Providence TV Show

Providence is a touching TV drama show about a doctor who returns to her roots and discovers greater happiness in her hometown. Dr. Sydney Hansen is a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills who is successful and wealthy. She travels back to her childhood neighborhood in Providence, Rhode Island, where she encounters a slower pace of life and reexamines her priorities. After deciding to settle down, and switch her medical practice to that of family practice she explores issues like her family and romance within the setting of Providence.

The theme is a common one that has been seen many times. It is the story of the city-slicker who finds comfort in the intimacy of small-town life. It is a story of the comforts of the big city, wealth, and fame being unable to compare to the love of family and the closeness of sincere friends instead of the insincerity of a faster paced life. Another theme is that of the prodigal returning home, though in this case, the doctor has not committed any great sins needing forgivingness upon her return home, but just seeks to return to the comfort of family. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing that the show fits some well known themes so fully, because it is often the details that make a show succeed or fail. Providence is a TV show that certainly appeals to a particular audience with its feel-good storyline, but giving that audience what they like is a good thing; the rest can just keep looking.

House, M.D. TV Show

House, M.D. is a popular TV show about a sarcastic yet brilliant medical doctor, Gregory House, and his attempt to a patient’s mystery ailment. Hugh Laurie plays the Doctor on the series, strangely enough managing a perfect American accent despite his British nationality. Each episode is roughly formulaic with a patient first being admitted under a somewhat mysterious life-threatening condition. House and his staff proceed to test theories, throwing out the most probable as tests or daring experiments are performed. In the end, the patient is often saved from death of an incredibly rare condition through the brilliant work of Dr. House, and the clueless bumbling of his underlings. This formula is not absolute, of course, as the patients occasionally are not saved, and the case is solved too late, shortly after the patient’s death.

Part of the appeal of House, M.D. is its near impossibility. A doctor as wild and undisciplined as House would likely fail to be able to keep any job in a real hospital due to the risks of lawsuits and malpractice. While results matter, and in the show he is a virtuoso at diagnosing and curing rare disorders, his methods often cross the line into unethical and illegal. He is addicted to prescription painkillers as well, though the addiction is shown to interfere in his life, it does not interfere with his medical judgment or legendary luck. The show likely also appeals to many because House seems to operate outside the rules that everyone else must follow, and he thrives doing so.

ER TV Show

The ER TV show is one of the longest running dramas currently on television, currently at its 14^th season out of 15 planned seasons. Its initial popularity was largely due to its cast which included such stars as George Clooney and Noah Wyle. It has continued to maintain its popularity, partly by continuing to place new stars in roles as characters have been retired. It has also been on the tried to be on the forefront of new techniques, even going so far as to experiment with a live filming of a full episode. During its full run, it has also won a number of Emmy awards. The ER TV show attracted viewers with its high drama of life and death struggles within a hospital wards. It added a human face to the doctors and nurses who deal with events daily within that environment. Mixed in with the medical emergencies were the personal events going on behind the scenes that helped shape to hospital staff’s lives.

Over its long course, it has entertained millions of fans, and has had a large and varied assortment of stars in its cast. With such a long history, season DVD collections for this show are particularly expensive to complete. Internet TV is one alternative that negates the need for a lot of money to be able to watch any past episodes. All the past seasons’ shows can be watched, with the same convenience that would be found with the collection of each seasons’ DVD, but without the huge expense.