User reviews

Providence does not bear the heavy weight that "good" hour-long dramas carry with them. As a result, it ends up being more profound and watchable than most of the rest put together. Each episode is often pastoral or simplistic, with very straightforward writing, acting, and presentation. But the actors are so capable, and the attitude so honest, that the people behind Providence are able to make every episode into a very touching--and often humorous--hour. While most hour-long dramas struggle to fill fifteen minutes of genuine story or emotion, Providence is bursting at the seams. It is one of the best hour-long dramas to come down the pike in a number of years.

My grandmother and I watched this every Friday night. I own the DVD set and watch it all the time. I really miss this show because it's something that her and I shared every Friday night. Everyone who is hating on this show forget you.

This prog is just being shown in the UK! VERY early in the mornings but...I love it. Funny, witty and virtually no violence whatsoever. Why it was cancelled is beyond me...it should still be running. Much nicer to see the lead in this than CSI...where she appears to be paid for wearing the slinkiest of outfits and must walk whilst being filmed!

This is one of my favorite shows of all time! Great storylines, great cast. Lots of animals too. I think it got canceled because people have developed a taste for mean spirited, shows full of disfunctional people, and don't know how to appreciate beautiful things. Or maybe because there's no twerking or housewives battling each other?

I love watching Providence on Friday nights. It's a good way to unwind and feel good. After the wedding of Sydney Hansen, the show will be off the air. NBC is cancelling another awesome show, and in the middle of the season. I used to like NBC but now it seems they are cancelling all these good shows. I will miss Providence and all the characters. I wish the show would at least last through May, 2003.

Interesting family show. Sometimes a little silly. The story on a family members brain injury was really good! Some episodes feature a very young and sweet Jon Hamm! This show developed all of the main characters. A doctor and her father, brother and sister. And if you like dogs, the dad is a vet and you will see lots of dogs! My Goldendoodle loves watching it too! Some storylines are a bit far fetched, but overall a good family show along the lines of Parenthood and This is us. Also both the doctor and her sister have issues with finding just the right man! I found it on Start TV January 2023. I did not see it from episode 1 but it is currently on season 4 so it should restart end of February!

Providence is SO underrated! It was one of the best, mostly wholesome, tv show on the air in the late 90's/early 2000's. Melina Kanakredes was so good, but I think the other actors are also underrated. Paula Cale as Joanie, Seth Peterson as Robbie, Maria Pitillo as Robbie's wife, Tina, Dana Daurey as Dr. James Hansen's helper- Heather and of course, Mike Farrell as the dad. It gives me nostalgia watching it. I love the house set also. I'm waiting for it to be released on either DVD or on Amazon where I can buy all the seasons and watch them whenever I want. By far my favorite show. I wish it would have had a few more seasons. I looked forward to watching it every week, there weren't many shows that I looked forward to.

I DVR this thankfully so I can fast forward through Syd and her mother. I am sick of looking at her with a cigarette and that dress. Come on Syd dreams of every day really. I am in the third season and it truly is tiresome.

Then there is Robbie and his constant stupidity. His father finally tells him what I wanted him to say when he gets arrested for being a bookie.

Joanie's voice is like chalk on a blackboard.

The father, Heather and Hanna are the best.

How about that annoying woman and her St Bernard!

Some of the story lines are good but it is a really mundane show and I don't know how it lasted five sessions!

I want to start off by saying I'm not conservative. I don't believe that a family has to be cookie cutter. It doesn't have to be an opposite sex couple raising children. A family can be any group of people living under the same roof, going through the trials and tribulations of life together. Although Providence does portray the generic, all American family, when you look deeper, the episodes are quite thought-provoking and emotional. And it all stemmed from a universal phenomenon: moving back home in one's 30s.

