The Trauma miniseries, featuring the safety service personal – EMTs namely, and their experience of catastrophies (of which there are approx. 5 a day!)– is still going on in our fair city. It’s filming on my block in North Beach, and taking up a precious block of non-street cleaning parking. Neighborly tensions are high.

On my way back from a run I noticed about 5 really attractive people sitting outside Kennedy’s. Not to harsh on Kennedy’s, but these people were Tall and Skinny. I thought it was appropriate that they were dressed in brown and black.

“They call us down and then we have to wait 7 hours. It’s like this each time.” And a lot more grumbling from the extras and staff. Note: a little bird told me they’re not getting carried over into another session, so feelings may be low.

Some neighbors have been complaining, and from what they’ve seen on TV, it hasn’t lived up to the hype. Most of us are just shocked at the money that Hollywood is paying in location fees. For some reason I think it’s 10K/day per spot, but not including the cost of cops, actors, etc. of course.

But anyways, what do you *think* about the miniseries? Well I’ve watched it far too many times, and here are my thoughts.

Episode 2: All’s Fair

First off, the guy from Friday Night Lights is sitting with another guy at Fort Point. Then, they respond to a call at the projects in Bay View. Estimated storytime? 2 minutes. Yep. There are a lot of problems like this one.

They don’t give The White Guy enough lines and time, which is interesting in this series, if you think that most of media gives a lot of time to The White Guys. But the problem is he’s a great actor and it’s kind of wasted, since he has no time to show us he is edgy and crazy. “Don’t kill the white guy,” was perhaps my favorite line in this- when he’s dealing with gang crime over in Bay View.

I really liked that a Caffe Trieste scene was within the first 10 minutes. I don’t really care about the love interest stuff. Can I say that The White Girl looks like a younger Jenna Elfman, and that would be the second time a SF story (Ed TV) featured a Jenna Elfman-ish woman in uniform? Hm. I think I revealed more about myself than any Hollywood plot.

OK this scene has caused the biggest talk amongst neighbors: the hot new guy and The White Girl respond to a call on Maccharini steps (pronounced correctly!) where an old man is halfway up, with a heart attack. Where is he going? The only thing up there is the Green Tortoise hostel, home of crabs and scabies. And young Euro tourists. Anyways, White Girl craftily attempts to give him oxygen and he refuses, he’s really just trying to get some morphine. Those wily EMTs! The funny bit is that the vehicle is parked halfway up. Um, how exactly did it get there? There was a random driving sequence that made no sense. And homeless old drug addict guys do not climb stairs. You’re relatively safe from homeless people on hills. Points to the actors for huffing and puffing their way through the lines. That was real.

Hospital scene, some kind of Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve decided this is St. Francis on Nob Hill. And why, oh why, are there only 5 people who work in this hospital? Having visited the emergency room there (sadly) there was a lot of registration staff, and a few seconds of a doctor, oh, and a lot more EMTs and orderlies.

Just to keep track, 2 calls so far. The next one is a blow-out, a car careens into Embarcadero Street Fair. My question with so much of this is- why make it up? There’s vendors there every day, as well as weird promotions. You don’t have to make it a real fair. Nobody calls it anything, either. It’s just … Embarcadero. I would have preferred the Farmer’s Market myself, but hey.

This happened in another city, and the whole “ripped from the headlines” thing is cute, but in all, at this point watching it the first time, I was done with the violence. It’s just pretty stark and random. I guess they’re trying to get some feeling going for the adrenalin rush and randomness of safety work, but for me as a veiwer, it was stressful. Oh, and note, The White Guy and his partner drove from Washington Square Park to Embarcadero in a realistic story-time (5 mins?).

There are more kids in this show already than per capital in SF. Just sayin’, the kid-acting wasn’t that hot, and the whole subplot of Rabbit and his aversion to kids didn’t work for me. Most of the sentimental subplots aren’t working, not sure why yet. Perhaps because they don’t have enough time or interest to engage? The lines are quick and sappy? The macho stuff doesn’t hold?

The White Guy again got me with a good line- as they’re leaving the Embarcadero Street Fair, his partner says he’s hungry and The White Guy goes, “Noodles?” I have low standards.

My final note that I wrote while watching: “the number of crimes in this show is apocalyptic. Can’t they give some love to Oakland, Richmond or Fremont?”