Dr. Alex Panttiere (Melissa George) is one of the most renowned heart transplant surgeons in the world—and yet, because “It’s TV,” she’s constantly stymied by an unsupportive administration and most of the men in her life. Almost like a parody of medical dramas, the writers of “Heartbeat” weigh down this character with as much clichéd baggage as possible. She’s got two kids. She’s got a rock star ex-husband (Joshua Leonard), who happens to be gay. She’s got an administrator (Shelley Conn) to defy. And she’s got two men at work (Dave Annable and Don Hany) to serve as romantic interests.

What’s so annoying about this structure is that it takes a character who should be strong and makes her responsive to what’s happening around her. She’s defined by how the people in her life either support her or fight her—mostly men in both cases. So a character who feels like she should be a field-leading feminist becomes reactive instead of proactive. And lest you think that’s the theme—that a modern woman has to deal with a lot of dumb men to become a success—don’t give “Heartbeat” that much credit. It doesn’t feel like a progressive examination of gender roles in medicine—just a greatest hits of genre clichés.

Where to begin? There’s a cutesy, jaunty score that says “Hey, aren’t we different?” There are drastic tonal changes, including a suicide, that just aren’t earned. Here’s a particularly teeth-grinding exchange: “Alex, there are four doctors in the world who know how to do this operation.” “Now there’ll be five.” Episode two features singing conjoined twins where one of them has cancer and the other doesn’t. Worst of all, it’s a tonal mess. Everyone is SO wacky, SO emotional, SO brilliant, SO gorgeous, SO unrealistic.

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