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Webposted: September 22, 2002
By: Kay Kellam

What They Say:

Dr. Andrew Brown (Treat Williams, Hollywood Ending, The Late Shift) is a world-famous neurosurgeon whose career always overshadowed his obligations as a parent, until the day that his loving wife died. Faced with the daunting task of raising his two kids, 9-year-old Delia (Vivien Cardone, A Beautiful Mind) and 15-year-old Ephram (Gregory Smith, The Patriot) by himself, Andrew moves his family from New York to the beautiful Rocky Mountain town of Everwood, Colorado, where he opens a free medical clinic. Delia adjusts quickly to her new surroundings, but the sudden shift in everything he has ever known is hardest on Ephram, who resents all the years his father lavished on his career at the expense of his family.

Emily VanCamp, Debra Mooney, John Beasley, Chris Pratt and Tom Amandes also star. Creator/Executive Producer Greg Berlanti wrote the episode directed by Mark Piznarski.

 

What I Say:

This is a wonderful way to spend an hour!  A heartfelt drama about a family struggling to do something so basic -- just talk to one another.  Good people, with good hearts who seem willing to try and build bridges of peace and communication with almost everyone around them -- and yet seem utterly and completely incapable of doing that with their own family members.  Not because they don't want to  -- just because they can't figure it out.

It is a great story, and one to which most people can relate.

For those who missed the 70 min. first showing and wonder what they missed by seeing the 60 minute reairing of the pilot... I saw the first 60 minutes of the 70 minute showing, and all 60 minutes of the 60 minute showing (the VCR was only set for the standard one hour a TV show runs) very little was cut out.  A minor disagreement between father and son in the laundry room, and a subplot in which the neighbors kid has a persistent cough that isn't getting better with the treatment of meds issued by the evil doc from in town (you know, the snotty guy) and yet our Doc Brown (Treat Williams) seems to recognize a rash on the kids hands as being related and gives the other doc advice on how to treat it.

That one is a particularly interesting interaction in that Doc Brown doesn't tell the mother that her doctor is giving bum treatment, but advises the other doctor as to what to look for when he sees the boy next -- and encourages the mother to get the kid back to the doc.  It is a nice way of showing that he is "the better man."  He isn't going to take face from the other guy, because he wants all the docs to look good in the eyes of their patients, but he is going to see that the boy get treatment.  It is well played, like so very much of the show.

My one disappointment, that the father never told his son he moved them to Everwood because it was the wish of his dead wife.  She said it was heaven on Earth -- where he should take the kids if she should die.  Somehow I hope there comes a good scene in which he tells that to his son -- mostly because I wonder how the scene would play.  It could well prove that the son is wrong about the relationship he thinks his parents had -- and sometimes finding out you are wrong could be the best thing that ever happens to you.

(C) Kay Kellam, 2001 for PopArtsPlace.com
Prior to having her first novel, A Life to Di For, published author Kay Kellam enjoyed a variety of jobs that helped to shape her outlook on the world, and her profession.   more...