Coma

A remake of the 1978 film by Michael Crichton—based on Robin Cook's bestselling novel—this 2012 A&E miniseries was made by producers Ridley and Tony Scott and director Mikael Salomon, the same team behind the 2008 remake of The Andromeda Strain. Coma updates the original story, bringing a 21st-century perspective to the subjects of medical experimentation and corporate ethics. Patients at respected hospitals are still slipping into comas during routine operations at an alarming rate, but here they are shuttled to a high-tech care facility that secretly uses the comatose individuals for invasive medical trials. Lauren Ambrose plays plucky intern Susan Wheeler, who digs into the cover-up and is subsequently targeted by the cabal of doctors and researchers behind this enormous conspiracy. Steven Pasquale is Mark Bellows, a young physician and romantic interest who joins Susan's investigation. Handsomely made, Coma displays a high-tech color scheme of hospital-gown green and operating-room off-white, and the climax in a factory-like laboratory filled with hundreds of bodies is an impressive set piece. But the characters are poorly developed, the action and suspense sequences contrived and familiar, and the storytelling falls into the predictable rhythms of TV drama, with obvious commercial breaks. And then there are the potholes in the script, which fails to explain how a conspiracy of this scope has managed to remain hidden. Despite the impressive costar roster—including Geena Davis, Richard Dreyfuss, James Woods, and Ellen Burstyn—this fairly tepid remake is optional, at best. (S. Axmaker)