Reviews & Ratings for
"Hawthorne" More at IMDbPro »

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

21 out of 34 people found the following review useful:

Finally: a TV Drama that portrays nurses as patient advocates and medical professionals!

Author: karmyk from United States
24 September 2009

I admire the creators of this show for doing their research... all too often we see medical dramas that downplay the role of nurses in hospitals. This show popped up amidst a flurry of other nurse-centric shows, and I believe that this is the only one that accomplished the task of portraying nursing in a positive and fairly (though not completely) accurate light without letting it be overrun by romantic drama and drug dependence. The nurses here often deal with real, believable problems...

There are too many people who are highly opinionated about Jada Pinckett Smith. I believe she does an excellent job in her role, and I respect her for it.

Some of the most basic things I admire about this show: one, the male lead nurse, for once, isn't gay; two, the writers recognize the importance of other staff in the hospital (including occupational therapy, which hasn't received much attention or recognition on television); three, the writers show nursing across the whole spectrum in the hospital-- from the emergency room, to the NICU, to medical-surgical nursing.

I hope this show continues to run. In a way, it helps people see what to expect when they are admitted in a hospital. There's a large amount of staff you work with OTHER than just the doctor (who you might see only 5 or so minutes in a day, if they don't just peek in while you're sleeping)... and there's a great dynamic that you can find through the many floors and professions/jobs within a hospital. And no, the series isn't perfect or completely accurate, but I think it does the best job out of any TV series so far in portraying nursing.

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

going downhill

Author: cal1946 from United States
22 June 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The first two seasons were OK, I like Michael Vartan and most of the other actors did credible jobs, portraying what it must be like to work in the frenetic atmosphere of saving lives in a hospital. The new season is quite different. The writers have changed direction and the show feels like what I would expect General Hospital to feel like, all about the personnel and very little about the patients. Christine is attacked and remembers the ring the attacker wore, which the Detective Nick presents to her at the end of the episode, no explanation. The second episode mentions the ring but nothing else is said. Morrissey replaces Christine as CNO and will not tell her what he has done or why he has done so. The show feels disjointed, too many story threads left unfinished, too many characters missing with no explanation and not enough medical and too much angst. Michael buys a gun with no explanation. Camile is changed into a vamp who has to be taught how to pray...Come on. I hope they can get the show back on track.

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

I'm over this show

Author: David White (dawh1) from San Antonio, Texas
7 July 2011

Over the years there have been a number of hospital shows whose basic premise goes something like this: Hospitals have very strict rules and protocols about who may do what. These rules and protocols generally make sick people sicker. But once in a while some really daring hospital employee, a renegade doctor, a nurse fresh out of school, breaks the rules and saves people's lives, but he or she has an uphill fight to do it, because the hospital administrator, the chief of surgery, the ethics committee, the mayor, or whoever, does everything to prevent it, even knowing (and not caring) that lives are at stake. I for one don't buy that premise. I have been a hospital patient several times, and real hospitals do a very good job by following their rules and protocols. This is just one more show of the type I described. And to make matters worse, it's just bogged down in the personal lives of the characters. I like a good hospital show, but this is not one.

12 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

This is TERRIFIC!!

Author: sammikat007 from United States
25 July 2010

I see by other reviews that this is one of those love-it or hate-it kinda shows & I'm definitely in the LOVE IT camp! Jada Pinkett-Smith is at the top of her form & so is the rest of the cast. I know some reviewers on this site don't seem to like the fact that the show centers around its title character, but PLEASE. I don't find Mrs. Smith's portrayal anything short of a FLAWLESS portrayal of a flawed person. She doesn't always have the answers, either. Sometimes her methods don't work the way she wants them to & she recognizes it. Other characters are given plenty of screen time as well as plot lines and this show is a breath of fresh air for the hospital drama genre! Keep it coming TNT, this is your best original program EVER!!

22 out of 41 people found the following review useful:

too bad to live

Author: morganshs99 from United States
18 August 2009

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

God, I loathe this show. I've given it 3 watchings and it just gets worse and worse. Please, don't anybody think this is representative of any real nurses in any real hospital on the planet Earth. Nurses, especially ER nurses, do not have time to discuss their "relationships" at length while at work, or interfere in patients personal lives. That male nurse and the blonde nurse are both so dumb its amazing they ever got through nursing school. And why does Jada Pinkett Smith walk around with a mean, don't-cross-me look all the time? Unless of course she is being the patron saint of all nurses. Here's a recent exchange in the last episode: Patient: You really can perform miracles! Hawthorne: I try! Lord - hand me a bucket, projectile vomiting will commence in 5 seconds!

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

Over Acting Defined

Author: SpokaneMan from United States
10 August 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I will probably sound like a hater in this review, but please understand that I have really, REALLY tried to like this show. I also understand that reviews are simply one person's opinion - even though I may have strong feelings, I don't discount the enjoyment others may get out of this show. My wife likes it, and so I have continued to watch it with her. Please consider this my vent about my feeling on this show that I can't say to her! Also, I seem to remember liking the first season a lot more than the current season. OK, my gripes: 1. OVER/BAD ACTING - Seriously, the acting is just horrible. I think the actors are probably good, so perhaps it's direction? Regardless, it just seems over the top and cheesy most of the time. I could start pulling out examples, but really, any segment between commercials will bear this out.

