by AmandaLay

Created on: August 16, 2011

Hawthorne is a medical drama that airs on Tuesday nights at ten o’clock on TNT.  Jada Pinkett Smith not only stars in the series as James River Hospital Chief Nursing Officer Christina Hawthorne, Pinkett Smith also serves as the series’ Executive Producer.  Preparing to end its third season, several storylines have been addressed this season.

First and foremost, who is the culprit that is responsible for mysteriously attacking Christina Hawthorne in the parking lot of James River Hospital? Did Detective Nick Renata (Marc Anthony) have any knowledge of or responsibility for the attack on Christina? In addition, although Christina is happily married to Tom Wakefield, (Michael Vartan) who is a well-respected surgeon at James River Hospital, Christina appears to have fallen in love with Detective Nick Renata.    

In addition, John, the current Chief Executive Officer of James River Hospital is trying to operate the hospital and wage his own unsuccessful struggle against alcoholism. This situation is even further complicated by the fact that Christina believes that her colleague and best friend Bobbie Gardiner (Suleka Mathew) is using the heinous and barbaric attack that Christina experienced in order to justify firing Christina from her position of Chief Nursing Officer at James River Hospital.

One of the strengths of Hawthorne is the strong female cast, as well as the terrifically talented writers, directors and producers.  Television today often bombards audiences with too much information, which can certainly be quite overwhelming at times.  Hawthorne is a refreshing change of pace from this trend.  The skillful and seamless interweaving of the various plotlines is so excellent that audience members are glued to their seats waiting to see what lies in store for the doctors, nurses, patients and staff of James River Hospital. Audience members are also able to relate to the characters in a way that is fresh, meaningful and relevant to both the professional and the personal lives of many of today’s audience members.

Hawthorne is a very modern and contemporary medical drama.  Hawthorne has done for television medical dramas what The Cosby Show did for situation comedy.  Having a female as a main character and executive producer on a highly rated and successful television show simply goes to show how much progress women have truly made toward gaining important and powerful positions in television.  The continued success of Hawthorne illustrates that women have made tremendous gains in television since the days of, “I Love Lucy.” Jada Pinkett Smith and her fellow Hawthorne cast members should be proud of the growing success of such a marvelous series!

Learn more about this author, AmandaLay.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.