Hello, Nurse!: Putting Hawthorne on the (Round)Table
Andrea: Is it me or was “Asian” the go-to prop on the show? From the nurses referring to the “Japanese tea ceremony thingy” and the Vasian (Latoya’s word for “vaguely Asian”) wish lantern (I call it that ’cause, though the concept is Thai in origin and has spread throughout parts of Asia, I wasn’t sure if the script on the lantern was Thai and, honestly, it looked like a Japanese paper lantern) to Dr. Mazaki’s being the Ballistic Asian Man stereotype whose English-speaking skills made Nurse Weepy cry (again), Asian things and folks got no respect in this ep.
Diana: Andrea, I did not get any of that stuff either. Was the doctor who could not speak English supposed to be funny? It was not. The lantern thing was interesting, but I don’t know its cultural origins. I thought it was odd Christina and the mother-in-law share her dead husband’s ashes. That’s kind of freaky. Otherwise, I’m not sure how much I’m going to be able to get into this show. I’m still mourning the end of ER. I do want to support Jada though.
Mahsino: The Dr. Mazaki thing disgusted me. Never in all my life (bearing in mind I have a non native English speaking parent) have I heard a non native English speaker speak anything that unrecognizable- even when they’re mumbling. That was over the top. I don’t care how short of a period someone’s been speaking the language, you can usually pick out key words, that actor was just over-the-top. And she’s a nurse and he’s probably saying something important, at some point she should’ve asked him to write it down. Common sense, real nurses haz it.
Erica: The accent scene was ridiculous, full stop. As far as I can tell, it was there to point out how much nurses have to soothe the egos of the all-powerful doctors. It was implausible and offensive. (What does he do when he gets a patient who doesn’t understand him, ask for a patient that speaks English?)
Andrea, what’d your mom think of all this?
Andrea: Mom (a retired coronary-care and ICU nurse) fell asleep watching it. She contends she couldn’t form an opinion because of it; I say she already did.
Did the pilot do its’ job – leave you wanting more?
Andrea: No. But I’ll watch ’cause I 1) need to exercise my anti-racism snark muscles and 2) miss y’all.
Diana: Snarking is fun. There’s nothing else on, which is why I ended up watching the pilot in the first place.
Mahsino: I could do it if only to fill the summer snark void, but I’m gonna need more questionably racist material to snark on. It’s gonna be a rough class quarter and I need to flex my snark muscles. For further snark, might I suggest The Taking of Pelham 123? I found it to be a delightful mix of entertaining and horribly problematic from logic and, to a lesser extent, anti-racist points. Of course, it helps to go in with low expectations.
Erica: Not really, frankly. I got sick of medical dramas after overdosing on ER years ago — but if I was going to pick one to watch, it’d be something like this with a character like Christina. She impressed me … just not enough to buy cable again.
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To be honest, there was more than one instance when I thought, “Man, if Turk and Carla from Scrubs were here, the lack of Zach Braff would make for a pretty damn good show.” The clunky spots – Nurse Weepy, the Imperious Asian Doctor – were definitely clunkers. But Pinkett Smith looks, to me, like she’s definitely going all in with her character and not just using the show as a pit stop between film roles. So for my part, the pilot left me intrigued, at least enough to give it a sporting chance the rest of this summer.
Readers, your thoughts?
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