Mercy (TV series)

Mercy

Mercy title card
Genre Medical drama
Created by Liz Heldens
Starring Taylor Schilling
Michelle Trachtenberg
Jaime Lee Kirchner
James Tupper
Diego Klattenhoff
Guillermo Díaz
James LeGros
Opening theme "Better Get Right" by Devin Moore
Composer(s) Wendy Melvoin
Lisa Coleman
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 22 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Gail Berman
Lloyd Braun
Liz Heldens
Gretchen J. Berg
Aaron Harberts
Jim Ellis
Adam Bernstein
Producer(s) Jim Ellis
Matt Ward
James Bigwood
Cinematography William Rexer
Frank Prinzi
Dejan Georgevich
Russell Lee Fine
David M. Dunlap
Editor(s) Scott Gamzon
Scott Boyd
Heather MacDougall
Greg D'Auria
Running time 41–43 minutes
Production company(s) Universal Media Studios
BermanBraun
Selfish Mermaid
Open 4 Business Productions
Distributor NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network NBC
Original release September 23, 2009 – May 12, 2010
External links
Website

Mercy is a medical drama television series which aired on NBC from September 23, 2009, to May 12, 2010. The series initially aired on Wednesday at 8:00 pm (ET), as part of the 2009 fall season, but was pushed back to 9:00 pm in April.[1]

On October 23, 2009, Mercy was picked up for a full 22-episode first season.[2] On May 14, 2010, NBC announced that Mercy had been cancelled after one season due to low ratings.[3]

Plot

Mercy is an ensemble drama set in the fictional Mercy Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey.[4] The show focuses on the lives of three nurses. Veronica Flanagan Callahan (Taylor Schilling) is a nurse who has just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, while Sonia Jimenez (Jaime Lee Kirchner), her best friend, has become seriously involved with a police officer, and Chloe Payne (Michelle Trachtenberg) is a recent nursing graduate who is thrown into the world of nursing and is unprepared for what it entails.

Cast and characters

Main cast and characters

(From left to right) Michelle Trachtenberg as Chloe, Taylor Schilling as Veronica, and Jaime Lee Kirchner as Sonia

Recurring cast and characters

Episodes

Development and production

NBC producer Jim Bigwood selected the warehouse at 10 Enterprise Avenue in Secaucus, New Jersey as the filming location for the series. The show occasionally also filmed inside a private residence in Weehawken, New Jersey. The production left New Jersey for New York in 2010, however, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie suspended the tax credits for film and television production for the fiscal year 2011 to close budget gaps.[5]

Some interior shots for the show were filmed in the unused Barnert Hospital in Paterson, New Jersey.[6][7] in the old St Mary's Hospital in Passaic[8][9] Exterior shots of Mercy Hospital were taken of the back side of a public school on 4th street (between Newark Ave. and Colgate St.) in Jersey City, New Jersey. The exterior of Lucky 7's Bar was filmed at a location on the corner of 2nd and Coles Street in Jersey City. The interior of the bar was the Park Tavern located on West Side Avenue off Communipaw Avenue in Jersey City.[6] The exterior shots of The Red Fox Saloon were filmed at the Monaghan House in South Amboy, New Jersey. The interior shots of the Saloon were filmed at Ted's Bar in the Morgan area of Sayreville, New Jersey.

Mercy was originally slated to begin midseason, but was moved to the fall after the premiere of Parenthood was pushed to 2010 due to production issues.[10]

Critical reception

Mercy received a score of 41 of 100 from the review aggregator Metacritic,[11] and received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Matthew Gilbert, from The Boston Globe, referred to the show as "a bunch of played-out hospital clichés" and said it "follows the hospital melodrama blueprint way too closely."[12] Similarly, a review in The Hollywood Reporter calls the show "just another hospital soap opera" and "a lethal cocktail of virtually every medical drama ever seen on TV".[13] Matt Roush of TV Guide wrote "Nurses deserve better than this ludicrous potboiler".[14] Several critics have referred to Mercy as a weak copy of Showtime's Nurse Jackie.[12][13][15][16]

The show's writing has been criticized as "twisting itself into a pretzel to provide ironies,"[13] and a review by Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune states that "all the characters are so thinly drawn."[17] In a review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rob Owen said the show "hits viewers over the head with its thesis statement that nurses are under-appreciated."[16] Robert Bianco from USA Today stated that "remarkably good actors [are] going to waste here."[15]

On the positive side, in a review in The Daily Telegraph, Rachel Ray found the show "utterly enjoyable" and "marvelous television", while praising the "clicking pace, real-person dialogue, excellent writing, a fresh story line, and thoughtful acting".[18] (Although the review was for a UK paper's online edition, the series did not air on British TV.) Noting an effort by NBC to find a replacement for the former standout ER, David Hinckley, from the New York Daily News, favorably compared the two shows and stated that Mercy "comes the closest yet to capturing that chemistry."

