Film actress Jada Pinkett Smith both stars in and executive produces the medical drama HawthoRNe, TNT’s latest original series aimed at expanding the network’s reputation as an outlet for TV shows featuring strong and complicated female leads.
Smith plays the title character, Christina Hawthorne, the Chief Nursing Officer at Virginia’s Richmond Trinity Hospital. She’s also a recently widowed single mother of a difficult teenage daughter named Camille (Hannah Hodson) following her late husband’s death from cancer one year ago.
In the pilot episode, we learn just how dedicated Christina is to her job, her patients, her colleagues, her community members, and her family as she takes on one potential disaster after another, including trying to prevent an attempted suicide, showing up on the scene where her rebellious daughter has handcuffed herself to a snack machine, sticking up for a mentally disturbed homeless local, and warning doctors before they commit fatal mistakes.
During and between the various mini crises, viewers also meet Christina’s assorted co-workers, mostly nurses under her command who deal with their own personal and professional issues and provide varying amounts of intended comic relief. There are doctors afoot, too, such as Michael Vartan’s (Alias) Chief of Surgery Dr. Tom Wakefield, but they’re more like foils to show how accomplished nurses are in comparison than persons of genuine interest at the outset.
The main concern I have about HawthoRNe after watching the pilot (the only episode I’ve seen in advance) is how well it will be able to deliver on the promise of TNT’s earlier women-centric, proven hits, meaning Kyra Sedgwick’s The Closer and Holly Hunter’s Saving Grace. In addition to the unique and compelling main characters, both of those shows have the crime element in common, which leads to many dramatic situations.
While HawthoRNe’s pilot admittedly isn’t enough to judge an entire season on, the first episode opts for a more lightweight and scattered feel than The Closer and Saving Grace fans are used to, probably to introduce the various characters and some of their backstories. Smith already has the strong and complex traits down pat, of course. So, hopefully, the unique and compelling aspects of the series aren’t far behind and the depth of HawthoRNe’s characters and plotlines will improve as the 10-episode freshman season progresses.
View photos of HawthoRNe’s supporting cast in the earlier gallery post: Suleka Mathew plays Christina’s good friend and fellow nurse Bobbie; David J. Hirsh plays nurse Ray, who has to cope with working in a predominantly female profession; and Christina Moore plays nurse Candy, a Barbie doll lookalike who enjoys giving some patients “special” attention. Blade Runner icon Joanna Cassidy also guest stars as Christina’s mother-in-law Amanda, a hospital board member still giving Christina much grief after her son’s death.
A preview of the series premiere, featuring the opening scene, follows.
HawthoRNe airs Tuesdays on TNT at 9pm ET.