| HawthoRNe | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Format | Medical drama |
| Starring | Jada Pinkett Smith Michael Vartan Suleka Mathew David Julian Hirsh Christina Moore Hannah Hodson Joanna Cassidy |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 10 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | John Masius Mikael Salomon Jamie Tarses |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | TNT |
| Original run | June 16, 2009 – present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
Hawthorne (also written as HawthoRNe) is an hour-long medical drama on the TNT television network starring Jada Pinkett Smith. It premiered on June 16, 2009.[1] On August 10, 2009, Hawthorne was renewed for a second season consisting of 10 episodes, which will air in 2010.[2]
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Christina Hawthorne is Chief Nursing Officer heading a group of nurses at Richmond Trinity Hospital in Richmond, Virginia.
John Masius created the program and served as executive producer for the first season.[4] Glen Mazzara also served as executive producer for the first season.[4] The program was initially going to be called Time Heals.[3] Megan Branman and Dylann Brander of Branman/Brander Casting were involved in casting for the program.[1] In September 2008, Jamie Tarses was reported to be an executive producer on the program.[5]
In September 2008, The Press of Atlantic City reported that Jada Pinkett Smith signed on as both the star of the television pilot, and to serve as executive producer of the program.[3] Pinkett Smith had previously promised never to work in television again, but changed her mind after reading the script of the pilot.[6] She recalled getting the script from her manager: "He said, 'I would never send this to you if I didn't think it was fantastic.' I read it and then I let my husband read it. (Will) said to take the meeting and see."[6] She decided to return to television because of the show's unique qualities.[6]
In the pilot, Jeffrey Nordling portrayed Dr. Tom Wakefield, director of medicine.[7] In February 2009, Michael Vartan was cast to co-star alongside Pinkett Smith as Dr. Tom Wakefield in the series.[7] By June 6, 2009, the program's title had been changed to Hawthorne.[8]
Masium will continue on as executive producer in the second season.[4] In September 2009, Glen Mazzara was named showrunner for the program's second season.[4] Masium decided to name Mazzara as showrunner for the second season, citing a desire to focus more on writing.[4] Pinkett Smith hopes to cast her nine-year-old daughter Willow as a character in the show's second season.[9]
The first episode of Hawthorne received 3.8 million viewers, with a debut at the 17th spot in the list of the "Top 20 cable network television shows for the week ending June 21, 2009".[10] It placed directly below the Nickelodeon episode of iCarly, "iDate A Bad Boy", and above the USA Network program, In Plain Sight.[10] By its 10th episode, the show's viewership had declined to 3.5 million.[11]
Overall, the show's first season was beaten in the ratings among adults aged 25–54 by the new science fiction program Warehouse 13 produced by Syfy, and the medical drama Royal Pains produced by USA Network.[12] Dark Blue, another program produced by TNT, came in fourth, and Drop Dead Diva produced by Lifetime TV came in fifth.[12]
"'HawthoRNe' can't make a diagnosis. It's a comedy; it's a drama. It's a mess, fronted by Jada Pinkett Smith."
In a review for the Boston Herald, Amy Amatangelo gave the program a grade of "C+", commenting: "'HawthoRNe' can't make a diagnosis. It's a comedy; it's a drama. It's a mess, fronted by Jada Pinkett Smith, making a return to series television as Christina Hawthorne, the chief nursing officer for Richmond Trinity Hospital and about the closest thing to a heavenly figure on the small screen since Roma Downey took flight on 'Touched by an Angel.'"[13] In a review for Zap2it, Amatangelo commented "With each passing episode, they seem to be writing Christina (Jada Pinkett Smith) deeper and deeper into a corner. She can’t always be in an uproar about everything or always play the hero. The show cannot center around her at the expense of everyone else."[14] Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times noted, "Tom Shales in the Washington Post suggested 'HawthoRNe' is 'a show in need of emergency care.'"[15] In an assessment of the program for Bangor Daily News, Dale McGarrigle wrote that "It also pales in comparison to other original dramas on its own channel."[16] Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News was critical of the lead actress's decision to star in the series: "Jada Pinkett Smith, the actress married to film superstar Will Smith, must be getting a little bored lately. And now she is going to bore some of us. There is no other explanation for her decision to star in TNT's routine 'HawthoRNe' as the latest strong, flawed woman on the cable network."[17] Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote: "HawthoRNe would be terrible if it were the only series on TV and the only medical drama you'd ever seen. It's just too bad it's not TV's first medical show. At least it could get credit for inventing clichés instead of rehashing them."[18] Of the lead actress's performance in the show, Bianco commented: "Pinkett Smith's Hawthorne is tired in every sense of the word, and she's not the only one. Every character and event falls under the category of painfully predictable."[18] Gail Pennington of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch commented that the Showtime program Nurse Jackie was superior to Hawthorne, writing: "Maybe if Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie' weren't so riveting, 'Hawthorne' wouldn't seem so weak. Or maybe 'Hawthorne,' the nurse drama headlined by Jada Pinkett Smith, would seem trite and derivative no matter what."[19]
Writing in the Akron Beacon Journal, Rich Heldenfels commented that "the show is weakly written and much of the acting is often mediocre."[20] Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Mary McNamara was also critical of the program: "Whatever the reason, I found myself thinking less about the characters than I did about the enormous amount of work that goes into making a TV show. Everyone working so hard, everyone talented and professional and doing their very best to make this a terrific television show, and it just isn't."[21] In a review for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Robert Philpot wrote that the show was "watchable" but not "essential", and did not add anything to the genre of shows on similar topics on television at the time: "Is Hawthorne a bad thing to have around? No. Trouble is, that's also the answer to 'Does it add to its genre?' and 'Is it essential?'"[22] Michael Starr of the New York Post gave the show a rating of one and a half stars, and criticized the ensemble cast as "flat and one-dimensional".[23] A review in The York Dispatch by Kevin McDonough was critical of the show's "onslaught of medical emergencies and miniature soap operas".[24] Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote: "The writing is a bit stilted and predictable, but the show is not unbearable — there are some amusing supporting actors and the occasional engrossing medical crisis."[25] When the show was renewed for a second season, Jennifer Godwin of E! Online commented: "TNT has renewed Jada Pinkett Smith's sloppy, gloppy, chintzy and incredibly boring 'drama' Hawthorne for a 10-episode second season, set to premiere in 2010. ... There are surely many people working very hard to make Hawthorne a success, but whatever those people are doing, generally speaking, it is not working."[26]
Registered nurse Judith S. Mitiguy reviewed Hawthorne for NurseWeek, and wrote: "Hawthorne defies the limits of ethical, and sometimes legal, professional practice when it suits her purpose. Plus, she micromanages every situation. Those of us concerned about nursing’s image in the media are more than unhappy with these programs."[27] The advocacy organization located in Baltimore, Maryland, "The Truth About Nursing", judges how nurses are viewed on such programs; it gave Hawthorne a rating of 3.5 stars out of 4.[28] Suzanne Gordon, author of Nursing Against the Odds, reviewed the program for The Atlantic, and noted: "Unfortunately, the show’s acting is poor, its dialogue silly, its syrupy soundtrack absolutely dreadful, and its contrived dramatic situations straight out of—you guessed it—Hollywood. What’s worse, from the perspective of the nursing profession, is that it reproduces the fundamental problem of TV doctor shows, which perennially distort who really does what."[29]
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