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| Cover of Mandy Patinkin |
I’m guilty of having recorded the first couple episodes of a
new show only to see its ratings were rather weak, so I went ahead and wiped
them off the DVR only to see them ultimately get the axe. At the time I
feel relieved not to have lost another favorite show that I have become
attached to. On the other hand, doing so may have cost me the chance to
spend even a little time with a show that is in fact really good. Case in
point, “Three Rivers.” I became a Carol Barbee loyalist having
watched “Jericho” and enduring the “Nuts” campaign. I followed her to
“Swingtown,” another show that I watched despite knowing it was probably doomed
to be a one season wonder. Lo and behold, “Swingtown” was canceled after
one short season, but I have no regrets about watching it. “Swingtown,”
much like “Jericho” entertained me. It is one of those shows that many
years from now I will still occasionally pop in the DVD of and watch it.
The same can be said of “Moonlight,” a show which was also doomed to be a
one-season-and-out marvel that I immensely enjoyed. So when the star of
that show, Alex O’Loughlin was cast as the star of Carol Barbee’s newest show,
“Three Rivers,” I knew I was probably doomed from the start. Despite
this, I set my DVR to record the first episode and then the next morning,
before having seen it, I looked at the ratings and hoped for the best. I
wasn’t surprised to see it underwhelmed. I could have deleted it and not
become attached to yet another doomed show, but as I said before, I’m a Carol
Barbee loyalist, I liked Alex O’Loughlin in “Moonlight,” and when it comes to
television shows, I believe it is better to have love and lost than to never have
seen it at all.
If the show disappears from the schedule tomorrow (as of
this writing it is scheduled for a one-time time swap with “Cold Case,” which
is ultimately a moot point since it will almost inevitably be bumped into the
11 pm hour by football) I will have no regrets about watching it. If you
are one of those who hasn’t bothered to watch “Three Rivers” because you too
saw its early ratings and assumed it would check out early, or if you did see
it but just didn’t particularly care for it, I ask that you watch the most
recent episode, “The Luckiest Man.” Real life transplant recipient Mandy
Patinkin guest stars as Victor, a car accident victim who is also suffering
from ALS. Each episode chronicles the patients at Three Rivers Hospital,
some who die and others who are saved by the organs from those lose
fortunate. Each story packs an emotional punch, but none so far have been
as powerful as Victor’s.
Spoiler Warning if you’re going to read on: I do summarize
some of the events at the hospital, so if you’d like to see this without
knowing what happens in the show, please stop reading.
Initially Victor’s prognosis isn’t too bad: Dr. Andy
Yablonski (Alex O’Loughlin” seems to think that with some heart surgery he’ll
be able to recover to the point he was at prior to the accident. However,
while in surgery, he finds a larger problem that is further complicated by his
ALS. Now Victor faces more grim prognosis of being hooked to a
respirator, possibly permanently, and with very limited mobility. While in the
hospital, Victor meets Kuol, a patient of Andy’s who is a refugee from war-torn
Africa who made it to America only to find out he has a heart ailment that will
require a transplant. Just through one conversation about baseball, Kuol
is able to get Victor to laugh they become quite close. Victor decides
that he doesn’t want to live hooked to a machine, that he wants to donate his
heart to Kuol. The moral questions this episode poses is upsetting
enough, but it was Mandy Patinkin who drove viewers to tears (and if you saw it
and weren’t at least feeling something emotionally for him, something is
profoundly wrong.) Mandy gave the performance of a lifetime, struggling
to speak every word but still arguing with Andy that he wanted to give his heart
to Kuol not just because it meant Kuol could live but so that he himself could
die. When he explained what he had to look forward to and summed it up in
terms of, “I can’t breathe on my own, I can’t drive, I can’t go for a
walk. Soon…I won’t be able to swallow, or talk.” Andy tries to
reason, “But you can feel, you can think!” Victor shoots back, “I feel
angry! And that’s how I’m gonna die! And I think if I could’ve gone
out on top like I wanted, I coulda beat that bastard, ALS, one last
time…” Mandy was phenomenal in this episode, those scenes in particular,
and I strongly encourage you to at least go to CBS.com and watch this
episode. If not for the show, for Mandy Patinkin’s performance, whom I
hope Emmy will recognize as being as outstanding as I did. The emotion of
his inner struggle to want to die vs. what Andy and his daughter wanted was
only the beginning. The feelings of giving up on life, watching his
powerful goodbye with his daughter as he was being rolled to surgery one final time,
and then watching the patients who had since asked him for his other organs as
well lined up to see him roll off for the final time… There are no words
for the emotional toll that took on me as a viewer.
I again would ask that anyone reading this who has not seen
this episode of “Three Rivers” please view it. You will be treated to one
of the finest acting performances I have ever seen. And the greatness
didn’t stop with Mandy, Alex O’Loughlin shined as well as rest of the “Three
Rivers” cast. This is one of those episodes that you will look at many
years down the road and remember it. Some shows are forgettable, some are
memorable, this is the latter, and is one which I certainly felt an impact from
that will stay with me. I hope you give it a chance and will agree that
this was worth watching, or that at the very least Mandy Patinkin deserves
nothing short of an Emmy for his performance in this episode. He truly
was phenomenal.
