Here's something you don't see every day on TV: The show's narrator is in a coma.
In Fox's new Red Band Society, 12-year-old Charlie may be comatose, but he's intimately involved in almost every scene.
"Yeah. This is me talking to you from a coma," Charlie says. "Deal with it."
The comedy-drama, produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television, debuts at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
"Red Band Society is in that great spirit of the successful Fox shows," Spielberg says in a Fox trailer. "They're kind of teen soaps, but with real issues, real problems and real humor -- almost a kind of dark hospital humor, which is the way children's hospitals are."
At its core, Red Band Society is a teenage coming-of-age drama set in the pediatric ward of Los Angeles' (fictional) Ocean Park Hospital. The kids, facing a wide range of serious medical issues, all wear red hospital wrist bands.
Executive Producer Margaret Nagle says in the trailer, "The series is a story about friendship, first loves and heartbreaks, but most of all it is a story about life. It's The Breakfast Club in a hospital."
"The series was inspired by the personal story of Albert Espinosa's 14 years of living in a Spanish hospital. Albert has often said that it was one of the best times in his life, where he made the most incredible friends.
"When you live in this world, there is a special bond that forms with the doctors, nurses and patients and making the most of every day takes on a new meaning."
Here are the six main characters. There are no weak links among these young actors.
• Charlie (Coma Boy) is played by Griffin Gluck (Back in the Game, Private Practice). We're not told immediately why he is in a coma, but Charlie informs us that he can still hear, feel and smell things, but he can't react to them. He also has a sort of omniscience that drives his narration beyond his hospital bed. Viewers will just have to accept that creative device.
One other thing. Charlie can also talk to the other kids if they are unconscious, so Gluck does get to move about on occasion.
• Jordi Palacios (The New Guy) is portrayed by Nolan Sotillo (Prom). He's a 16-year-old cancer patient who makes his way to California by himself to seek out surgery from a renowned doctor at the hospital.
What Jordi soon discovers is that it's not his illness that's going to change his life, but his new friends.
• Leo Roth (The Rebel) is played by English actor Charlie Rowe (Neverland, Pirate Radio). He's also 16, charming and independent. Leo, the leader of the society, has already lost part of his right leg following cancer surgery and is undergoing chemotherapy.
"When you're in a hospital," Leo says to Jordi the day before Jordi's surgery, "the most important part of you that needs to survive is you. Your body isn't you. Your soul is you and they can never cut into your soul."
• Dash Hosney (The Player) is played by the 18-year-old rapper Astro (who went by his real name, Brian Bradley, on The X Factor in 2011). Dash is 16 and Leo's best friend. He has a big heart and personality, and is determined not to let his cystic fibrosis slow him down.
• Emma Chota (The Girl Next Floor) is played by Ciara Bravo (Big Time Rush). She's 15, has a smart mouth and is an overachiever. She's also Leo's sometimes girlfriend and is coping with an eating disorder.
• Kara Sounders (The Mean Girl). Zoe Levin (Arrested Development, The Way Way Back) portrays a narcissistic, egotistical head cheerleader. Kara passes out at practice (everyone took photos) and ends up at the hospital where tests reveal her heart is failing.
But the red band society soon makes her realize that she actually has a heart and she begins opening it up to her new friends.
Now we come to the No. 1 reason you should give this series a look: Octavia Spencer. The pediatric ward is run by no-nonsense Nurse Jackson, played with sass and heart by Oscar winner Spencer (The Help). Spencer's worth the price of admission by herself.
Nurse Jackson may seem scary, but she puts her life second, and her gruff manner hides a big heart that secretly makes the kids' lives more ordinary.
Overseeing much of the kids' treatment is ace pediatric surgeon Dr. Jack McAndrew (Dave Annable, Brothers & Sisters).
Also on hand is naive and gullible nurse Brittany Dobler (newcomer Rebecca Rittenhouse), who allows the teens to get away with things they probably shouldn't.
Hopefully, you won't find the premise depressing. The stories are uplifting and challenging, tragic and comedic, ordinary and extraordinary -- all bound by the red hospital bands that signify that the kids have one another's backs.
"Everyone thinks that when you go to a hospital, life stops," Charlie says, "but it's just the opposite. Life starts."
The Red Band Society is rated TV-14 D, L for adult dialogue and language.
Style on 09/14/2014