By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Tuesday, June 15, 2015
On the surface, USA's Atlanta-based drama "Complications" is about the travails of an ER doctor. But it's nothing like "Grey's Anatomy," "House" or "ER."
Rather, it's more like a tense action thriller with elements of "24" and "The Wire" thrown in for good measure.
Jason O'Mara stars as Dr. John Ellison, still mourning the death of his daughter to leukemia. A year has past. He happens to see a drive-by shooting and, as a doctor, runs to the child to save him. But the gang bangers who tried to kill the boy return. He grabs a gun and shoots. He strikes a gang member dead, instantly becoming a vigilante hero. The father of the boy happens to be a rival gang leader who wants Dr. Ellison to protect his recuperating child.
"The decisions he makes in order to protect this boy leads him down a dark path," said O'Mara, who has starred in high-concept shows such as Fox's "Terra Nova" and ABC's "Life on Mars" that didn't make it to season two. "He's a fish out of water in this gang world. He's an ordinary man being asked to do extraordinary things."
Ellison resists getting sucked into this messy world but can't escape. It seems every time he tries to do something right, something else goes wrong. Fortunately, he teams up with an unpredictable but well-meaning nurse Gretchen (Jessica Szohr) who helps him navigate tricky, often morally questionable waters inside and outside the hospital.
"We're kind of like Batman and Robin," Szohr said. "My character is super tough. I surprise him at time with the choices I make. I am sort of a loose cannon."
At the same time, he tries to hide his gang-connected actions from his grieving wife Samantha (Beth Riesgraf), who has her fair share of secrets. "She's a frustrated, lonely woman," Riesgraf said. "Her husband has shut her out."
O'Mara, with his firm jaw line, his deep eyes and calm but intense demeanor, carries this difficult role with heart and believability.
"Everything he does is motivated by the fact he couldn't save his daughter," O'Mara said. "He feels completely powerless, doesn't know how to process it. Now he finds out if he wants to treat problems, you have to go beyond the walls of the ER to the root cause."
Matt Nix, who created the much lighter-hearted USA hit show "Burn Notice," used a personal experience as a touching off point for "Complications."
Ten years ago, Nix lived in a gentrifying neighborhood where he ran into a boy meaning to rob him in his own home. He spoke briefly with the teen, who then left. Nix impulsively followed him and wrote down the license plate of the car the kid had stolen. He reported the stolen car to the police, who warned him that a gang leader's home was down the block, that he should watch his back. Nix learned about the boy's background from neighbors and his connections to the gang. But ultimately, nothing bad happened to Nix.
He later wondered if his actions could have led to something far worse:"This could have changed my life in a way I was totally unprepared for."
This premise led to the show "Complications," which covers Ellison's life over 17 days in 10 episodes.
"There is kind of a narrative of how crime is supposed to go," Nix said, "how people think about it. But it doesn't necessarily fit the reality of the human beings involved in these situations."
Nix also thought about the people in his neighborhood who had dealt with gangs, with poverty, with drugs, all their lives. He was putting the show together when Ferguson happened last summer, only confirming to him that there is no black and white in these confrontations.
He said Atlanta, in all its diversity, worked well for the show. Over the episodes, you'll hear references to Kirkwood, Marietta St., Candler Park, Morningside and Clark Atlanta University.
Stylistically, "Complications" is far darker than "Burn Notice." "More lightness emerges in 'Complications' in later episodes, but part of it is subject matter," Nix said. "People can only be so quippy in these circumstances."
For instance, explosions were de rigeur on "Burn Notice," typically set off by people trained to deal with bombs. In "Complications," things going kaboom is not normal: "What is a real person's reaction to an explosion?"
O'Mara hopes "Complications" can be that elusive hit he's been waiting for. "The idea of doing multiple seasons is so alien to me," he said. "I don't even know what that would feel like!"
TV PREVIEW
"Complications," 9 p.m. Thursdays, USA
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