Hawthorne Information

Hawthorne (sometimes stylized HawthoRNe) was an hour-long medical drama on the TNT television network starring Jada Pinkett Smith and Michael Vartan. It premiered on June 16, 2009. On Thursday, September 16, 2010 it was announced that Hawthorne has been renewed for a third season consisting of 10 episodes. The third season of the show premiered on June 14, 2011. On September 2, 2011, it was announced that TNT had decided not to renew HawthoRNe, so the Season 3 finale, a cliffhanger, was the series finale.

Plot

Christina Hawthorne is introduced as Chief Nursing Officer heading a group of nurses at Richmond Trinity Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. She is very passionate about her work and always advocates for her patients and her staff, even when it threatens her job. Richmond Trinity Hospital later closes and the staff is moved to James River Hospital. While acclimating to the new work atmosphere, she must also deal with a new relationship that she has formed with Dr. Tom Wakefield, the Chief of Surgery. Dr. Wakefield wants commitment and she is still unsure if she can become close with someone else. In season three they get married and face challenges including loss and infidelity.

Cast

• Jada Pinkett Smith as Christina Hawthorne, COO & President of James River Hospital, Former CNO of James River
• Michael Vartan as Dr. Tom Wakefield, M.D., Chief of Surgery
• David Julian Hirsh as Nurse Ray Stein (Seasons 1"2)
• Suleka Mathew as Nurse Bobbie Jackson, Chief Nursing Officer of James River Hospital
• Christina Moore as Nurse Candy Sullivan (Seasons 1"2, guest in Season 3 Episode 1)
• Hannah Hodson as Camille Hawthorne
• Vanessa Lengies as Scrub Nurse Kelly Epson (Seasons 2"3, recurring Season 1)
• Marc Anthony as Detective Nick Renata (Season 3, recurring Season 2)
• Aisha Hinds as Isabel Walsh (Recurring Seasons 1-2)

Production

John Masius created the program and served as executive producer for the first season. Glen Mazzara also served as executive producer for the first season. The program was initially going to be called Time Heals. Megan Branman and Dylann Brander of Branman/Brander Casting were involved in casting for the program. In September 2008, Jamie Tarses was reported to be an executive producer on the program.

In September 2008, The Press of Atlantic City reported that Jada Pinkett Smith signed on as both the star of the television pilot, and to serve as executive producer of the program. Pinkett Smith had previously promised never to work in television again, but changed her mind after reading the script of the pilot. She recalled getting the script from her manager: "He said, 'I would never send this to you if I didn't think it was fantastic.' I read it and then I let my husband read it. (Will) said to take the meeting and see." She decided to return to television because of the show's unique qualities.

In the pilot, Jeffrey Nordling portrayed Dr. Tom Wakefield, director of medicine. In February 2009, Michael Vartan was cast to co-star alongside Pinkett Smith as Dr. Tom Wakefield in the series. By June 6, 2009, the program's title had been changed to Hawthorne.

Masius continued on as executive producer in the second season. In September 2009, Glen Mazzara was named showrunner for the program's second season. Masius decided to name Mazzara as showrunner for the second season, citing a desire to focus more on writing.

Ratings

The first episode of Hawthorne received 3.8 million viewers, with a debut at the 17th spot in the list of the "Top 20 cable network television shows for the week ending June 21, 2009". It placed directly below the Nickelodeon episode of iCarly, "iDate A Bad Boy", and above the USA Network program, In Plain Sight. By its 10th episode, the show's viewership had declined to 3.5 million.

Overall, the show's first season was beaten in the ratings among adults aged 25"54 by the new science fiction program Warehouse 13 produced by Syfy, and the medical drama Royal Pains produced by USA Network.

Season	Episodes	Original Airing			Viewers (in millions)
		Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season
1	10	June 16, 2009	August 18, 2009	2009	3.2
2	10	June 22, 2010	August 24, 2010	2010	3.6
3	10	June 14, 2011	August 16, 2011	2011	2.4

DVD release

DVD Name	Region 1 Release Date	Region 2 Release Date	Region 4 Release Date	Ep #	Discs	Additional Information
Season 1	June 15, 2010	TBA	October 27, 2010	10	3	All In A Day's Work - A Conversation With Jada Pinkett Smith, Inside Richmond Trinity, Get To Know The Cast Of HawthoRNe, HawthoRNe Medical School, Male Nurses and Shooting A Scene - Visual Effects and HawthoRNe's Heroes
Season 2	June 7, 2011	TBA	TBA	10	3	A New Season, Fresh Faces, Advanced Medicine, "I Run This" Photo Shoot and Cast Photo Shoot
Season 3	March 6, 2012	TBA	TBA	10	3	Outtakes and Pregnancy Pool Winner

