User Reviews

The Red Band Society pilot was pretty good but its clear that this show has quite a fair way to go.

The pilot did a lot right:

• The pace (quiet and slow) was appropriate for this type of series

• An adequate amount of humor injected throughout

• Competent performances by the cast

but it needs to improve on this:

• The coma narration needs to be less cheesy

• The characters need to stop trying so hard to be "hip" or "anti- establishment"

• The show can be pretty cheesy at its attempts at drama (but this is forgivable as a show of this nature will more often than not lend itself to cheesiness)

Overall, it's clear that, with the right amount of time and the adequate honing of acting and scripts, Red Band Society could well be one of the best dramedies on TV. It's definitely not there yet, but you can feel that it's not too far away.

Rating = 7.5/10 (rounded to 8 - although that 8 may be a smidge overgenerous)

One of the aspects that I enjoy very much is that it shows that the patients are human beings who are flawed and secured up but still try their best to be good people while going their eon problems, the narrator of the show Charlie who is in a coma leading from a car accident talks bout the events at the hospital. Kara is a bitchy cheerleader who is the most despised person until her enlarged heart causes her to faint, Emma deals with bulimia and anorexia, Leo suffers the lose of his leg. Jordi is a new patient who also has cancer and admits himself on his own accord, dash deals with cystic fibrosis which fills his lungs with water. Octavia Spencer plays the no nonsense nurse Jackson And does a splendid job with the role, overall I would say the show is something worth watching,

I knew this series was a gem reading it was canceled before my knowing of its existence. "Red Band Society" joins the list of short lived, too good for television dramas with "A Year in the Life" and "My So-Called Life". One episode even contains a subtle tribute to the later, with Wilson Cruz reprising an aspect of his "Ricky" character, proffering advice in a women's restroom.

Perhaps its initial audience tuned in expecting a more traditional adult medical drama. None stuck around long enough to catch that the dialog and jokes were far from juvenile. Any families expecting a cute and corny feel good pick-me up would be turned off the by its seriousness and mature dialog: "More like 68. You do me and I'll owe you one".

The drama might have been designed to be short lived. The patients had life threatening illnesses and not all can be survivors. Had there been another season it would be a different cast of sick kids each year, with only doctors and nurses roles recurring. That's not the formula at all. Would another character enter a coma to be the wise and sarcastic narrator watching events play out?

The series went so far as to treat mental disease seriously and shun pity. A scene where a cancer patient crashes a homecoming dance turned pity party for an undeserving cheerleader queen (also a terminally ill patient), dissing her on stage (much to her delight), should have become a classic. Once I might have been upset that a clever, original show not fitting the mold was too unpopular to continue, while Kardashians and formula procedural dramas reign on for years. Now only count myself privileged for having seen it.

OK, maybe it's because I'm a nurse, but I HATE it when a medical show can't bother to get the simple things right. A child in a coma is not just laying in bed like he's taking a nap. There are side rails, there are IVs, there is equipment, there are monitors. He would have a feeding tube of some kind. He would be propped up and positioned and have splints to prevent him from getting contractures. He's probably on a ventilator. So, major turn-off in the first five minutes. I will admit that I do not specialize in pediatrics so I don't know if the 'school' setting was authentic, but I'm guessing no. And the whole thing about the kid with cancer answering the question as to why King Henry didn't have friends is because the friends would die in the war and it's too hard to say good bye....LIKE IF YOU HAVE CANCER AND YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!! Could they have smacked us across the face with that one any harder? Oh, you know the kid has cancer because he's bald. So, that's about how far into the show I got before I changed the channel. Maybe it will get better, but if this is the show before the first commercial break, I doubt it.

I did not watch it long enough to find out what the 'Red Band' thing was about. I have both worked in a hospital and have been a patient. A red band means you have an allergy. You have a regular hospital band with your name and information and then a red band saying what you are allergic to. So unless these kids are bound together because penicillin gives them hives that's another thing the writers totally blew.

Though it is unfortunate both Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, as well as Gabourey Sidibe too probably, seem not to get a lot of good, and meaty, movie roles, thank the heavens they are more than willing to come to TV. For while Spencer isn't necessarily the star of Red Band Society, at the same time she is the good type of Trojan Horse. For unlike Piper in Orange is the New Black, Spencer is the type of Trojan Horse which brings a viewer's interest for amongst all these unfamiliar faces, she is the face of someone you trust to be part of something good. Though perhaps good isn't a strong enough word, but being that this is but the first episode I don't think it would be right to say immaculate yet.

Topic 1: Meet the Staff – Nurse Jackson (Octavia Spencer), Dr. McAndrew (Dave Annable), Brittany (Rebecca Rittenhouse), and Ruben (Griffin Dunne).

