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I would caution any fans of Providence to avoid reading my comments on the show. I can guarantee that you will not be impressed.
Episode #32 - "Sibling Rivalry." Feb 18th 2000. NBC
This background piece was shamelessly stolen from NBC's website, because I couldn't be bothered writing one of my own.
Providence, which first appeared in January 1999, is a family drama series created by John Masius (“Touched by an Angel,” “St. Elsewhere”) and starring Melina Kanakaredes (“15 Minutes”) as an altruistic plastic surgeon who abandons her career specialty and unfulfilling lifestyle to return to her colorful family and hometown in Providence, Rhode Island.
Dr. Sydney Hansen (Kanakaredes) entered the field of cosmetic surgery with noble ambitions, but several years of performing collagen lip treatments and nose jobs for celebrities and over-privileged teenagers in Los Angeles began to erode her sense of purpose. Sydney’s disenchantment with her career combined with a relationship breakup and a family crisis prompted her to move back to the safe haven of Providence to find fulfillment working in a low-income medical clinic.
Following the death of her mother, Lynda (Concetta Tomei, “Murphy Brown”), Sydney sometimes feels that the collective weight of the close-knit Hansen clan has become her responsibility, in particular her father Jim (Mike Farrell, “M*A*S*H”), who relates better to the cuddly animals in his veterinary practice than he does to his family. Sydney’s younger sister Joanie (Paula Cale, “Local Heroes”) is an unwed mother who divides her time between her infant daughter and running a trendy pet food store. Robbie (Seth Peterson, “Profiler”) is Sydney’s scheming, bad-boy baby brother. As if Sydney’s reality check needed any more familial interference, her dreams are frequently interrupted by the presence of her overbearing mother, who brusquely imparts wisdom and advice from her vantage point in the hereafter.
“Providence,” which is filmed in Los Angeles and on location in Providence, is produced by John Masius Productions in association with NBC Studios. Masius is the creator and executive producer; Ann Hamilton (“thirtysomething”) and Michael Fresco (“Murder One,” “Northern Exposure”) are also executive producers.
Synopsis
Episode #32 - "Sibling Rivalry"
Syd (Melina Kanakaredes) treats a woman (guest star Jana Marie Hupp, NBC's "Ed") whose mother, grandmother and sister have suffered from breast cancer and is considering a radical surgical procedure that may prevent her from contracting the disease. Also, Syd and Joanie (Paula Cale) are attracted to the same guy (guest star Josh Coxx) and Heather's mother Donna (guest star Victoria Principal, NBC's "Titans") seems to have designs on Robbie (Seth Peterson). Also starring Mike Farrell and Concetta Tomei
Rant
For those residents of the UK and Ireland who remain stubbornly attached to terrestrial television, and who are therefore blissfully cocooned from the full horrors of American network broadcasting, Providence comes as something of a nasty shock.
This is the kind of programme that makes Howard's Way, Triangle and Crossroads - the shameful nether regions of the British drama industry, look like philosophical masterworks. Or to use a universally applicable analogy, if this show were edible, it would make a MacDonald's hamburger look like food. My first experience of the episode "Sibling Rivalry", which sees Josh appear in the guise of Patrick, an artistically enthused, but possibly brain damaged painter, was reading through a detailed synopsis with mounting incredulity, as I wondered if his lines about "spaces exuding an almost palpable sense of someone's presence" and "colours that help you connect with your spiritual self" were, in reality, as toe-curlingly awful as they appeared to be in print. Actually - they were worse:
"I'd like you to fall in love with the colour - not just date it because there's no one else around."
"I went by your shop this morning. Got some incredible morning light - kinda like those flecks of gold in your eyes"
"This is Ursula - she's Frieda Kahlo to my Diego Rivera" etc, etc, etc
I can only assume that either Patrick, or the script writer who created him, have spent more time than they should have inhaling paint fumes.
While this is not, in my estimation, the finest performance you will ever see Mr Coxx provide, he still did a more than admirable job with some staggeringly bad material, and in all honesty Sir John Gielgud could not have made those lines sound anything other than profoundly embarrassing. Josh deserves a medal for simply making it through the recording process without being violently sick.
This of course is simply my opinion:-)
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