AS SEEN ON TV: SUSAN WHEELER

Over the Labor Day weekend, while I was on vacation, A&E broadcast a two-part TV adaptation of Robin Cook's novel "Coma", bringing the characters into Earth Prime-Time......

SUSAN WHEELER

AS SEEN IN:

'Coma'

CREATED BY:

Robin Cook

PORTRAYED BY:

Lauren Ambrose

TV STATUS:

Multiversal

TV DIMENSION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Susan Wheeler (Lauren Ambrose) is a medical student starting her first year of training at the Peach Tree Memorial Hospital, built by her deceased grandfather. There she meets Dr. Mark Bellows (Steven Pasquale), Chief Surgical Resident, an doctor currently in a relationship with Head of Psychiatry Dr. Agnetta Lindquist (Geena Davis). Susan discovers an unusual amount of surgeries at the hospital have been ending in comas, much higher than the normal rate. These coma patients are being transferred to the mysterious Jefferson Institute, a hospital designed to take care of coma patients, run by Mrs. Emerson (Ellen Burstyn), who refers to the patients as "her babies". With the help of Dr. Bellows (and soon Dr. Theodore Stark (James Woods), Chief of Surgery), Susan begins to investigate the comas, and soon strange things begin to happen seemingly to stop her investigation - her roommate who works at the hospital and who helped her access confidential files is suddenly fired, the hospital board tries to have her expelled from school, and she discovers cameras in her house.

If you want to know how it ends, you'll have to click here.

BEHIND THE SCENES:

'Coma' is an American television mini-series based on the 1977 novel of the same title by Robin Cook and from the 1978 movie by the same name. The four-hour medical thriller was originally broadcast on A&E on September 3–4, 2012.

The series was directed by Mikael Salomon and executive produced by Ridley Scott and his brother Tony Scott, the same group of men who adapted 'The Andromeda Strain' as a miniseries for A&E in 2008. The film is dedicated to Tony Scott, who died in August 2012, only weeks before its broadcast premiere.

Since the book was also adapted into a theatrically released movie with Genevieve Bujold in the lead role, this makes Susan Wheeler a true multiversal. All she needs now is a Broadway musical adaptation!

There was a Korean mini-series called 'Coma' which was about the nefarious events going on at a hospital, but I'm not sure if that was also based on the novel. (Robin Cook's name is not mentioned in the Wikipedia article nor in the IMDb listing.) If so, all of the characters' names were changed so each version could have happened in Earth Prime-Time. But I have a feeling the producers of that five part mini-series just took advantage of the title's familiarity.

BCnU!