2. DISJOINTED STORY LINES - The plot is all over the place, with situations coming and going without any cohesion. I saw another reviewer call this out with examples, so I won't reinvent that wheel. However, last night's episode, with the creepy guy with the beard and the ring showing up at the hospital and the funeral. It's like these people are dogs or babies; the moment something/someone leaves their purview it's like it doesn't exist for them anymore.

3. WTF Christina?? - I am just not getting the whole cheating on her husband thing. The time line is disjointed, so I can't get a bead on how long she and her new husband have actually been married. However, I have lost respect for her character over that. I know, I know, it's fiction, but still, you're actually supposed to like the protagonist in a story. Horrible acting aside, any validity her character had just went down the drain for me.

4. AN ENTIRE SEASON OF HAWTHORNE NOT BEING AN RN - I thought the HawthoRNe was the entire point of the series, and yet the writers have effectively kept her out of the hospital (as a staff person) for an entire season. And the fact that her boss dismissed her for the most ridiculous of reasons (because she was attacked on their property??) and this doesn't become a major plot line is beyond me. These people could be working in a brokerage firm for the amount of actual patient care they were shown doing this season.

Okay, I'll stop. Again, this is the pent up frustration of watching this show for nearly the entire second season hoping/praying it will get better, only to be disappointed more each episode. I typically look forward to season finales, but not usually just so the pain will end.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:

Hoping for much better things to come

Author: MyMookebr from Canada
12 August 2011

When I first caught this show, it was quite intriguing and fun to watch the dynamics between Tom and Christina. I knew he felt more for her than she did for him, but it was still interesting. Them getting together last season however was quite something, you saw that coming a mile off. However, I knew once they introduced a baby into the mix the child would not be in the show. Now I can understand loss and pain and all that, but I fail to see how the writers thought letting another man enter the picture would help the situation, and one that seem to be so totally in love with Christina. I have to say I'm disappointed in the third season so far, because these two people just got married, had such a terrible loss, in the space of what, a month and then she sleeps with someone else. Could someone please explain that to me. There's no love there, this guy murdered someone or had that person killed, and she thinks he's some kind of a hero. I'm sorry but this story line is a bit messed up to say the least, and I hope much better things are on the way, because it would be a shame if I had to put this show down as one of the duds for 2011. Here's hoping for better writing and story line

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:

An awful and inaccurate depiction of nursing/hospital life

Author: troubled_teen from United States
20 November 2012

This show isn't even good after a few whiskeys. As someone who works as a nurse's aide in a major hospital's CCU and is studying to become a nurse, please don't think that this terrible show represents nursing in any way shape or form.

The first major issue is that Jada Pinkett Smith, who plays this hospital's chief nursing officer (CNO) is actively involved in her hospital's units and provides patient care. In reality the CNO would sit in an office and attend board meetings all day to figure out how best to get Medicaid patients to give the hospital a good HCAHPS score. Oh, and Jada Pinkett Smith is super annoying in this and is perpetually sassy and smug to everyone.

I have to give the show credit for highlighting the role of nurses in a hospital setting, though. Too many shows like Grey's Anatomy and House show doctors doing basically everything and only introducing nurses as love interests, which is offensive. The problem though is that the nurses in this show, like Jada Pinkett Smith's character, are all stupid, annoying, badly written and poorly acted. These people seem to have a mental age of 11, especially that one younger nurse who can't understand the Japanese doctor and has an annoying whiny voice.

This show had me rolling my eyes constantly because it is full of stuff that would never actually happen in a real hospital. Haha, yes, the CNO would totally stick an overflow patient in a storage closet.

I'm only four episodes in and these are most of my complaints. I think I'm going to stop watching soon because my extraocular muscles are getting tired from all this eye rolling.

Just take it out and shoot it!

Author: korgaard59 from United States
6 September 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I hear that the show has been canceled, and while it is sad that the fine (albeit underused) talents of James Morrison and Anne Ramsey will have to go looking for other work, I could not be happier. It's not just that the whole "health care professional who cares too much" theme is so tired and sick that it vomits self-satisfied dust. It's not that Jada (Whoever) Smith is an actress without the ability to even talk herself into a speeding ticket. It's not even that costar Marc Anthony exudes all of the machismo of a crack-addicted, syphilitic squirrel. The fundamental problem with this show is that although it tried to sell itself as a medical drama, it was in reality simply a comeback vehicle for (Whoever) Smith. Successful medical dramas are almost always the result of well thought out writing and ensemble acting. "House", for example, also has the main character's name as the title, but nonetheless employs a cast of well-developed ensemble players. Ensemble playing was apparently not considered appropriate for "Whoever" Smith's comeback vehicle, so the story line turned away from medical themes and devolved into a not very well done cesspool of soap operatic rape, rage, angst, and infidelity story lines. Better off dead!

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

Lame season 1, brilliant season 2!

Author: vus29 from United Kingdom
26 August 2010

This show was pretty dire for the first season. God knows, if i had to wait a whole week to watch each episode, i would be slating it just like a fair number of reviews. Fortunately, i got through that first season in one sitting. Nothing at all memorable. Things have picked up though this second season. A lot more character development. Less of a focus on Nurse Hawthorne. Entertainment galore. Love interests which had the wife shouting at the TV urging the progression of relationships. Cliff hangers leaving you wanting more, more thought evident on the scriptwriting. Whilst the first season was definitely broke, they went away and fixed it. Am definitely looking forward to season 3. In football, they would call it a show of two seasons.

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

Add another review

Related Links