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A Gifted Man: Series Premiere

By Jeffrey Baldinger · September 27, 2011

So, here we have another doctor show that revolves around the very best in the business, and surprise, he’s got a bad attitude about it.  The point is, we’ve seen it before.   A big hotshot with a bad personality, but nobody can say anything cause he is the best, and if you look down deep, he has that heart of gold you need for a lead character.  The big twist in this doctor drama is that Dr. Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson) gets the pleasure of being haunted by his recently deceased ex-wife, Anna Paul (Jennifer Ehle).  Simply put, A Gifted Man quite literally is House meets Ghost Whisperer.

This is a very clichéd premise of a man who has all the monetary success in the world, but doesn’t have what really matters, and the only one who can help him is his ex-wife, who, even though she’s dead, teaches him about life.  I know you can’t really infer tone in a piece of writing, but please read that as sappily as possible for desired result. 

Now, as sappy, and as clichéd as the premise of the show may be, it is a watchable show.  The characters are engaging and you do care what happens to the patients.  My biggest problem with the show, besides the repetitive nature of the premise, is the use of the camera during his meetings with Anna. 

The straight-on shot makes what was otherwise a well-produced show, look amateurish.  I don’t mean to sound harsh, but Michael talking directly to the camera as if it were Anna is pretty jarring. I want to be clear; there were only, two or three shots like that in the 42 minutes of the show.  The rest was shot as a standard hour-long drama.  Not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.  But, the way they set up the show, it seems that this camera technique will be used throughout the series as the “talking to a ghost” shot.  Is it wrong?  No.  Is it clichéd?  Yes.

Being that this is the pilot episode, there is also a lot of exposition, setting up a ton of potentially good story lines for this season: his nephew on the right track, making amends with his sister, getting in touch with the lower income part of his community…etc.  And, my guess is that the ghost of his ex-wife will be a very big part of all those stories, not to mention that she’ll be adding her own unfinished business on top as well. 

I suppose, if we were going to put it into one sentence what my problem was with the show, it would be this: we don’t need the ghost angle. 

They have this show, that is like a bunch of other shows, be it House, or Scrubs, or Grey’s Anatomy, or ER, all surrounding these amazing professionals, and every one of them has a “Best of the Best” character.  So what does this show do to make it different? It adds a supernatural element to it. 

Personally, I think it’s a copout.