The other evening, my husband and I were scrolling through the DVR. Among old episodes of "The Office" and half a dozen Masterpiece mysteries (my fav), there was a new program I didn't recognize: "Hopkins."

I was tired that evening, perhaps a bit peevish. I wanted to watch something easy and entertaining. "So what's this Hopkins thing?" I asked, already ruling it out.

"I recorded it last week," my husband answered. "I thought you'd be interested."

I reminded him that I don't usually like TV stories set in hospitals. Fictional programs like "E.R." really annoy me with their exaggerated heroics and shallow sentimentality.

"This isn't fictional," my husband said. "It's documentary."

The next thing I knew we were watching this story about a surgical team that flies out of Baltimore to bring back a heart for a young man who desperately needed it. We watched the whole episode, and afterwards, my husband said he liked the program.

"The hospital parts were interesting," he said. "Realistic."

Now, it's interesting to think again about that episode of "Hopkins" and whether it was truly "realistic." Surely all the details were right, because the camera was turned on real people-sick people and the people devoted to caring for them. But as with all stories, the work of the film crew had been edited to focus on a narrative thread.

And what about the scenes that were never filmed in the first place-the ones that wouldn't have served the purpose of a medical-heroic story line? I'm thinking of the scene when someone asks the big question: "Do you have health insurance?"

Or how about this one: Somewhere out there in that big city of Baltimore, a young woman is talking to her sister on the phone. She's asking her sister what she should do, because her child has a high fever and a sore throat. Should she take the child to see the doctor? Because it's going to cost a ton and she hasn't even paid the bill from a couple months ago when the kid fell off his bike and needed stitches. (They don't have health insurance.) Then comes the voice of the sister. She sounds older, wiser. She says maybe it's strep throat, maybe the kid needs an antibiotic. And so forth. It would be plenty realistic. Lots of people in the big city of Baltimore don't have health insurance. Lots of hard-working employed people don't.

OK, maybe my idea lacks the heroics and the romance. Maybe it wouldn't be especially entertaining. But you can't beat it for reality. I'm thinking we need a "reality" series about the tragic brokenness of America's healthcare system. I'm thinking we need it more than yet another medical-success story about heart transplants, no matter how uplifting.

Heck, I could write the screenplay with my eyes closed. I bet you could too.

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