"Combat Hospital" worth a look

I’m coming to the end of a week where I really don’t have that much to talk about, mediawise. With the transition in cable service in this part of the country I’ve been having some trouble keeping my DVR programmed and have missed some things I was hoping to talk about, and the stuff I have watched really hasn’t merited much comment.

ABC’s production of “Combat Hospital” was indeed what I thought it was going to be from the previews. While I didn’t get to see all of it last Tuesday I got to see part of it and it was quite good, I thought. I didn’t get a sense of the characters, but some of the storylines sparked my attention right away, including a situation where a young man gunned down a platoon mate in the heat of battle and the officer in charge of the hospital told him his friend had been shot by their attackers. There was something about a civilian translator fixing a scanner so a diagnosis could happen, and there was something about someone having to throw a party so she basically delegated it to everyone and they threw their own party and enjoyed the heck out of it.

The motives, the decisions, some of it seems kind of dark. There’s potentially a whole course on ethics in that one situation with the soldier shooting a fellow soldier, but I was seeing the establishment – this show’s only been on for a few weeks, after all – of something that could be quite a solid installment. It’s a Canadian-American co-production which explains all the Canadian insignia. It’s set in 2006 which adds some interest as well, in that there’s potential for at least five additional seasons and several game-changing developments down the road.

That and as more than a decade of “M*A*S*H” taught us, the actual length of a war can telescope as necessary when you’ve got a hit show. This production did remind me more than a little bit of “M*A*S*H” and I think part of that is the nature of the prefabricated construction used in a combat hospital installation and part of it is by design. I think it goes beyond “M*A*S*H” with computers – I think it would’ve been improbably difficult for even Klinger at the height of his haggling skills to have arranged for a mechanical bull on a few days’ notice – but I like how the character development seems to be moving forward, illustrating some of the realities of life in a forward situation, and the reality that I will never fully appreciate the sacrifices and trials these people are making and going through, beyond to say that I do, indeed, appreicate it, and hope they can come home soon.

“Combat Hospital” airs at 10/9c Tuesdays on ABC.

"Royal Pains"

I held off talking about “Royal Pains” last week because I wasn’t sure where they were going with this. I still don’t, completely, but here goes.

The first episode built on whatever notoriety they’d managed by running about the Hamptons providing medical care, some of it pro bono, to whoever needed it, staying as they were with a billionaire patron who paid most of the bills.

This season they gained more notoriety by saving a busload of people in a bus crash. Divya’s had a serious falling out with her family who retaliated by repossessing their property including a truckload of medical equipment right as it was needed. Because I believe that repo trucks are trolling charity events in the Hamtpons left and right. Even so, she’s in difficulty. With nowhere to stay and no family fortune to rely on she’ll have to get by on her income from HankMed – since she’s got a season’s-worth of paychecks she can cash I’m guessing she’ll land on her feet.

I’m not clear on how solvent Hank Med is. They survived that scam from their dad, Eddie Lawson, in the first and second seasons. Evan seems to keep the supplies stocked and I’m guessing he budgeted the salaries and operation costs for the company as part of his duties as business manager, so all Hank has to do is run about saving people. All the same, Hank’s relationship with Jill seems up in the air and it’s hard to see exactly where anything is going right now – there was a problem with Evan and Paige until she showed up and there just wasn’t, and then he tried to put her on the payroll as a marketing person, when honestly, that’s been a huge part of his own job throughout, so … Meh, I’m not really that interested. “Royal Pains” is back and it will hold my attention until “Psych” returns so … yay.

"Men of a Certain Age"

“Men of a Certain Age” closed out its -- I guess it was its second season this week, that makes a little more sense -- and I was more impressed than I thought I’d be.

Joe did compete. I believe he competed twice in senior league golf tryouts and he had an excellent showing. Terry had a nice breakthrough with Erin and Owen had a huge fight with his father over the dealership, which nearly dropped Thoreau Motors into rival dealer Scarpulla’s back pocket. They reconciled at the end when Owen Sr. realized his son was just as committed to success as he’d been.

Apart from that I talked about most of what I’ve been watching in last week’s installment. I’m keeping an eye on “Suits” although this week’s continued to annoy me, and “Outcasts” because I’m told something interesting is meant to happen next week – I’ll believe it when I see it. The reveal was presented well in this week’s “Necessary Roughness,” I thought, with the anchor guy’s underlying issues, and with any luck the writers are going to maintain this level of quality.

Coming up

I think what I’m looking forward to most this week are the premieres of “The Closer” Monday at 9/8c on TNT, and something called “Alphas” Monday at 10/9c on Syfy. PBS has been airing “Masterpiece Mysteries” featuring the works of Agatha Christie, which I have quite been enjoying.

I’ve also been enjoying my trip down memory lane, going through my old VHS recordings of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and noticing with some amusement some of the editing choices made by FX, a channel that aired “The Shield” but was a little dainty about using the “B” word in its rebroadcast of Joss Whedon’s character-driven masterwork. Also hadn’t realized Felicia Day of “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was one of the Potentials in Season 7. Nice.

And for people who had the same audio problem I did in the network premiere, they’re re-airing the “Night of Neglect” episode of “Glee” on Thursday. Not sure what was going on but I could only hear about half of that episode, and since it was the heckling/bullying episode I thought it looked like a good one. That’s Thursday at 9/8c on FOX. Enjoy!