First of all, this show is *not* about a location: this show is about *just another* female character! Secondly, call me male chauvinist for what I am about to write, but I am a woman. We have all had a colleague at work that is just the complete control freak- always in charge of everything, welcoming more and more responsibilities, lecturing others and *not having a life*. Well, here's Melina Kanakaredes' role in "Providence": a female doctor who is, in a word, perfect. In two words, she's your ordinary and unsustainable control freak.
She works? No, she does everything at work! Other doctors should only be extras! She volunteers? No, she is probably preparing to run for mayor one day. She helps, she befriends? Yes, but only developing relationships with people she can control more, eg her patients (how professional)! She is even in touch with her dead mother, mind you, because they clearly took her away without her consent! Who could have been so stupid to challenge her almighty powers like this? Does she ever engage in useless, yet funny activities? Does she ever avoid to take her heroic self so seriously? If I were one of her colleagues I would just tell her politely to *Get A Life* and resign from my job. Oh, and when the show isn't concentrated on the epic of this woman there is also her family - a bunch of poor actors who try to raise the morale of the show with some humor, only to succumb under lines and gags that are worse than those from "The Drombusch Family". The saddest thing is that writers surely didn't need to invent anything for her characters: women like that are everywhere theses days. If it's coming near you, get a bigger tv set to accommodate the ego of this character.
