Hart Has Captured My Heart

There's a new series on the CW called "Hart of Dixie" that I've already fallen in love with in only three episodes. I feel bad about introducing a new show again, especially with all of the other shows I post about, but seeing as how it's one of the top shows I look forward to each week, I feel like I have to talk about it.

So it's about a girl named Zoe Hart (played by Rachel Bilson) who wants to be a surgeon in NYC. She lacks "bedside manners", but she graduates college at the top of her class. Her whole life is what she does for work. When she graduates college, an elderly man named Dr. Harley Wilkes (played by Nicholas Pryor) asks her to work at his family practice in a small town called Bluebell, Alabama. Obviously, she turns him down in a second on account of wanting to follow in her father's footsteps in New York, but he continues to send many postcards afterwards inviting her to join him. When she gets turned down for a surgeon job, due to the aforementioned lack of bedside manners, she decides to move to BlueBell.

When she gets to Bluebell, she meets George Tucker (played by Scott Porter) and we see that they have immediate chemistry together. She also finds out that Dr. Wilkes has passed away, and had his receptionist continue to send Zoe the postcards even after his death. We later find out the reason for this, which is because he was her biological father. She decides to try staying in Bluebell for a while in order to follow in her real father's footsteps now. However, Dr. Wilkes' partner in the practice, Dr. Breeland is making it very difficult for her to do so. He disagrees with Wilkes' idea to let Zoe take over his half of the company and refuses to be partners with someone so inexperienced to the practice and new to the town.

The whole show revolves around Dr. Zoe Hart's inability to fit in with the small town folk. She's from the city so she's very straightforward and blunt about a lot of things that you might not want to be blunt about. She's clearly falling for the town's golden boy George Tucker, but we find out that he's engaged to be married to Dr. Breeland's daughter, the town's golden girl. Despite Zoe unintentionally misdiagnosing patients and sabotaging town parades, we see her slowly gaining the respect of the town and eventually Dr. Breeland himself and finding some interest in her neighbor Wade Kinsella (Wilson Bethel).

The reasons to enjoy this show are simple for me. First of all, I'm in love with the south and always have been. I've always loved the idea of a small town and knowing everyone in it, growing up in a place where you feel a part of something. I love their traditions and the way they are all there for each other. Rhode Island isn't really like that at all. At least, my life isn't like that. And if my friends saw what I'm writing then they'd tell me to get my head out of the clouds -- that television is not real life. Well, true, but it's fun to watch and the soundtrack is awesome (country music!).

The second reason I enjoy the show is because of the characters. Dr. Hart is really funny even when she's not trying to be, George Tucker is nice (despite his evil fiance), and the former-football-star-turned-mayor Lavon Hayes (played by Cress Williams) is really very amusing and not at all what you'd expect of a mayor. You find yourself routing for Dr. Hart to succeed and hating Lemon Breeland (played by Jaime King).

The show airs on Mondays at 9pm and if you think it sounds interesting then you should definitely check it out.