Critical reception

Hawthorne has received widespread critical reviews. Amy Amatangelo of the Boston Herald gave the program a grade of "D+", commenting: "'HawthoRNe' can't make a diagnosis. It's a comedy; it's a drama. It's a mess, fronted by Jada Pinkett Smith, making a return to series television as Christina Hawthorne, the chief nursing officer for Richmond Trinity Hospital and about the closest thing to a heavenly figure on the small screen since Roma Downey took flight on Touched by an Angel." In a review for Zap2it, Amatangelo commented "With each passing episode, they seem to be writing Christina (Jada Pinkett Smith) deeper and deeper into a corner. She can't always be in an uproar about everything or always play the hero. The show cannot center around her at the expense of everyone else." Greg Braxton of the Los Angeles Times noted, "Tom Shales in the Washington Post suggested 'HawthoRNe' is 'a show in need of emergency care.'" In an assessment of the program for Bangor Daily News, Dale McGarrigle wrote that "It also pales in comparison to other original dramas on its own channel." Alan Pergament of The Buffalo News was critical of the lead actress's decision to star in the series: "Jada Pinkett Smith, the actress married to film superstar Will Smith, must be getting a little bored lately. And now she is going to bore some of us. There is no other explanation for her decision to star in TNT's routine 'HawthoRNe' as the latest strong, flawed woman on the cable network." Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote: "HawthoRNe would be terrible if it were the only series on TV and the only medical drama you'd ever seen. It's just too bad it's not TV's first medical show. At least it could get credit for inventing clichés instead of rehashing them." Of the lead actress's performance in the show, Bianco commented: "Pinkett Smith's Hawthorne is tired in every sense of the word, and she's not the only one. Every character and event falls under the category of painfully predictable." Gail Pennington of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch commented that the Showtime program Nurse Jackie was superior to Hawthorne, writing: "Maybe if Showtime's 'Nurse Jackie' weren't so riveting, 'Hawthorne' wouldn't seem so weak. Or maybe 'Hawthorne,' the nurse drama headlined by Jada Pinkett Smith, would seem trite and derivative no matter what."

Writing in the Akron Beacon Journal, Rich Heldenfels commented that "the show is weakly written and much of the acting is often mediocre." Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Mary McNamara was also critical of the program: "Whatever the reason, I found myself thinking less about the characters than I did about the enormous amount of work that goes into making a TV show. Everyone working so hard, everyone talented and professional and doing their very best to make this a terrific television show, and it just isn't." In a review for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Robert Philpot wrote that the show was "watchable" but not "essential", and did not add anything to the genre of shows on similar topics on television at the time: "Is Hawthorne a bad thing to have around? No. Trouble is, that's also the answer to 'Does it add to its genre?' and 'Is it essential?'" Michael Starr of the New York Post gave the show a rating of one and a half stars, and criticized the ensemble cast as "flat and one-dimensional". A review in The York Dispatch by Kevin McDonough was critical of the show's "onslaught of medical emergencies and miniature soap operas". Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times wrote: "The writing is a bit stilted and predictable, but the show is not unbearable "? there are some amusing supporting actors and the occasional engrossing medical crisis." When the show was renewed for a second season, Jennifer Godwin of E! Online commented: "TNT has renewed Jada Pinkett Smith's sloppy, gloppy, chintzy and incredibly boring 'drama' Hawthorne for a 10-episode second season, set to premiere in 2010. ... There are surely many people working very hard to make Hawthorne a success, but whatever those people are doing, generally speaking, it is not working."

Registered nurse Judith S. Mitiguy reviewed Hawthorne for NurseWeek, and wrote: "Hawthorne defies the limits of ethical, and sometimes legal, professional practice when it suits her purpose. Plus, she micromanages every situation. Those of us concerned about nursing's image in the media are more than unhappy with these programs." "The Truth About Nursing", an advocacy organization located in Baltimore, Maryland, judges how nurses are viewed on such programs and gave Hawthorne a rating of 3.5 stars out of 4. Suzanne Gordon, author of Nursing Against the Odds, reviewed the program for The Atlantic, and noted: "Unfortunately, the show's acting is poor, its dialogue silly, its syrupy soundtrack absolutely dreadful, and its contrived dramatic situations straight out of"?you guessed it"?Hollywood. What's worse, from the perspective of the nursing profession, is that it reproduces the fundamental problem of TV doctor shows, which perennially distort who really does what."

Awards and nominations

NAACP Image Awards

• 2010: Won"?Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for Jada Pinkett Smith
• 2010: Nominated"?Outstanding Drama Series
• 2011: Nominated"?Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for Jada Pinkett Smith
• 2011: Nominated"?Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for Vanessa Bell Calloway
• 2011: Nominated"?Outstanding Drama Series

Prism Awards

• 2010: Nominated"?Performance in a Drama Episode for Jada Pinkett Smith
• 2010: Nominated"?Drama Series Episode"?Substance Use

NAMIC Vision Awards

• 2010: Nominated"?Drama