Christina Hawthorne is the Chief Nursing Officer at a hospital in Richmond, Virginia who is a constant advocate for her staff as well as her patients, even when it may threaten her job. When the hospital (Richmond Trinity) closes its doors the staff moves on to James River Hospital, where the working atmosphere seems brighter. Hawthorne finds she also faces extra stress due to her changing relationship with Chief of Surgery Dr. Tom Wakefield (Michael Vartan from Alias, Monster-In-Law). Seems he wants a commitment from her but she may not be ready. Nurse Hawthorne is ably played by Jada Pinkett Smith (A Different World, The Nutty Professor) who also is executive producer of the show. Pinkett had sworn off doing any more television but found this one a perfect fit and an interesting challenge. Also starring in Hawthorne are David Julian Hirsh (Lovebites, CSI: NY) as Ray Stein, RN and also Suleka Mathew from Men in Trees, The West Wing as Nurse Bobbie Jackson who is Chief Nursing Officer at James River Hospital, and Christina Moore (90210, Burn Notice) portrays Nurse Candy Sullivan.

"Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" - different gladiator, same sex and violence. Starz' deliciously decadent"”salacious, violent, often flat-out brutal"”"Spartacus: Blood and Sand" recently went on extended hiatus, leaving its legions of loyal fans "jonesing" for their weekly doses of decapitation and bare breasts. The Spartacus team satisfied fans' craving with "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena," a six-episode prequel to the continuing saga of Batiatus and Associates. Starting with a flashback montage of "Blood and Sand's" greatest hits, more precisely Batiatus's life flashing before his eyes in the moment before his death, "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" shows Batiatus's rise to prominence and power with the assistance and support of his all-pro gladiator Gannicus. Because these stories represent "a more ruthless time"¦where honor was just finding its way into the arena," the writers and producers feel free to elaborate and experiment with their already-established characters, and they feel similar artistic license with super-slow-motion gore and fun-fantasy sex. They clearly are perfecting their craft. One particularly insightful viewer concluded his review of "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" with a sage observation: "I think that's one of the smart decisions putting it on a Friday night since it's an ideal end of the work week thing to watch."

Intensely cerebral, narrated more or less in the style of a Latin American magic-realist novel which shows the conclusion before the story begins, "Damages" TV show strangely fulfills the immanent promise in cable television programming, appealing very strongly to what the poet Milton called "fit audience though few." "Damages" series'unmistakable style, sophistication, and subtle sizzle are spellbinding, and the writers have crafted heroes you love to love and villains you love to hate with a team of attorneys working both sides of the continental divide between good and evil. Unabashedly stealing its premise from the Bernie Madoff case, "Damages" asks and answers, "What if you were Madoff's antagonist?" Glenn Close plays Patty Hewes, the high-powered and equally high-priced attorney determined to bring down ponzi-schemer Louis Tobin, portrayed by Len Cariou. The word "perfect" appears in most critics' discussions of their performances. A New York Times reviewer aptly summarized, "It's impossible to overestimate how delicious Ms. Close is as this fiercely driven, mercurial and manipulative woman. " In a stroke of casting genius, the producers chose Lily Tomlin to quicken the character of Mrs. Tobin, long-suffering wife of the arch-villain; the audience remains in suspense about her true colors and motives, suspecting she may be "Damages'" answer to Lady Macbeth. Martin Short also stars as Tobin's family attorney.

A spin off to the popular 16 and Pregnant (also on MTV), Teen Mom 2 follows along on the challenges and rewards faced by four teenage moms that were last seen on season three of 16 and Pregnant. There are many problems facing those who are still practically children themselves who attempt to raise their own babies. Family, peer pressure, school, and romance are a enough to struggle with before adding on the burden and reward of child rearing. The show attempts to show it can be accomplished with help from all relationships involved. The parents can provide much needed guidance and they can get an emotional boost from friends and romantic involvements too. Following four young women who become pregnant during their senior year of school, Janelle, Chelsea, Leah, and Kailyn have different problems and solutions but they are each determined to keep and raise their babies themselves. Boyfriends and parents complicate issues but basically stand behind the life altering decisions made by the new mothers. This program is reality programming at it's finest as it depicts life in real time.

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.

The New Pope is a drama series that premiered on Sky Atlantic in Italy in January 2020. Created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, it serves as a continuation of the 2016 series The Young Pope, featuring Jude Law as Pope Pius XIII and John Malkovich as Pope John Paul III, the new pope. The series is co-produced by The Apartment, Wildside, Haut et Court TV, and Mediapro.