TV REVIEW : Intensity Missing in San Diego Trauma Center Production

It’s more Reality Television.

The KGTV (Channel 10)-produced “Trauma!” scheduled to air today at 10 p.m., takes viewers into the University of California, San Diego’s Trauma Center for 24 hours, following in the footsteps of such reality-based shows as “Cops” and “48 Hours.”

The cameras follow victims from accident to recovery as they receive the type of immediate care that is, in many cases, lifesaving.

Such video jaunts into the pressure and tension of real-life situations are becoming standard television fare, often more gripping than any script. No actors could adequately re-create the real scenes of doctors working to save a life.

It’s hard, however, for viewers not to become slightly jaded. If the real-life action is not on par with a Clint Eastwood movie, they head for the remote control. This speaks more to the nature of audiences than the quality of real life. But the fickleness of television audiences is part of reality, too.

In the non-stop drama of the Trauma Center, Channel 10 has found an intense subject for its “Signature Series” cameras. But the producers don’t do it justice.

Little of the pressure or sweat that a viewer expects to find in a trauma center comes through on the little television screen.

Shows like “48 Hours” succeed through crisp editing and tight camera shots. “Trauma!” takes the audience inside the operating rooms, but it is unable to convey the urgency or tension of the life-or-death situation, other than through a relatively bland narration.

The program does an excellent job of following individual cases, but there is none of the swirl of emotion that must accompany six critical head injuries arriving in a seven-hour period.

“Let’s rock ‘n’ roll,” one of the doctors says. All the audience gets is light jazz.

Much of the program seems to consist of doctors asking patients questions. The cool demeanor of the Trauma Center staff is testimony to their professionalism and training, but it doesn’t always make for great television.

The producers attempt to build the show into something more, something dramatic, through artificial means, similar to the explanation point in the show’s title. They toss in a few special effects like slow motion, and narrator Mark Matthews says ominous things like, if “you or someone you love” hasn’t had need of a trauma center, you “almost certainly will.”

In good Reality Television, narration often seems superfluous.

“Trauma!” breaks up the scenes from the Trauma Center, with segments on the history of trauma care and the problems of funding the trauma center system. The six centers servicing all of San Diego County are under constant financial pressure.

The program succeeds in discussing the problems and obstacles facing the trauma centers, in delineating the definite need for them, but this reduces the program to distant discussions about saving “productive” people. It’s an important message, but not enough to carry an hour-long special.

The human aspect, the drama of doctors and nurses working 24-hour shifts, are the real story here. “Trauma!” only leaves the viewer wanting more.