Three Rivers: Reviews

Three Rivers has just had its US debut, featuring Australia’s Alex O’Loughlin. The show will air on TEN at 9:30pm Wednesday October 14th.

Meanshile, the US reviews are in:

Variety said: “Three Rivers” derives its title from the venue — a heart-transplant hospital in Pittsburgh — which is the only opaque element in this medical drama. Mostly, the show provides Alex O’Loughlin — who set hearts atwitter (albeit not enough of them) in “Moonlight” — another shot at CBS stardom, in the same way the network kept plugging away at Simon Baker until “The Mentalist” took off. The topic is inherently dramatic, and the show flits along at a pace akin to CBS’ crime procedurals. Among a waiting room of new medical dramas, this operation has the best chance of avoiding rejection.

LA Times said: Although “Three Rivers” is not totally focused on organ transplants (another good call), they do play a large role, which requires a series of double-edged medical dramas. While organ donation is a necessary and noble act, the decisions are often being made by family members in shock and grief. Walking the line between dramatizing what is an already overly dramatic situation and hyperbolizing it is an ambitious quest; more than one show has fallen to its death in the attempt. But Barbee and her cast and crew might just pull it off. The pilot will not blow your mind, but strangely, that is its biggest strength.

NY Times said: This is of a piece with the storytelling, which is full of heart-tugging teachable moments. The Middle Eastern construction foreman’s daughter hesitates to release his organs because she fears that his ethnicity has kept the doctors from doing all they can to revive him. The Ethiopian, a noncitizen with no insurance, is given a room and told he’ll get a new heart. In the “Three Rivers” universe, apparently, a new health-care plan has been pushed through. The pace and structure of “Three Rivers,” on the other hand, feel more like those of a cop show than of a medical soap opera. Perhaps it’s because, unlike other hospital series, it relies on, and is driven by, death.

NY Daily News said: Hunky Alex O’Loughlin plays Dr. Andy Yablonski, the hospital’s star surgeon. He’s a basically kind, caring man whose worst vice seems to be occasional mild sarcasm. When an Ethiopian refugee without insurance checks himself into the hospital because he knows Yablonski is the best, Andy can’t bring himself to pass the case to someone else, because, well, he’s that kind of guy. You wish you had him for your own doctor. You don’t want him as your TV doctor.

Boston.com said: Alex O’Loughlin, formerly of “Moonlight,’’ is the smug but brilliant and heroic surgeon. He arrives at meetings late, but everyone knows he’s worth the trouble. The premiere has him trying to save a man who has no health insurance, and coolly tossing off lines such as, “Bottom line, you need a new heart.’’ O’Loughlin has a wooden delivery that is ultimately forgettable, and Alfre Woodard, as an administrator, is similarly bland.

Hollywood Reporter said: “Rivers” revolves around the doctors, donors and recipients of transplants, with special emphasis (at least in the pilot) on aforementioned well-lit surgeon Andy Yablonsky (Alex O’Loughlin, looking like Zach Braff and Noah Wyle’s love child). He and his cohorts, including Alfre Woodard as the hospital administrator, are all earnest and squishy, getting involved in everything from a passed-out pregnant woman to an uninsured walk-in who insists on speaking only to Yablonsky. All of which is soporific — at least until the transplant engine revs up and the plot’s urgency raises ethical dilemmas: Should a heart transplant go to a possibly brain-damaged patient? Just how should one approach grieving family members for donations and not seem like a circling vulture?