The Scribner authors who rose to 1930s and 1940s prominence under Max Perkins's skilled tutelage understood the best way to change the world is to represent it precisely--in minute detail and in all its grim, unforgiving, and frightening ugliness. MTV's "16 and Pregnant" brings the same principle to television, accurately and unblinkingly showing the lives of four expectant teen-agers, mercilessly exploiting every ugly stereotype of life on the perilous edge of poverty and powerlessness. The New York Times suggests, "The implicit message at the center of ["16 and Pregnant's] class prejudice tells us that if you're not setting out for Berkeley or Wesleyan, then raising a child when you ought to be working on the yearbook is as good a road to character development as any." The Times unfortunately mistakes power and poignancy for "prejudice." After viewing even one episode of "16 and Pregnant," any observant sophomore will make a headlong dash for Planned Parenthood, the glee club, and an SAT prep course.

Officer Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) works for the CIA and as an operative strives to keep this country safe from another attack such as the one occurring in September 11, 2001. Her latest assignment involves finding a Marine Corp member, Sergeant Nicholas Brody. He was captured in 2003 and considered to be missing in action, but was later found to be held by Al-Qaeda until recently. There is danger that he was "turned" by the enemy and now may pose tremendous risk to our nations security. When Officer Mathison is put on probation due to conducting some unauthorized operations while in Iraq, she finds herself reassigned to Langley, VA and a CIA counter terrorism center. In other words, a desk job. While in Iraq Mathison learned of a prisoner from America there who had become corrupt. Now the CIA superiors of Mathison consider the prisoner Brody to be somewhat of a hero. Claire Danes (My So-Called Life, Temple Grandin) is Officer Carrie Mathison who is employed by the CIA in counter intelligence. Nicholas Brody is played by Damian Lewis (The Forsyte Saga, Band of Brothers), rescued after eight years as a POW. The CIA Division Chief of the Middle East and Carrie Mathison's mentor and former boss is Saul Berenson played by Mandy Patinkin (Chicago Hope, Dead Like Me). Cast is tremendous and story is fresh, up to date, and somewhat disturbing.

The Surgeon, one of a series of books written by Tess Gerritsen supplied the backstory for the hot new series on TNT named Rizzoli & Isles (after the two main characters in the book). Angie Harman (Baywatch Nights, Law & Order) is a homicide detective in Boston. She finds her life in danger in the first episode when a former medical student attempts to kill her as he has several other voluptuous women. The chief Medical examiner for the state of Massachusetts is Dr. Maura Isles, played by Sasha Alexander (NCIS, Dawson's Creek). Isles is a no nonsense woman dedicated to doing her job well and due to her profession those who know her tend to call her "Queen of the Dead". Rizzoli & Isles develop a good teamwork attitude and solve crimes each week but the one that haunts them both involves Charles Hoyt, a man who was expelled from med school for fondling the female corpses. Rizzoli has scars on her hands from a time when Hoyt stabbed them with scalpels, pinning her to the floor. Hoyt's role is a recurring one so watch for more of that vile character played well by Michael Massee, an actor who plays villains particularly well.

"CSI" TV shows reveals the side of Las Vegas tourists seldom see... Gil Grissom, team leader of the Las Vegas Crime Scene Investigation unit, pioneered the intensity that has become the signature quality in all of Jerry Bruckheimer's heroes; but his flaws were closer to the surface and more genuinely tragic than Horatio Kane's or Mac Taylor's. William Peterson put a handsome face on dorkitude, but he seldom could conceal his passion for insects and his perverse fascination with the world of bondage and discipline. When Grissom bid adios to "CSI," Catherine Willows naturally stepped-up to take his place, dragging her single-mom issues and checkered past along with her. Blasting from relative obscurity to television uber-stardom, Marg Helgenberger has so thoroughly imprinted her own style on her character that fans expect her to sign "Catherine Willows" as her autograph. More old-fashioned gumshoe than techie whiz-kid, Willows nevertheless guides her hyper-dedicated team with skill, style, and love. No more sophisticated than any other television crime drama, "CSI" nevertheless has owned its time slot since its debut, because its characters combine street-savvy toughness with genuine likability. And who can resist all those cool shots of bullets blasting through brain matter? Trivia devotees will note that songstress Taylor Swift made her critically acclaimed acting debut on "CSI," playing the a dark, troubled, and ultimately dead "goth" girl in search of love and understanding"”in other words, the diametric opposite of her authentic self.

"The Good Doctor" is a popular medical drama television series that premiered on ABC in 2017. The show revolves around Dr. Shaun Murphy, a young surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome, who joins the surgical unit of San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Despite facing skepticism and prejudice from his colleagues, Shaun's exceptional medical skills, honesty, and dedication to his patients gradually earn him respect and admiration.

One of two intense medical dramas NBC introduced in the fall of 2009, "Mercy" had all the advantages its one-named rival "Trauma" did not. First, it had talent behind the scenes. Liz Heldens from "Friday Night Lights" created the show and led the writers, proving once again that the best way to dramatize the real world is to show it realistically"”ugliness and all. Second, it had attitude and guts to stay true to its revolutionary premise, the well-informed notion "that nurses remain [not only] more generous caregivers, but that they are more intuitively apt, smarter, more committed and as technically able as their [physician] superiors, with none of the accompanying arrogance." In a winner-take-all ER smackdown, you always would go all-in with the Mercy Hospital nurses. The main character, nurse Veronica Flanagan Callahan, has just returned from a tour in Iraq, where she clearly learned more in each day than the pompous, presumptuous doctors learned in all five years of medical school. Of course, Veronica gets neither the respect nor the reward she deserves, but "Mercy" dangles the possibility of true love as just recompense for Veronica's skill and compassion. Taylor Schilling plays Veronica with exactly the right balance of toughness and vulnerability, skillfully juxtaposing her consummate skill as a nurse with her intrepid ingenuousness in matters of the heart. If only "Mercy" had survived into a second season, all the tangled threads in the story might have come to their proper denouement. If only.