By Curt Schleier

There’s something very important missing from HEARTLAND, the new TNT medical drama: drama. Yes, people, drama is missing from this drama. Those of you unfamiliar with the television industry may well ask, “Is drama really important in a medical drama?” Frankly, in my experience, drama may be the single most important ingredient in a medical drama. It is, in fact, largely what distinguishes it from, say, a medical comedy.
   
How can you have a drama that lacks drama? Asks the folks at TNT. Their ad slogan is “We know drama.” In this case, not so much. HEARTLAND is a show without conflict.  Everything is resolved in so syrupy and sweet a manner that chocolate pales in comparison. Pales? By comparison, chocolate is an albino.
   
Where to begin? HEARTLAND is set in a major Pittsburgh transplant center. After a so-so debut, there appears to be hope in this second episode; it looks as though several significant moral and ethical dilemmas will be tackled.
   
First, there’s the question of whether someone has to deserve a transplant in order to receive one. A previous liver transplant patient returned to his boozing ways and destroyed the donated organ. He’s back, and his son is willing to endure the painful and dangerous harvesting operation. But, headstrong Dr. Nathaniel Grant (Treat Williams) refuses. Will anything convince him to change his mind?
   
Another patient has an extremely rare blood type and is unlikely to find matching kidneys. So, his wife prays. And prays. Nurses pray with her. A priest prays with them.  Will the logic of science prevail over prayer?
   
All right, I know the suspense is killing you.
   
Of course, Dr. Grant eventually does the liver transplant, but only after he has a vision. He sees the person who donated the patient’s now bad liver. He tells Grant it’s OK to do a second operation.
   
And, yes, faith trumps science. Or, is it just luck that a prostitute is murdered and that Grant’s former wife, Kate Armstrong (Kari Matchett) is able to track down the deceased’s mother and convince her to OK a transplant? Just to be on the safe side, I vote for God.
   
Then there’s the new character, Dr. Thomas Jonas (Rockmond Dunbar). Grant has just been promoted to clinical director and Jonas is hired to take Grant’s old job as something like chief of surgery (the exact title is never made clear). Jonas had been a fellow at the hospital 14 years earlier — a student of Grant’s —  but was let go because he always played it safe and refused to take risks. He was hired by the hospital’s board — without Grant’s knowledge.
   
You’d think that would create tension, but, no, they seem like the best of friends. 
   
Grant even gets along with his former wife. He and Armstrong hooked up in the premiere episode. This week, he approaches her about reconciling.  When she turns him down, he tells her she’s right —  and goes back to his girlfriend.
   
Now that’s dramatic.