Heartbeat (formerly Heartbreaker during production)[1] is an American medicalcomedy-drama television series based on the real life of Dr. Kathy Magliato, as described in her book Heart Matters. It stars Melissa George as Alex Panttiere, a world-renowned heart-transplant surgeon at the fictional St. Matthew's Hospital in Los Angeles, who struggles to balance her personal and professional life.[2][3][4] The series premiered on March 22, 2016, on NBC.[5] On May 13, 2016, NBC canceled the series after one season.[6]
Plot
Alex Panttiere is a cardio-thoracic surgeon, and a very good one. She has just been appointed to a senior role at a major hospital. While this brings more responsibility, it does not dull her rebelliousness or unconventional methods.
Cast
Main
Melissa George as Dr. Alexandra Panttiere, the new Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of St. Matthew's hospital, a cutting-edge research hospital. She has a very idiosyncratic personality, and is constantly dealing with demons from her past history at the hospital.[7]
Dave Annable as Dr. Pierce Harrison, Alex's boyfriend and fellow surgeon.[7]
Don Hany as Dr. Jesse Shane, chief of surgery at St. Matthews, and Alex's former mentor from when she interned at the hospital.[7]
Shelley Conn as Dr. Millicent Silvano, hospital administrator. She is a stickler for procedure and the rules, much to Alex's chagrin.[7]
We are thrown into the life of successful heart surgeon and CIO of St. Matthew's Hospital, Dr. Alexandra Panttiere (Melissa George), as she struggles dealing with her intertwining professional and personal lives. Alex must find a heart for a patient when the one originally given to her was taken by another patient. When the patient's boyfriend kills himself in order to give his heart to her, Alex goes up against the hospital administrators to perform an unapproved heart transplant.
Alex uses "lights and sirens" to get to the hospital faster, to the angst of Dr. Patel. Shane hands over to Alex the treatment of twins (Justina Machado), joined at the back and side and sharing one lung, one of whom has cancer. Alex must figure out how to operate on one of them without hurting or killing the other or both.
When a patient (Nick Thurston) comes into the ER talking backwards, the doctors want to perform a cutting edge stem cell injection into his brain to repair the damage that was caused by an injury sustained in a car accident. When an earthquake strikes during the surgery and breaks the tank holding the blood that was removed, the surgical team races against the clock to bring the patient back to life. Meanwhile, Alex and Harrison's relationship takes a twist, and Millicent makes them sit in therapy with Dr. Hackett.
The hospital wants to try an experimental cancer treatment that was tested in Mumbai, India with 90% success, with the risk being immediate death to the patient. However, when Harrison is frank with the subjects regarding the risks, they all back out, much to Alex's angst. She posts an ad on Craigslist to find more candidates, causing a ruckus in the hospital as they need to decide which patients to accept and whom to turn down. Meanwhile, Alex and Harrison's relationship continues to struggle, and Max's Boyfriend asks him to marry him, resulting in an awkward situation for him and Alex.
Alex tries to learn to use a new robot in order to operate on a patient who cannot have open heart surgery. Millicent begins to sleep with the artist who is doing a sculpture in the hospital. Alex deals with her socially awkward son.
When a patient with backwards organs, that Alex and Millicent almost lost their jobs on saving 10 years previously, dies from complications, forces them to work with Dr. Shane to overcome the many obstacles present to re-transplant the heart into another reluctant patient. Meanwhile, Harrison must deal with Alex's son's head lice.
When a transgender woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, Alex and Ji-Sung fight to save her life and her identity. Meanwhile, a beautiful consultant from another hospital forces Jesse to confront his feelings for Alex.
Alex struggles to save the lives of Jesse, Pierce and Ji-Sung after a deadly sickness throws the hospital into lockdown; Millicent is left picking up the pieces after Alex defies CDC orders.
Production
NBC picked up the pilot to series under the name Heartbreaker in May 2015.[2] The series was moved to a midseason release due to George's real-life pregnancy.[18] In December 2015, NBC changed the title from Heartbreaker to Heartbeat.[1] The pilot was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the remainder of the season filmed at Universal Studios in Hollywood.
Reception
Heartbeat has received negative reviews among critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 17% approval rating. The site's critical consensus reads: "Heartbeat is a Frankensteined drama made up of hospital genre cliches and unlikable characters, though the cases-of-the-week are sporadically interesting."[19] On Metacritic, the series holds a score of 37 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."[20]
