Trauma

Having intense emotional reactions to a life filled with harrowing incidents is understandable, but the characters' responses are somewhat clichéd. Family man Cameron (Derek Luke) develops a problem with fidelity because he can’t bring the stress back to his wife and kids. Maverick chopper pilot Rabbit (Cliff Curtis), who survived the mid-air disaster, now thinks he’s indestructible and likes to drive down San Francisco’s notoriously steep hills at high speed. And Nancy (Anastasia Griffith), whose boyfriend was killed in the crash, now becomes emotionally invested in every patient she works with. We’ve seen all this before.

A bigger issue is tone. Trauma can’t seem to decide whether it’s a high-stakes drama or a lighthearted look at emergency workers. Sometimes the characters seem to be sweating bullets to save a patient, while other times they trade witty quips across the bloody body of a critically injured patient or casually saunter down the highway to help the victims of a multi-vehicle car crash. A little urgency would be appropriate here; it might make the show more interesting to viewers.