It is a truth universally acknowledged that medical dramas – mostly – look the same. White coats, white corridors, lots of things that go beep-beep. The architecture, the production design, even the post-ER camera style, all seem cut from the same cloth, which means a show can only truly distinguish itself in the writing.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That tends to make an honest genre of them. After all, these days it seems all it takes to make something critically exalted is to get a few people with beards, flick the camera lens to gritty and sell your show to Netflix. And audiences have been trained to think a good-looking show is a good show, to only to see the prettiest frame on the mantle rather than look more deeply into the pictures.
In the opening moments of Heartbeat (Universal Channel, Thursday, 8.30pm), there's a perilous moment where it could all collapse under the weight of its own cleverness. And it's clever. Terribly, terribly clever. Which is not to say the series is overwritten, but there are a lot of smart touches, maybe too many for a pilot episode.
The good news is that after the precarious beginning, when you fall into the rhythm of the series – tight, barbed, fast-cut but full of heart, literally and figuratively – it's an enjoyable night in. The gorgeous writing by Jill Gordon (My So-Called Life, The Wonder Years) finds freshness in a genre that is so well worn.
Grey's Anatomy does spring to mind, but where that is pure medical soap – a modern-day Young Doctors – Heartbeat is less about doctors kissing nurses and more a character-driven piece, where Melissa George comes to play. And play she does, dancing though scenes as though in a ballet and firing off her lines like an expert fencer. In the hands of a less capable actor it might unravel. But George, blending an icy dryness with an almost child-like sense of mischief, pulls it off.
The series is based on the book Heart Matters, by Dr Kathy Magliato, who is to some extent the template for George's character, Dr Alex Panttiere. But a book is not a script, and the script is all Jill Gordon. Every twisted, hilarious, unpredictable bit of it.
The direction by Robert Duncan McNeill (Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce) is also sharp, and injects a lot of humour. By the second segment you're wholly immersed, which is a big call considering this is such familiar territory where the audience's knowledge often matches the writing room. McNeill manages to make you feel you've never been here before, even if some of the tense medical moments are not entirely unfamiliar.
George is not the only Australian here, with the dashing Don Hany as Dr Jessie Shane, complete with Australian accent. They have a natural chemistry and for fans of Hany's work on Offspring, here's the chance to see him back in a white coat, though Dr Panttiere is quite different to Dr Nina Proudman. (Side note: there is also one moment where he uses the nickname Panty. Not sure about that, just quietly.)
Ultimately, what makes Heartbeat tick isn't the fact that it's clever, or that it's a fast-paced medical drama with tight storytelling. There's a big dose of sentiment poured into the mould here, and a sensitivity to Dr Panttiere that humanises her and brings emotional intimacy to some of the show's more dramatic moments. So what you see will make you watch, but how you feel will make you stay.
