Koma

All these negative remarks and reviews, people are so blind and up their own tails. You have no idea of a good movie or show if you thought this was bad. I absolutely loved it. I didn't discover it was a series until after the first sequence ended and my brother and I were thirsty for more. This was great. People keep turning their backs on material like this and wondering why Hollywood keeps pushing out crappy films. You are the reasons. This was amazing, and i highly recommend it. I haven't seen the original, but maybe that's why people are blabbing out negativity. This show was suspenseful, it drew you in, it had all the elements of a great suspense. If you love investigation shows, like Csi, Er, or House, this show had all those great shows wrapped up in one. I wish they would make more of the series. I love love love it.

Sometimes it is wise just to let a dead dog lay. As I remember, the first version of Coma wasn't very good. This one is about the same. Overblown to distraction by the Scott Brothers, the TV "mini-series" version features good actors going to waste and almost nothing new.

Yeah, there is a big super tech conspiracy tacked on to the original plot, but even that was tame next to 21st century TV series like Dr. Who or Fringe. Lauren Ambrose was excellent in the lead, but deserves better, and it was a joy to see Ellen Burstyn working, even in a sort of Boris Karloff role. James Woods was good. Geena Davis, Joe Morton and Richard Dreyfuss - what were you thinking?

I watched it On Demand and, like another reviewer here, was grateful that Fast Forward was not disabled.

Susan Wheeler (Lauren Ambrose) is a medical student starting at her late grandfather's Peach Tree Memorial Hospital. Dr. Mark Bellows (Steven Pasquale), Dr. Theodore Stark (James Woods), and Dr. Agnetta Lindquist (Geena Davis) are some of the senior faculty. Mrs. Emerson (Ellen Burstyn) cares for the coma patients.

A&E remade the 1978 movie based on the 1977 novel into a 4 hour TV mini-series. It's important to note that the paranoia of the era worked great to infuse the original with atmosphere. However this one is much more of a thriller. The biggest logic problem in this one is that it's no longer the '70s. It just seems that somebody would just sue in today's world. But if you're willing to accept that, there is some good thrills to be had here.

The original is more disturbing both visually and psychologically, despite being made in 1978. But this film, complete with high-tech horror effects and a psychotic performance from Ellen Burstyn, is a keeper. I watched both parts and found it a bit strange why they didn't just release it as a single film. I had the same technical confusion with Bag of Bones with Pierce Brosnan. You do have to seriously suspend some disbelief. While the original has its moments of cheese, and dated 70s gimmicks, it is far more believable than this one. Characters are relentlessly picked off in the most public of places and no one notices. An entire unit of gore and horror lurks in the bottom of a shady medical center and yet, despite a video clip of such horrors being on Youtube, no one issues a warrant to search the place. The victims of the conspiracy in the original were more elaborated upon (including an empathetic and very young Tom Selleck who meets his end in OR 8). Here, the victims are seen after surgery in their comatose states, so we have no connection to the human being who once was conscious and lived. The film underuses a very talented case, which includes James Woods, Geena Davis, and Lauren Ambrose. Their characters needed to be seriously elaborated on. Someone was having too much fun with the FX and not with the emotional meat which was desperately needed. It's more outrageously inventive than the original, but far less plausible or thought out. It's a fun, frightful romp that definitely is a grisly charmer and one to keep though.

Well, talk about disappointing.

"Coma" is a two-part miniseries from A&E directed by Ridley Scott and starring Lauren Ambrose, Steven Pasquale, Richard Dreyfuss, James Woods, Joe Morton, Geena Davis, and Ellen Burstyn. Great cast, great director, bad script.

The original coma in 1978 starring Michael Douglas and Genevieve Bujold was more compelling. The story concerns a medical student (Ambrose) who discovers an inordinate number of people at her hospital are going into comas after surgery. Her investigation leads her to the Jefferson Institute, where all the comatose patients live out their lives. Her investigation puts her in a great deal of danger.

In this version, the action in the finale is moved to the Jefferson Institute and takes on horror movie aspects.

Lauren Ambrose has a real workhorse role and does it well as the curious and ultimately terrified Susan Wheeler. In this version, Wheeler comes from a prominent family in medicine, so even though she makes more trouble than Dracula loose in a blood bank, she isn't thrown out, though she manages to get her roommate expelled, someone else fired, and the senior resident set up on a drug charge.

Where Susan in the original was seen as unstable, this Susan is seen as a royal troublemaker. Also, in the original, there was an excellent reason why Susan looks into the comas - her best friend goes into a coma after a D&C. Here, it's someone she used to see at the pool. Frankly, I would have been upset but I don't know if I then would have been borrowing people's IDs so I could violate HIPAA regulations and search patient charts.

What this Coma does give us is a realistic look at the way people are treated in hospitals, including ignoring dying people in the emergency room, neglecting the elderly, and being disrespectful to the dead. These things do go on, which is why it is important to have a family member or friend looking out for you when you are hospitalized.

Coma dragged on and because we never got to know these characters, did not hold interest despite this stellar group of actors, many of whom had very little to do. Steven Pasquale is no Michael Douglas, and his added May-December romance with the psychiatrist played by Geena Davis seemed unnecessary.

As it turned out, watching it was unnecessary too. See the original, which gives us a love story, characters we can relate to, and some good suspense.