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!
