawyer incompetence and idiot juries and the farcical “drug war” put the wrong people in jail at alarming rates watches what on TV? Why, crime show after crime show in which the cops are always honest, the criminals always in need of legal punishment, and the legal system awash in brilliant, dedicated professionals. With the economy crashing, most of us are more afraid than ever of illness in a world seemingly run by big pharmaceuticals: more treatments than ever for more illnesses than ever, none of which anyone can afford. The health care system doesn’t care, so what will we watch on TV? Beautiful, caring medical professionals. We want to live in TV.
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