HawthoRNe

CHICAGO – “Three Rivers” takes its title from the Pittsburgh heart transplant hospital at which it is set but even the dull, “easy listening” name of the show should tell you something about the earnest, drab series debuting tonight on CBS.

CHICAGO – TNT’s medical drama “HawthoRNe” would have felt overly generic in any month of the year, but debuting in the same one as Showtime’s far darker, subtler and more entertaining “Nurse Jackie” does the show no favors at all. Jada Pinkett Smith executive-produces and stars in a well-intentioned program with a good pedigree (John Masius of “St. Elsewhere” is one of the producers) but one that feels like a relic of a bygone era of more manipulative television.