Saved…Saved Me From a Boring Night of TV

TNT…they know drama, and they also know how to hook me into a new show. Feature the adorable Tom Everett Scott and I’m there. Ok, so maybe TES (as we his friends like to call him) got me there, but the writing and the acting kept me in front of the TV last night to watch the series premiere of Saved.

Tom Everett Scott plays Wyatt Cole, a tragically flawed paramedic with an inclination towards gambling, or as he likes to call it “risk assessment”. His predaliction for “risk assessing” may get his ass handed to him a few times, but when you take a huge pot on pocket 3’s you have to expect a little backlash, no?

Going all in on pocket 3’s is kind a metaphor on how Wyatt lives his life. He’s the kind of guy that gets off on being unpredictable. Wyatt is the guy who saves lives everyday as a paramedic, but seems to hate doctors, despite having attended med school for two years. I guess it isn’t a huge shock when we discover he has daddy issues. Wyatt’s father, who does nothing to hide his disappointment in his son, is the Chief of Medicine at the hospital where Wyatt often works. Avoiding him isn’t always easy.

It’s also not easy for Wyatt to avoid the woman whose break-up was the catalyst for him dropping out of med school when she works at the hospital. too Alice, Wyatt’s ex, went on to finish med school and now spends her days saving lives, preparing to move in with her Dr.-boyfriend, and pining for Wyatt. Wyatt definitely still carrying that dang torch for Alice…so much so that her rejection of him again could throw him off the edge.

If there is one person that can keep Wyatt level headed it’s his partner in all things paramedics – Sack. Sack seems to be the one guy that can break through Wyatt’s shield of sarcasm and really get him to think about the consequences of his choices. Sack knows a little something about actions and consequences. He bailed on his baby’s momma, and is now trying really hard to establish a relationship with the son he abandoned.

After one episode, I’m already intrigued by these characters and their lives. I honestly wasn’t prepared to like this show. I wasn’t sure if I could deal with yet another medical-based drama, but Saved is definitely not cookie cutter. Yes it has undertones of Grey’s Anatomy and perhaps ER (when ER was a show worth watching), but the approach is more gritty, and the characters a touch more flawed and intriguing.

Among all the summer reality shows you are going to be faced with, Saved is something different, and definitely worth checking out.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a full recap of the first episode.

If you saw last night’s premiere of Saved let me know what you think!!