Body of Proof

Aaaaaand, we're back!  Sorry for the delay folks, but life has caught up with me, and sadly, my TV life has suffered.  But I'm popping back in for a minute to discuss a "new" show, Body of Proof.

Body of Proof follows Dr. Megan Hunt, a headstrong, but emotionally unavailable, medical examiner (ME) in Philadelphia.  Dr. Hunt, a former surgeon, killed a patient on her surgical table due to some type of weird paralysis that resulted from a car accident.  Thus, her position as an ME: you can't kill someone if they're already dead.  As is natural in the TV world, Dr. Hunt and her ragtag group of fellow medical examiners, medical investigators, and police detectives team up to solve crimes a la HOUSE (except it's diagnosing cause of death to solve crimes instead of determining what ails ya). 

What's more interesting, however, is Hunt's relationships with her co-workers and her estranged daughter.  TV vet Dana Delaney does a great job of portraying the brash, socially inept, but fashionable, doctor who seems to care more for her dead patients than those alive and well orbiting her very existence.  She breaks interrogation protocol to find the killer; she smothers her daughter with well-intentioned actions, trying to win back the affection lost due to her former grueling surgical schedule; and she bosses her superiors around at the Medical Examiner's Office.  For all her wit and intelligence, Hunt lacks social grace and awareness, which makes her a semi-interesting character for primetime television.

And this brings me to a certain observation.  Why is it that TV's main characters need to be flawed or troubled in some way?  I guess it would be quite boring to watch the well-adjusted, loving, married mother without a tragic past solve crimes every week.  Some of the draw, at least for me, of watching television is the escapism: the possibility of aliens, the supernatural, or just watching fictional characters live their flawed, but normal, lives.  Although quite important, plot isn't everything.  Without complex, compelling characters, television shows just wouldn't be that interesting.

Body of Proof airs on Tuesday nights 10/9c on ABC.  My Grade: B.