New ‘Coma’ tries to wake up viewers

September 3, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

IF YOU WATCH

What: “Coma”

When: Tonight and Tuesday, 9 p.m.

Where: A&E Network

By Rich Heldenfels

McClatchy Newspapers

As viewers get geared up for the start of the new TV season, A&E makes a short-run pitch for their attention with the two-part drama “Coma.”

Airing at 9 p.m. tonight and Tuesday, it stars Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under,” “Torchwood: Miracle Day”) as Susan Wheeler, a medical student who begins to notice that a lot of people in Atlanta’s Peach Tree Memorial Hospital are slipping into comas — and ending up in the Jefferson Institute, a special-care facility.

Wheeler and surgical resident Mark Bellows (Steven Pasquale, “Rescue Me”) dig deeper into the mystery — at once finding nasty business and getting the unpleasant attention of people with secrets to keep.

If this sounds familiar, then you are probably aware of the source material.

The 1977 book “Coma” was the second novel by Robin Cook, a medical doctor with literary ambitions, and a breakthrough in a career that went on to include a lot of single-word-title tales such as “Seizure,” “Terminal,” “Outbreak” and “Critical” as well as screen adaptations.

It was made into a 1978 movie with Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas, directed by Michael Crichton, whose life and career also included best-selling novels.

The older movie was a tidy little thriller. The new version struggles to find and maintain momentum.

The second night is for the most part a very long chase sequence, and one that may test your patience.

The first night may test your patience in another way; expect a lot of commercials in its two hours since the content of a review disc was a skimpy 77 minutes.

Ambrose and Pasquale are good enough, although in neither case would I put this in their highlight reel.

Pasquale, for one, had much better material on “Rescue Me” — and will be tearing apart the scenery as a Jekyll-and-Hyde type in NBC’s midseason drama “Do No Harm.”

Mikael Salomon’s directing offers plenty of atmosphere. (Some credit may also be due to executive producers Ridley and Tony Scott; Tony, who died recently, and Ridley have been well known for their visual style.)

And the supporting cast is rich in scene-stealers — Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Burstyn, James Woods and Geena Davis.

But the actors are not well-served by John J. McLaughlin’s script, which seems to concede that the audience will know the major plot twists ahead of time — so you might as well spend more pages on that long, long chase.