Barbara Lippert's Critique

A patient lies on an operating table, and we think, “No, not another one!” At least five commercials in the past two years have used that same shock-value premise and gurney/surgical-scrubs setting. Paddle on, boys. The concept, like the money from that guy in the E*Trade spot, is comin’ out the wazoo.

But wait. The surgeon speaks. He has a robust, sonorous voice, and what he says is so edgy and unexpected that he manages to give us an out-of-OR-experience, a merry verbal chase in which we hang on his every word.

“Nervous, son?” he asks, patting the patient’s hand.