Ratings

Seasonal ratings

Season Timeslot (EST) Season Premiere Season Finale TV Season Rank Viewers
(in millions)
1 Wednesday 8/7c (September 23, 2009 - April 21, 2010)
Wednesday 9/8c (April 28, 2010 - May 12, 2010)		 September 23, 2009 May 12, 2010 2009–2010 #76[19] 6.33[19]

DVD releases

Name Region 1 Region 2 Region 4 Discs
The Complete Series August 3, 2010[20] TBA September 29, 2010[21] 5

International distribution

CountryChannelNotes
 Australia Seven Network
7Two		 Monday 9:30 then 10:30, moved to 7Two on Wednesday 9:30 p.m. then 10:30
 Austria ORF 1 Monday 9:55 p.m.
 Belgium vtm
RTBF		 Wednesday 22:40, vtm
Tuesday, La Une
 Brazil Liv[22] Tuesdays 10:00 p.m., premiered April 13
 Canada City Monday 8:00 p.m., in simultaneous substitution
 Finland MTV3 Friday 9:00 p.m.
 France M6 June 12 at 8:50 p.m.
 Greece Star Channel Saturday 6:00 p.m. (double episode)
 Ireland RTÉ Two Monday nights 12:45 a.m. (Tuesday morning)
 Israel Yes Drama
 Italy Mya Friday 9:00 p.m., from September 3, 2010
 Japan Universal Channel Saturday 11:00 p.m.
 Malaysia Star World Tuesday 9:00 p.m.[23]
 Mexico Canal 5 Weekdays 3:00 a.m. – 5:00 a.m., from April 1, 2013
 Netherlands RTL 5 Thursday 9:25 p.m.
 New Zealand FOUR Monday 9:30 p.m., from February 7, 2011
 Norway TV3 Wednesday 10:30 p.m.
 Philippines 2nd Avenue Monday 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m. (exclusive Philippine Premiere on Ladies Night)
 Poland TVN Saturday 11:10 p.m.
 Portugal Fox life
  Switzerland TSR Friday 8:30 p.m., TSR1
 Spain FactoríaDeFicción Weekends 7:00 p.m.
 South Africa MNET Series Monday 9:30 p.m.
 Ukraine TRK Ukraina Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11:50 p.m.
 Latvia TV6 Weekends 10:30 p.m.

References

  1. ↑ Ken Tucker (May 4, 2009). "Rating NBC's new fall shows: 'Parenthood,' a 'Trauma,' a 'Community,' '100 Questions,' and oh 'Mercy'!". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-05-04.
  2. ↑ "This just in: NBC picks up 'Community,' 'Parks and Recreation,' and 'Mercy' for full seasons". Retrieved 2009-10-23.
  3. ↑ Ausiello, Michael (May 14, 2010). "Breaking: NBC cancels 'Mercy,' 'Trauma'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
  4. ↑ Hinckley, David (September 23, 2009). "NBC's 'Mercy' takes great care in showing nursing life". New York Daily News. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  5. ↑ Wright, E. Assata. "Getting the film crews back to NJ", Hudson Reporter, February 13, 2011
  6. 1 2 "The Tipsheet: 'Mercy' Brings Jersey City to the Small Screen, AhoraJC, Biking the Studio Tour and More". The Jersey City Independent. September 30, 2009. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  7. ↑ Brian Gallagher (June 11, 2009). "EXCLUSIVE: Guillermo Diaz Takes Us Into the World of Weeds". MovieWeb. Retrieved 2009-07-03.
  8. ↑ Gallagher, Brian. "EXCLUSIVE: Guillermo Diaz Takes Us Into the World of 'Weeds'; The actor who coincidentally plays Guillermo on the hit Showtime series talks about his role in the brand new season, 'Mercy', 'Zombie Grandma' and much more.", MovieWeb, June 11, 2009. Accessed January 27, 2015.
  9. ↑ Sullivan, Tom. "Have some Mercy on cancelled TV shows", Clifton Journal, May 21, 2010. Accessed January 27, 2015. "Dramas set in hospitals have long been a staple of television, both for daytime and prime time, and while Mercy did not have the benefit of star names in its regular cast, it had the luxury of a very competent ensemble and a totally authentic setting, because Mercy Hospital was played by St. Mary's of Passaic. When you saw hectic stories unfolding in the emergency room, it was right here. So were the tense and somber moments in the intensive care unit."
  10. ↑ Brian Stelter (July 10, 2009). "Citing Star's Condition, NBC Delays 'Parenthood'". New York Times. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ "Mercy - Season 1 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  12. 1 2 Gilbert, Matthew (September 23, 2009). "Nurses need to inject some originality into 'Mercy'". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  13. 1 2 3 Dawn, Randee (September 22, 2009). "Mercy – TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  14. ↑ TV Guide September 7-13, 2009 pg.40.
  15. 1 2 Bianco, Robert (September 23, 2009). "NBC programmers should show no 'Mercy'". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  16. 1 2 Owen, Ro (September 23, 2009). "'Mercy' needs a transfusion, STAT". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  17. ↑ Ryan, Maureen (September 22, 2009). "Have 'Mercy' on yourself, skip this medical melodrama". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on January 24, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
  18. ↑ Ray, Rachel (September 24, 2009). "Mercy (NBC), review". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 23, 2010. Retrieved January 23, 2010.
  19. 1 2 Gorman, Bill (June 16, 2010). "Final 2009-10 Broadcast Primetime Show Average Viewership". The Futon Critic. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
  20. ↑ "Mercy DVD news: Box Art for Mercy - The Complete Series". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 2010-05-20. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ "LIV o novo canal de entretenimento da Discovery". TV Magazine. 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2016-09-16.
  23. ↑ "Ziekenhuisseries Mercy en Trauma nieuw bij RTL 5" (in Dutch). Mediacourant.
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