What's it about?
Fast-talking New Yorker and brand new doctor Zoe Hart has it all figured out - after graduating top of her class from medical school, she'll follow in her father's footsteps and become a cardio-thoracic surgeon. But when her dreams fall apart, Zoe decides to accept an offer from a stranger, Dr. Harley Wilkes, to work with him at his small practice in Bluebell, Alabama. Zoe arrives in this small Gulf Coast town only to find that Harley has passed away and left his half of the medical practice to her in his will.
So, how was it?
Less supernaturally violent and inherently dramatic than THE VAMPIRE DIARIES or THE SECRET CIRCLE, but equally soapy, HART OF DIXIE stars Rachel Bilson (THE O.C.) as Zoe Hart. When we first see her, she's sitting on a bus and her voiceover asks us, "See that New Yorker in the Chanel coat?" That very first line tells us pretty much everything we need to know about this girl. She's cute, she's trendy, she wears fancy clothes...and she's completely out of place in the Deep South.
The pilot is completely focused around the fish-out-of-water concept of this New Yorker arriving in Alabama, and delights in showing how backward these adorable, Taylor-Swift-listening Southerners are. Twenty-something young women walk down the sidewalk wearing full-out gowns straight out of Gone With The Wind, complete with parasols. The mayor is a jolly, black former NFL star who always has a smile on his face and owns a pet alligator named Burt Reynolds. The next-door neighbor wears wife beaters, so we immediately know he's a bad boy. The obese young woman doesn't know she's pregnant and her mom berates her for eating too many potato chips. All of this and more, just in the first 41 minutes of screen time! Granted, I live in New York City, not Alabama, but I hardly think this is a 100% accurate portrayal of the south. Sure, they have a different lifestyle and every small town has its eccentricities, but it just felt so slathered on in such a stereotypical way, it was hard not to feel offended. And I'm not even from there!
Rachel Bilson is horrifically miscast as a wannabe cardio-thoracic surgeon. Not that surgeons can't be pretty, but she just lacks the weight or gravitas of someone who has spent the past fourteen years of her life studying medicine and performing complicated surgeries. She was infinitely more at home in Orange County. It doesn't help that she is given impossible-to-deliver oneliners such as "He's one avocado short of a Cobb Salad." Seriously? I think the writers thought that was supposed to sound witty...? Luckily, everyone else in the cast is believable in their supporting roles, and do their best with the two-dimensional roles they're given. Scott Porter is charming as the hunky attorney George Tucker, who flirts shamelessly with Zoe and literally scoops her off the ground to protect her from an alligator (because all city girls need handsome men to save them from rustic life). Jamie King is all sugar and spice as the town's reigning Queen Bee who's name is, naturally, Lemon. Not joking. Oh, and she just happens to be engaged to George. Uh oh! Her father, Brick (yes, Brick named his daughter Lemon...what's wrong with these people?), is the other doctor in the practice that Zoe is working at, and is a typical domineering, take-no-guff Southern man-in-charge. He wants that awful New York girl out of his town! How dare she try to, you know, help that poor girl deliver her baby? How selfish.
That being said, the show isn't all bad. The setting is gorgeous, the actors are mostly likable, and the soundtrack is typical CW teenage-attention-grabbing hip. I can see this show hooking a decent-for-the-CW-sized audience, and the soapy drama between the chic young doctor, the chivalrous hunk and the devious Southern Belle makes for an addicting guilty pleasure. But the show's premise that small town life can teach us busy (a.k.a. "soulless") cityfolk important lessons about life and love is a little much for me. Oh, and of course there's a "twist" at the end, which I can only imagine any semi-intelligent viewer will see coming a mile away.
Rating:
* Atrocious. I will never watch this show again. Ever.
If I'm being honest, the show isn't quite "atrocious" per se, but I definitely have no intention of tuning in again. That may be more due to my personal preferences than the actual quality, as I'm sure this show will find its niche quite easily. But I prefer my shows minus the offensive caricatures and plus good writing. I'd rather get my soapy drama fix watching filthy rich Hamptonites who have no qualms about the fact that they're two-faced, than from a show that pretends to be sincere while actively reinforcing harmful stereotypes. Not exactly my cup of tea.
What about you, Fellow Addicts? Did you find the show charming, or offensive? Did you find Rachel Bilson believable as a hardcore surgeon? Will you be tuning in again? Vote in the poll below and then hit the comments!
(For a quick glance at the other pilots coming out, check out my Fall TV Preview.)
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