New NBC Drama Features South of Market

This past Monday, NBC finally aired the Pilot episode of their latest drama, Trauma. Set and shot in San Francisco, I’ve come across production crews shooting both in South of Market as well as other areas. 

I was very excited to check out the premiere and see what it was about. For the most part, I don’t really prefer gripping dramas on network TV. I feel that due to FCC regulations, it’s rather difficult to capture true emotion without being able to say and do things that regular people do when they’re confronted with dramatic issues. I wasn’t a fan of ER, and although I can sit through CSI or Law and Order, they’re not on my ‘must watch list’.

Pilots are even worse because they often feel the need to cram your face with character background and it always feels forced to me. The same can be said about Trauma. The pilot episode was filled with character set-up, and although there was quite a bit of action, it always felt like it took a back seat to the character set-up. 

A big part of why I wanted to watch Trauma was that I hoped to catch a glimpse of the neighborhoods that I walk through every day. While I saw a couple of buildings I recognized, the action was so fast paced that the cuts often left my eyes looking into blank space as I tried to register what I was seeing.

I’ll definitely check out a couple of more episodes before I make a decision on whether I like the show itself because you can never really tell based solely on the pilot. If the ratings are any indication, the show may not even last that long. Although it grew its audience from Heroes, it only had 6.9 million viewers and sat in fourth place behind Dancing With The Stars (16.8 million), Two and a Half Men (13.6 million) and Lie To Me (7.7 million). I don’t think it was because of a lack of promotion as I’ve been all over the country this month and seen promos on NBC.