TV and Books

Sometimes you see something on TV that prompts a comparison to writing novels. Authors are always supposed to start off with a hook that reels the reader in, and keep the story interesting, no matter how many twists and turns it takes.

This morning, I watched the episode of Miami Medical that I'd recorded, and WOW, whoever wrote that script knew how to pack an hour with things you never saw coming. Here's a small summary:

Opening scene - Four people golfing, one girl, three guys. All young. The shot of one guy lands in the water, and he has to play it where it lands. He takes off one sock and shoe and steps into the shallow pool. WHAM! From nowhere, an alligator drags him into the water, tossing him around like a piece of foam. Now, that's a hook!

In the hospital, a doctor finds two tickets to the Black Eyed Peas taped to her locker. People begin jockeying for the second ticket.

Next, the three others attempt to rescue him by beating on the reptile with their golf clubs. In the fray, one guy hits the guy next to him in the head, and the girl slips and hits her head on a rock. The scene ends with them staring a calm waters...all have horrified looks on their faces.

Next scene - hospital: They managed to pull the young man from the water and get him to the ER/Trauma room. They all look a little worse for the wear they've been through and are advised to see the ER staff to help with their cuts and bruises. Enter the footless man's wife, who evidently has a past with one of the other fellas. The alligator is captured and killed and delivered to the hospital, where the attending physician fishes around in the gator's guts until he finds the foot. Yeah, I believe that.

Carrying on: The girl is admitted for her head injury, and the doctor notices a rash on her arm. It turns out to be narcotizing fascitis, the horrible disease that eats away one's flesh. Her father wants the doctor to amputate her arm if it means saving her life. She, on the verge of a golfing scholarship at Stanford, doesn't want to lose her arm, and at the stroke of midnight, she'll be eighteen and can make her own health decision. Ohhh, the tension. so as not to keep you hanging, she loses her arm.

Meanwhile in the waiting room, one of the young men appears to have fallen asleep, but won't wake. The doctor calls for a gurney, rushes him to surgery, and he dies.

The original footless guy has his foot reconnected,and is back in the room with his happy wife, eating soup. The doctor is crying in another room over the young man who died, and the attending physician is making a move on the blonde doctor who successfully replanted the severed foot.

In the end, two doctors who wanted to attend the black eyed peas, meet the doctor with the tickets in the parking lot. The concert is long over, but they have warm beer and a CD. As the episode ends, they're all singing and dancing in the hospital parking lot, and none too softly. Shouldn't they know that a hospital is zoned for quietness?

Actually, I thought there was just a tad too much in this one episode. How in the world can they top it?