Strong Medicine
Strong Medicine is a fictional medical drama with a focus on women's health issues, as well as progressive social politics and class conflict. It is an original series currently airing on the Lifetime network since 2000. It is distributed by Sony Pictures.
The series was created, and is produced in part by comedienne and activist Whoopi Goldberg, who made a cameo in the series pilot. The show employs a variety of regular and guest writers.
Background
The show centers around the staff of fictional Rittenhouse Hospital in Philadelphia, largely involving the operations of the ER and a free womens' health clinic, run by inner-city success story Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado. The urban facility receives a diverse mixture of patients, from upper- and middle-class patients, which generally allows the hospital to finance the free clinic, and lower-class or poor patients, who come to take advantage of Dr. Delgado's hospital-funded services.
The staff and its visitors tend to be racially, politically, and economically diverse. A core class/political duality in the episodes' storylines tend to be driven by comparisons and contrasts (and often cooperation) between liberal lower-class Delgado, and Dr. Andy Campbell, a former military doctor working as an independent specialist out of an office across the lobby. The show often places the characters in ironic, soul-searching situations in which they are forced to question the solidity of their personal beliefs or else cause them to fight for what they believe in.
Main characters
Main characters on the show as of 2004 include:
- Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado
- (Rosa Blasi) Delgado runs the free clinic, and hosts a weekly informal women's health group (most 2003 and 2004 episodes open with a scene from these meetings). Both as an inner-city resident and a doctor to many lower-class patients, Delgado regularly comes face-to-face with bitterly ironic situations involving the difficulties of the lower class with government, debt, drug abuse, and exploitation. Her character exhibits a perennial cleverness which allows her to wheedle or persuade positive outcomes from seemingly hopeless cases of victimization. She has a teenage son, Marc.
- Dr. Andy Campbell
- (Patricia Richardson) A former military doctor, Campbell came on the staff during the 2002 season to replace an analagous character (the much more ambitious and strict Dr. Dana Stowe, played by Janine Turner). Her patients tend to be upper-middle-class, and often include minor local celebrities and professionals. Her character ostensibly lives the almost typical suburban nuclear family lifestyle, aside from her status as breadwinner. She has two teenage daughters, Jesse and Lizzie. (Patricia Richardson will leave the show after the 2004-2005 season.)
- Peter Riggs
- (Joshua Cox) A male nurse, Peter is generally progressive, open-minded, and an eager advice-giver. He practices Buddhism and believes in the principles of holistic medicine. He is often a kindred spirit to Delgado. Often, Riggs' character makes a balanced sociopolitical observation that influences a positive action by one of the two doctors; other times he is the protagonist of action.
- Lana Hawkins
- (Jenifer Lewis) Hawkins serves as the front receptionist to the ER entrance to the hospital. A former drug addict and prostitute long since rehabilitated, she got her job with the help of Delgado. Hawkins is the hospital's eyes and ears, i.e. chief gossip, as well as matchmaker, and general benevolent schemer and rule-bender.
- Dr. Robert "Bob" Jackson
- (Philip Casnoff) Chief of staff of Rittenhouse Hospital, he is the stoic, administrative figure and also ultimately in charge of decisions regarding funding, especially to the women's clinic. Jackson considers himself a personal friend of Dr. Campbell (as he was with Dr. Stowe), but generally is more impersonal and sometimes butts heads with Dr. Delgado over financial or liability issues, and with Lana over administrative issues.
Major plot developments
Major show plot developments as of 2004:
- Campbell kicks out her husband, Leslie, after he hits her during a domestic dispute, forcing her to examine domestic abuse issues as well as single motherhood.
- Delgado loses her boyfriend, Mickey, to murder perpetrated by one of her patients, forcing her to face her moral objection to the death penalty.
- Campbell becomes involved with another doctor, cardiac surgeon Dr. Milo Morton (Richard Biggs).
- Delgado becomes involved with Ben Sanderson (Grant Show), an administrator brought on after Rittenhouse is bought by a health care conglomerate. Sanderson later leaves to be reassigned to a facility in Miami.
- Campbell's love interest dies in an accident (a development forced by the loss of actor Richard Biggs to a car accident).
- Delgado becomes involved with Jonas Ray (Nestor Carbonell), a local self-made billionaire with a good heart but a large soulless corporation.
- Campbell brings a new hospital resident, Dr. Kayla Thornton (Tamera Mowry), into her home.
- Thornton and Riggs begin a relationship after a season of occasional plot hints.
- Campbell leaves Rittenhouse to become U.S. Surgeon General. (Patricia Richardson will leave Strong Medicine, possibly due to a major part on The West Wing (television) in the 2005 season.)
Spinoff
Near the end of the 2004-2005 season, a special episode "First Response" aired, prominently featuring three new characters: Kate and Zack, both EMTs, and Dr. Vanessa Burke, head of the new Rittenhouse Trauma Center and adopted African-American sister of Kate. The TV Tome website reports that this episode will serve as the kick-off to a potential Strong Medicine spinoff series, Strong Medicine: First Response. If this series airs, it will be the first spin-off to an existing Lifetime original series.