I must admit, with me being someone who watches Nurse Jackie, I found the hospital staff to be a little too similar to that show. Nurse Jackson, whose name isn't too different from Jackie's, is the head nurse, so it seems, and she is your usual tough as nails, don't feed me no BS, type of nurse who can quickly snap into a sweetheart if she is invested in you, or if you seem like a baby bird kicked out the nest too soon; then there is a character who is a flamboyant gay nurse; and then a Zoey type girl named Brittany, who is new, overly bubbly, and doing so much to try to impress Nurse Jackson. Something which she doesn't really appreciate for she just wants Brittany to do her job so she doesn't have to.

Leaving Dr. McAndrew, who doesn't come off as a Nurse Jackie character, who is a prominent surgeon who the pilot doesn't flesh out much past us learning he is a prominent doctor, and then you have the hospital's big time donors: Ruben. He is a bit of an odd ball who lives in the hospital, but isn't sick. However, in a way he sort of acts like the father figure to Nurse Jackson's motherly ways, so a lot of the kids, especially Leo and Dash, seem to really like him.

Topic 2: Meet The Kids – Kara (Zoe Levin), Charlie (Griffin Gluck), Jordi (Nolan Sotillo), Dash (Astro), Emma (Ciara Bravo) and Leo (Charlie Rowe)

When it comes to the kids, you get the heart and soul of the show and with most of the kids suffering from cancer, eating disorders, being in a coma, or a weak heart, each one has some sort of ailment which surprisingly doesn't lead to some sort of sob story. These group of teens instead are a diverse group who may have suffered, but their personalities and their possible stories may lead to some of the best performances and story lines outside of an ABC Family show.

To give you a quick summary: Kara is a bitchy cheerleader with a weak heart who, once people actually call her out on her actions, and she gets diagnosed, mellows out and acts like she has some sense; Charlie is our narrator who seems like a real sweetheart, but unfortunately with him being in a coma, it seems mostly he will either be in his bed, or talking to the cast while they are under anesthesia, or in a coma themselves (1); Jordi is an American, who came up from Mexico, because he wanted Dr. McAndrew to be his surgeon to help hopefully rid him of the cancer within his leg; Dash is your token Black kid who is urban-ish, and seems to be like Pharrell between when he first came out and when he started working with Robin Thicke (2); Emma is Leo's ex (3) who is a brilliant young girl, but with her battle against having an eating disorder she is stuck in the hospital for now; and Leo is the unofficial leader of the ward and has been facing off against cancer for years. In fact, he is the one who starts the Red Band Society. For the red bands are from each and every major moment he had from being admitted to losing his leg, and he gives all the aforementioned kids a band not just for solidarity, but to hopefully instill luck, protection, and hope.

Topic 3: One Last Hoorah! – Jordi, Leo, Kara, Emma, and Charlie

Something that Jordi needed throughout the episode for him coming to Dr. McAndrew wasn't scheduled but done based off hope, something which is validated. Though he is sort of the odd man out when he arrives. If just because Leo hasn't had a roommate in a while (4) and Jordi overhears his displeasure about suddenly getting one. But with Jordi following Leo around, getting to meet everyone, and showing he is a cool dude, he quickly becomes part of the family.

Making it so that Jordi's final night as a two legged person gets a party. Something Ruben helps with by setting up the roof, and Kara helps too by blackmailing Charlie's dad (5). Thus also allowing her to integrate into the family, despite pissing so many people off when she first got there.

Overall

I'll follow this show until the end. If just because I honestly fell in love with each and every character and I want to know as much about their lives as can be told. For from the staff to the kids, there are just so many stories, of which you can foresee both laughter and tears. And with Spencer's performance, I think Kerry Washington may have some company in the fight for Best Actress in a Drama Series soon.

WHY is it that intelligent, thought-provoking, pathos-allowing television shows which tug at the heartstrings ALWAYS seems to fall by the wayside in lieu of 'drivel' which rarely IF EVER evokes the same type of feeling? Not even having the uber-director/producer Steven Spielberg on board as Executive Producer would prove 'enough' to keep this wonderfully-written, -conceived, -acted, -directed show 'on the air' ... guess that everybody else must have been watching 'professional' wrestling (how's THAT for an oxymoron of EPIC size?!?!) or some other highly-'banal' 'reality' show on any of the three (3) 'major' television networks at the days & times that this wonderful show was shown wherever the general viewing public lived, right?!?!?! BAD FORM, FOX Television ... this was as 'engaging' as HOUSE, M.D. EVER was (AND also as 'off-color'!), and unlike any other TV show was 'at the time' it was running for MANY years in new-episodic production mode!!! What an emotional rip-off it was to not try to 're-tool' it to perhaps keep it going for a few more years!!! The 'reality' of the 'real world' is hard enough to tolerate, even on some 'good' days ... it was nice to be able to care about somebody else for awhile, especially those of us who remembered how wretched we felt when our own teenagers were 'chronically' in the hospital due to an at-birth condition which continued on for the rest of their lives going forward ... I feel grossly cheated by 'whomever/whatever' caused the end of this wonderful show, and I really wish that I could figuratively 'slap them upside their vapid heads' to make them see what a mistake they made bringing the show to an end after such a short amount of time! :'(