This week, Fox will premiere a new drama called Red Band Society. The premise is that a bunch of different kids, mostly teenagers, are stuck in a hospital with various different diseases and/or disorders that has caused them to be hospitalized indefinitely. This sounds like an ordinary drama with a reasonable set up. However, here’s the twist, it is narrated by a kid in a coma. If we suspend our disbelief and go along with the fact that this boy is aware of his surrounds and can narrate telepathically, what would he most likely talk about? How terrible it is to be unable to move? Maybe how he misses his family? Nope, he talks about how great the hospital is. In an ad on YouTube that I can’t relocate (although here’s a trailer) the boy says, “People think that when you go to a hospital life stops, but that’s when it begins.” What!? Why don’t you go tell that to children suffering with cancer, or someone who’s been paralyzed? Not only did someone write that line and presumably kept their job, but if you looked at the hospital in the show, you’d believe the kid in the coma. It makes Buckingham Palace look rough and uncivilized. The place is huge, with high quality furniture and rooms that are bigger than a luxurious Manhattan loft. Not only that, but the entire staff is kind and extremely qualified, even the stereotypical sassy nurse. Although great hospitals similar to this one do exist, presenting the hospital as an extraordinarily rare high quality hospital creates misconceptions about what it’s normally like to be hospitalized long term. Overall, this show looks to present some frightening falsehoods about life as a chronically diseased child to an American public more than ready to believe them and feel better about themselves. Though, to be fair, the actual show hasn’t aired yet and it may be somewhat more truthful than what the trailers have shown. However, that is an unlikely possibility, as trailers generally don’t portray a tone that is completely the opposite of the final product.
This show seems like it makes hospitals and even chronic diseases trivial. While I do believe that it is important to not get overly depressed about being in a hospital, this show sounds somewhat disrespectful about it. On a separate note, people in comas do tend to show relative levels of cognition and reaction, depending on there situation. This show, however, does not look realistic but it could be promising.
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ReplyDeleteWhat people want to see and what people should see are two completely different things. Most people do not watch television to be overwhelmed with images that make them sad and depressed about their own life, which would be the case if the true setting of a hospital was portrayed in this TV show. Though it may be misleading to the public about the true nature of hospitals, it is probably just a unique scenario thought up by producers to distinguish the show from other TV programs.
ReplyDeleteThis just shows that people are running out of ideas for TV shows.
ReplyDeleteWow that is a pretty dick move by Fox news. Not that surprising though. I wonder what there motives are by publishing such a misleading story.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that this show is actually airing... Like seriously? This show seems like it as so much disrespect for those who are in hospitals. It just seems like the writers just needed a story line to follow and this was all they could come up with to differentiate themselves from other popular shows.
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ReplyDeleteAfter seeing a commercial for this show a couple weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to watch it when it came out. The trailer reminded me of the love story in My Sister's Keeper. I never saw a commercial that has it being narrated by someone in a comma although that is a little bit troubling. The writers are probably doing this for dramatic effect. It is interesting that the trailer for this show caused you to think of it as ridiculous and caused me to want to watch it. We will have to see when it comes out how much of a true story it is.
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ReplyDeleteAlthough I do agree the concept of this show is very ridiculous it reminded me of the show "My Name is Earl". In that show the main character, Earl, becomes stuck in a coma after getting struck, in later episodes, and to cope with the idea of being in a coma he creates an alternate version of his reality where he is living a happy and stress free life which is set in a world similar to old family sitcoms. The narrator in the coma may have similar thoughts of Earl's where he creates an alternate reality where the hospital he is at is lively and joyful to cope with being in a coma. Anyway, great article and I do agree that the show does seem very dumb and the idea of it being on Fox, which has produced many great shows, is very ridiculous.
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