  Stanley Tucci stars as brain surgeon Douglas Hanson in the new medical drama 3 lbs. |
TV -- it isn't brain surgery.
Newsman Edward R. Murrow once called it just "wires in a box."
That line turns up tonight -- twice -- in the premiere episode of 3 lbs (CITY-TV and CBS, 10 p.m.). Stanley Tucci speaks it; the former Murder One star plays TV's latest brilliant but cranky MD, brain surgeon Douglas Hanson.
Hanson, however, is not referring to television, but to the human brain (which weighs around three pounds, in case you were wondering about the title). To him, brains are just "wires in a box."
Now, mixing brains and TV is always risky. For example, having a brain would just screw you up on Deal Or No Deal, 1 vs. 100, or, say, The Hour.
Not that 3 lbs is a brainy show. In fact, it looks a lot like too many other medical or procedural shows on television, including House, ER, Grey's Anatomy. Jozi-H or even CSI or Bones.
Tucci's Hanson is a sullen surgeon who rarely makes eye contact with his patients. He's shut down and cynical like Dr. House. He doesn't limp, but there's a suggestion that he is crippled inside.
When another doctor jokes about getting surgical robots, he says, "I have surgical robots. They're called interns."
Enter Mark Feuerstein (Good Morning, Miami) as Dr. Jonathan Seger, a warm, idealistic young MD who is Hanson's new surgical assistant. Prone to meditating on elevators, he's dismissed tonight as "Hanson's shadow" or the "sorcerer's new apprentice."
Then there's Dr. Cole, a savvy hospital survivor played by always welcome Griffin Dunne. He's out to steal Dr. Hanson's patients. Bad Dr. Cole.
Since this is TV, not brain surgery, there is also a babe doctor, Adrianne Holland, played by Indira Varma. She's hot and quirky. She thinks "neurologists, of all people, should go barefoot."
Good thing they work in a clean, state-of-the-art hospital, just like on House. The lobby looks like the Ritz.
Tonight, a young violin prodigy has a tumour that has short-circuited her brain. Words fail her, neatly illustrated by typed words falling off a ceiling just out of reach.
Wheeling her into surgery, Hanson suddenly has a change of heart. He stops being a cold SOB long enough to give her a reassuring nod, his iPod and a promise: "I'll get your words back."
The series has a few jolts of those showy CGI special effects. You know how they zip through your cerebral cortex and into the wires in your brain on shows like House, CSI or Bones? That kind of thing.
Tucci is a great actor and can do a lot with a little. Like House's Hugh Laurie, he plays damaged doc well. Feuerstein, toned down from his usual comic level, has never been as warm or relatable.
It's just that the whole damn thing has been done before, and lately with a little less predictability. What we have here is 3 lbs of leftovers, stirred and reheated. If you can't get enough, here's more. If one more medical drama makes your wires in a box explode, don't say we didn't warn you.
STREAMING MAD:
Those horny kids of Degrassi return to CTV Nov. 28 at 8 p.m. "Drag racing, drug abuse and exotic dancing" is on the agenda. A week earlier (Nov. 21 at noon), the season premiere will be posted at CTV.ca where it will be available on broadband.
So how come Americans get to watch new episodes of this long-running Canadian teen drama first? Season six of Degrassi: The Next Generation is already under way on the U.S. cable network The N as well as on their website. A Canadian clicking on the-n.com, however, gets this message: "The video you are trying to watch cannot be viewed from your current country or location."
In other words, Canadians are "geo-blocked." It's one thing to deny Canadians access to those four lost episodes of Smith at CBS's innertube.com or episodes of Desperate Housewives at ABC.com. We get it, the border police have seized access to the worldwide web.
But here, Canadians are being denied access to a Canadian series until after Americans have seen it. A spokesperson at CTV says it is all about contracts and rights and windows, but isn't this how grey dish satellites got started?
JUSTICE DENIED:
Fox has canned the low-rated legal drama Justice, yanking it off its schedule immediately. Repeats of House and Criminal Minds were thrown in yesterday on Fox and CTV. Next week, who knows?
MORE ABOUT BRIAN:
What About Brian, a late-starter last season, has just received a full season order at ABC. Nobody saw that coming.
