Jada Pinkett Smith in "Hawthorne"
courtesy of TNT
“Hawthorne” (TNT)

TNT just keeps on bringing out the hits. Their latest is “Hawthorne” starring Jada Pinkett Smith. In this series she plays the head nurse at a hospital and is efficiency personified. Plus Smith has never looked better or been more appealing than she is in this show. If this one isn’t a hit I will eat my TiVo (just kidding, folks).

Christina Hawthorne (Pinkett Smith) is a woman with a lot on her plate. A year ago her husband David died of cancer and their daughter Camille (Hannah Hodson) is having problems dealing with her loss. But then so is Christina. She gets her support from her friends at the hospital, especially her fellow nurse Bobbie Jackson (Suleka Matthew) and Dr, Tom Wakefield (Michael Vartan).

The premiere episode also indicates she has problems with her mother-in-law (Joanna Cassidy) as well as doctors on the staff who do not respect the nurses. Christina is not above taking them on head to head.

There are a lot of similarities between this show and SHOWTIME’s “Nurse Jackie” but that show deals with the quirkiness of hospital situations while this one deals more with the heart and the emotions. You get involved with Christina from the opening scene and stay with her all the way through the show.

Pairing this new show with the returning “Saving Grace”, the Holly Hunter starrer, is a good thing. “Grace” is a little rawer but you still have a strong actress at the heart of both of these shows.

Summertime used to be the desert as far as TV entertainment went, but not any more. With shows like this we are just as content in the summer months as we were in the winter – and maybe more so. “Hawthorne” is a crowd pleaser and will make Jada Pinkett Smith a household name. She is that terrific in the series.

So tune in to TNT on June 16 at 9PM for the start of another great series. TNT says “it knows drama” but what it really knows is entertainment.
 

 

 

 

 

©2009 Jackie K. Cooper

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