I’m always excited to see new horror novels, and then I realized that what I thought was new is really old. That’s why I was shocked to learn that this series is a rehash or update of the original movie that was based on a 1977 book by Robin Cook. This horror story is one that is poignant, and very timely, and all in the same breath scary. This four hour drama really is condensed into around 2 ½ hours or so if you catch it on blu ray or through streaming of some kind. Coma is one of the slickest mini-series adaptations that I can remember in recent times. Far better than the last one I reviewed on this site, “The Langoliers”.
The series starts out as a medical drama, a young graduate student is starting her first rounds in a hospital and everything seems normal. However, after a flurry of patients start to dip into mysterious comas, she is alerted about what is really going on. As she starts to investigate, she starts to find out information that the hospital higher ups don’t want her to know. Meanwhile, a blossoming romance starts between a rogue surgeon and the coed, and then this series takes a wild turn into the unreal before leaving the plot hanging in the midpoint.
This very much felt like a made for television production, however, the tense moments between each interval point forward made for some very suspenseful and scary tie ins to real life. You see, the story becomes not so far fetched when you understand the underbelly of what’s going on. Government cover ups, medical science, comas, and all sorts of little details go into making this one of the more brutal ideas of medical studies gone wrong. Yet, it seems to be almost possible, it really does tow the line really close for comfort; especially with the way the characters react to certain developments.
Coma goes into full throttle in the latter stages, and if you’ve developed any care for the characters you start to panic when the twist reveals more than just a hospital trying to harvest, but also a psychopath willing to kill for his freedom, and then throw in a psychopathic drug trip and you have all the makings for one of the cooler developments in mini-series history than “Who Shot JR”. Ok, I had to do it, but it’s better than a giant spider in a cave, right? Right?
I honestly recommend Coma (2012) as a scary series, and am looking forward to purchasing the novel by Robin Cook. For those that aren’t familiar with his work, he’s a neurosurgeon and medical doctor that has parlayed a lot of his experience into some of the most poignant horror medical novels and thrillers ever created. He seems to be on top of things, and well, this movie made me think twice about getting my knee fixed, that’s for sure. Check out this series and drop me a comment and let me know if you liked it.
Just with regards to the 1978 version: I want to bugger Genevieve Bujold (as the bird was in 1960 when the bird was 18, not as the dirty old slag is now obviously).
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