Gideon's Crossing

With a deep and perplexing hero, a wide social reach and uncommon eloquence, it instantly takes a place among the best dramas on television.

The first episode is as complex, wise, questioning, darkly funny and, yes, entertaining, as television gets. It broaches life's paradoxes with hard-edged melodrama, gallows humor and bravura acting. [10 Oct 2000, p.1C]

The responsibility for Gideon's Crossing rests with Braugher's appeal, and he's up to it. The rest is up to the scripts, to make Ben more human and the stories less dark and down. [10 Oct 2000, p.1]

Gideon's Crossing" has a fabulous actor -- Andre Braugher -- and some terrific writing by Paul Attanasio, who created but did not stay around for Braugher's last series, "Homicide: Life on the Street." With this combination, Gideon's Crossing could be the 12th doctor show on the schedule and still be worth your time. [10 Oct 2000, p.F1]

It's trying too hard, a rare and forgivable occurrence on TV. Still, the characters are crackerjack, the dialogue frequently poetic. [10 Oct 2000, p.E01]

This familiar package notwithstanding, the premiere of Gideon's Crossing delivers a complex and challenging main story of moral ambiguity as well as stunning performances by Andre Braugher as Gideon, Bruce McGill as a despotic patient with seemingly untreatable cancer and Russell Hornsby as chief resident Aaron Boies. [10 Oct 2000, p.F10]

Crossing is excellent drama, strongly written and well-acted. The big question, however, is whether it will remain as unremittingly serious as tonight's pilot episode -- which might make it a bit heavy for weekly viewing. [10 Oct 2000, p.C07]

One of the finest of the new season series, this shimmeringly intelligent hospital drama returns Andre Braugher ("Homicide: Life on the Street") to series TV. Braugher plays, with typical depth and passion, Ben Gideon, a top cancer doc emotionally shaken after the loss of his wife. [10 Oct 2000, p.C8]

if you are a fan of Braugher's work in "Homicide" and you crave quality drama, this is a pilot you do not want to miss. [10 Oct 2000, p.1F]

One of the most compelling and elegantly produced new series of the season. [10 Oct 2000, p.E-7]

Braugher is such a riveting actor, with so much going on behind his eyes, that he'd probably be interesting reading a list of school closings on the first snow day. [10 Oct 2000, p.F1]

A nice balance of 60-40 character drama and medicine. "Homicide" heavyweight Braugher is intense once again, yet smart enough to keep sharing the screen with a strong ensemble. [10 Oct 2000]

Aside from the dismal possibility that Braugher's return to television could be a short one, should Gideon's Crossing fail, it would be a critical blow to shows that dare to be deep. [10 Oct 2000, p.2E]

This is a very talky show, filled with Braugher soliloquies, and it will be hard to top the first episode, which plays out like a Greek tragedy... But I was spellbound, except for the jarring interludes involving Gideon's motley crew of medical students. [10 Oct 2000, p.E1]

A show that, while ponderous at times, ultimately adds up to some very absorbing television. [10 Oct 2000, p.D01]

Gideon needs to put more work into its secondary characters and a more relaxed faith in Braugher's talents. That would be enough to make Gideon truly special. [10 Oct 2000, p.1D]

Braugher is the rare actor who banks on control instead of pyrotechnics. And Ruben Blades gives him strong support as the hospital's administrator, Dr. Max Cabranes. [10 Oct 2000]

But far too much of the show - a story about a wealthy hospital patron and her dog, for example - struggles far too obviously to convey a quality of eccentricity that in the end comes across simply as lame...Unless the show finds a way to maintain its quality when Braugher is not on screen, ABC's promos will remain half-true hype.

The storylines, as we meet the staff, feel as though they've been plucked from "St. Elsewhere," but things were brighter there -- both literally and figuratively. [10 Oct 2000, p.47]

But when Braugher's Dr. Ben Gideon disappears, Gideon's Crossing becomes a long, languidly-paced trip through a Boston teaching hospital. [10 Oct 2000, p.D-8]

Bravura performance, but Braugher needs support—stat!

By making Ben Gideon the head of a teaching hospital, [Paul] Attanasio created the opportunity for Braugher to use his grave, grandly expressive voice to deliver long speeches to a classroom of awestruck medical students. Unfortunately, what Attanasio intends as a showcase — a gift to both his star and his audience — ends up making Gideon seem like a boring gasbag.

Though slickly photographed, Gideon's Crossing is a rickety star vehicle. Braugher doesn't have much support from the musicians, the writer or the supporting actors. [10 Oct 2000, p.E1]

There is one depressing symptom noticeable throughout tonight's opener. Even with the dialogue blazing by us, we can't help noticing how tired cliches, awkward observations and anemic lines are seriously reducing the script's overall vitality...What this show needs is an emergency transfusion of fresh writing. It needs scripts as strong as the acting and directing. Without that, Gideon's Crossing will remain this simmering cauldron of potential - a potent mixture waiting to be brought to full boil. [10 Oct 2000, p.9E]

Seems too self-consciously and schematically a vehicle for the actor, a vehicle that sputters and stalls when one wants it to zoom. [10 Oct 2000, p.C01]