Shadows of the Heart (TV)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Telefilms: C+

 

 

A young woman with great medical experience leaves her homeland to go to somewhere more remote and help the people there who need her.  Since it is a long time ago, women doctors are shunned and she must battle prejudice and ignorance against her while trying got serve the community, a factor that will constantly interfere with her mission.  It may sound like Jane Seymour’s hit Dr. Quinn – Medicine Woman, but it is instead Shadows of the Heart (1990), with Josephine Byrnes as Kate Munro.

 

She leaves mainland Australia for Gannett Island in the late 1920s, trying to make a difference.  She too has men she is interested in, and vice versa.  These shows do not have the baggage of Bond-Girl-turned-TV-movie-maven Seymour showing up as the righteous woman in virtually every TV program she signed on for.  In comparison, Byrnes does not have that luggage, but unintentionally feels too much like Miss Seymour.

 

Unfortunately, there is nothing here to make it any better, more interesting, or less predictable than Dr. Quinn.  It is professionally done and watchable, but does not offer much more.  At least fans of Dr. Quinn might want to check it out as an interesting alternative to a show they like.

 

The full frame image is a bit aged in its transfer, which is hazy and grainy, though it looks to have been shot on film.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is simple stereo at best, but consistent with its age for a TV production of any type.  There are barely any extras, save some text on the production.

 

Whether this was a hit, we do not know, but it shows that the “womens” demographic of old-style storytelling is alive and well all over the TV world.  Director Rod Hardy and teleplay writer Deborah Cox may or may not have been inspired by Dr. Quinn, but these old formulas and conventions are so old, it just does not matter.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo