NBC's Trauma is escapist fun at most

Do you like accidents? Do you like explosions? Do you like nonexistent characters? Do you like bad dialogue?  I know these rhetorical questions are lame, but I'm trying to recreate the feeling of Trauma. One situation after another: Will this person die? Will that person die? Will everyone die? Whether anyone dies or not is hardly the point of the show.

The special effects and visual effects are extremely impressive. There's crashes, explosions, raining metal, and a whole lots of rented freeway. If Michael Bay wanted to make a TV show, I think this is as close as it would get. I'll admit it was pretty awesome while it lasted. The problem is that the scenes are too expensive to create for every episode.

The plot however is paper thin, and this is where the show takes a turn for the worse. While there is a fairly interesting backstory/twist that starts the episode, that is about the only thing other than the effects that caught my attention. There is scene which the helicopter pilot Rabbit is driving that a mad man, hits someone's car, rips an old man's finger off. All this while his new partner is sitting beside him. Yes he has psychological problems from the incident, but this is one of the few moments ever that I've had to pause the episode, and just shake my head at the stupidity.

Once the accidents stop, the episode stalled immediately. The dialogue was horrible and clichéd beyond belief. There were so many times I cringed at how ridiculous some of the lines were. There was an attempt to create actual characters, but between the bad dialogue and inadequate plot, this falls by the wayside. The acting was pretty good for this kind of show, but there was nothing spectacular, not that the cast was given anything worthwhile to work with.

From the 2 new NBC medical shows, I actually liked Mercy better than Trauma. There was moments of Trauma that I actually smiled at, but in the end, neither are shows I will come back to. Maybe I'll Youtube a clip of the latest accident, but there is nothing in the pilot that suggests there is a bright spot somewhere down the line. 

Score: 6.5/10