Pilot Script Review - Hart of Dixie

HART OF DIXIE
Network: CW
Written By: Leila Gerstein
Draft Date: December 9, 2010
Pages: 59

I didn't dislike the script for this project so much as I found the arena overly-trodden. This is gonna be a short review, because it's just a gut reaction. Everything could change when I see it on screen, but... haven't we been here before? How many times is the "sophisticated city girl goes to a quirky/charming Midwestern or Southern town" thing going to be developed?

Now, to be fair, I think there is quite a bit of charm and several heapfuls of soap in this script. Once the lead character, Zoe Hart, gets to BlueBell, Alabama (after flashing back to the setup-y why of it all... she's passed over for a fellowship position at the most prestigious Manhattan hospital because she has terrible bedside manner... oh, and also her best friend got the position and is now engaged to her ex-boyfriend), she almost immediately picks up two potential suitors, one of whom it turns out is engaged to the daughter of the man who is most interested in getting Zoe to leave BlueBell.

Years ago, Zoe was offered a job by a nice man who heard her speak at her med school graduation and he has hounded her with postcards every month since... so she finally accepts because, apparently, there are no jobs for extremely skilled but impersonal doctors anywhere in America. Which... I don't buy. But whatever. When she gets to BlueBell, it turns out the man has passed away, but left her his half of the only medical practice in town. Brick Breeland, the other owner and, until Zoe's arrival, the town's only remaining doctor, wants her out because he wants the practice all to himself. And thus a rivalry is formed.

We get the usual moments of City Girl in the Country. We get quirky characters. We even get people referring to themselves in the third person. It really just feels like a been-there-done-that, the only slight change to the trope is that our City Girl is a highly skilled surgeon. I know this script will have its fans. I suppose it's just not my cup of sweet tea on the page.