Dr. Sydney "Sid" Hansen (Melina Kanakaredes) is a plastic surgeon living in Los Angeles. She goes to Providence, Rhode Island for her sister Joanie's (Paula Cale) wedding. Her mom dies before the ceremony starts. When Sid returns to LA, she catches her boyfriend cheating, with another man. Both events lead her to realize that she wants to be with her family, so she moves back to Providence. She begins working at a free clinic, running it later on. She lives with her dad, Jim (Mike Farrell), a veterinarian, as well as Joanie and her younger brother Robbie (Seth Peterson). The acting is solid and the cast has amazing chemistry. I love how the show addresses sensitive topics without coming off as preachy. Recent shows have tried to copy this format - the tearjerking drama that deals with the overarching subject of family (This Is Us comes to mind) - but they failed to capture the warmth and charm that Providence has. It's realistic enough that I don't feel silly discussing what's going on when I'm watching it with my own family. The characters encounter problems that people actually experience. Joanie decided not to marry the father of her baby daughter, and Robbie has a gambling addiction. Shows nowadays don't explore the characters' vulnerabilities. The episodes are just messages about politics being thrown at you. I watch a show to learn about the characters and their internal struggles, not about current events. That's what the news is for. I'm glad I discovered Providence. It's a must watch if you like programs that are witty but also teach lessons.

I am so glad I have this show to watch every Friday night. I look forward to it, have my dinner ready at 7:59pm and sit there and experience the travails of the Hansen family. I loved the two hour movie on Thanksgiving, and hope this show is on for a long time. After I watch it, I am so emotionally drained cuz I lived every moment with them, but would gladly sit there and watch ten more episodes! I am looking forward to the day I am older and it lives on in reruns. I absorb every moment and talk about them as if they were friends of mine. I was crying with them when Lily was killed, I was in that car with the Four Musketeers. I lived in Providence for 6 years and long to move back. This show makes that longing even more bittersweet. I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!

Despite the obnoxious Joanie ..this show is worth having in its entirety.... yet they haven't after all these years managed to put the complete set together to offer it for sale? What is the point to offering 12 episodes out of 90 plus that actually were part of this series? The acting isn't the best except for Mike Farrell but little kids don't really seem to care. They're fascinated and involved with the animal stories and although many don't understand the people issues at least they aren't seeing people being abused or hurt. Instead they're seeing people acting oddly,being noisy,being overdramatic...but generally not unkind..and that's worth having as a complete set for kids to enjoy.

I believe that the strength of the tv show Providence is that it demonstrates real "family values" and not the traditional "family values". The "family values" i refer to are that members of the family accept one another no matter what they do "wrong" (one is a schemer and gets into trouble, another is a goody goody with excessive pride, and another is a klutz who also has a child out of wedlock... also the Dr. hires a worker who is a klutz and is accepting and nurturing of her - how symbolic that maybe the central theme of the show is the prototypical country veterinarian, taking in wounded animals and nurturing them to health), and they love one another no less when the day is through. They meet their challenges with seriousness and humor, when the situations can allow, and almost always kindness.

The show does not moralize so much as it shows people dealing with real situations (already, 2 major characters have perished)and they are lead by the strong but extremely gentle and understanding character that Mike Farrell portrays, "Dr. James Hansen". He provides an almost unnoticed moral center, strong but gentle.

One daughter forgoes a successful career in los angeles as a plastic surgeon to go home and live with her family and work in a charitable clinic. The other daughter forgoes a fortune if she had gone to Japan and promoted her accidentally invented recipe, to take care of her baby and be with her family. She nurtures a mentally ill man who happened to be the ideal employee for her, and helps him escape when the authorities are after him, the morality being that she cannot harbor him, but she cannot let him be incarcerated either. The son gets into trouble, but works on being good.

We see progressive ideas shown in a viable light. The show accepts gays, it loves people who make mistakes, have accidents, they take in runaways, work at a clinic, find the good in mobsters, mentally ill, take in stray animals, have no negative judgments on ethnic groups. There is very little against a single mother, other than she needs to take responsibilty. And so on... what will be next ? These are all strengths in my opinion, and i think the country and society in general has been waiting for something to show them about this, what i believe to be, inherent unconditional love that exists in all of us, but somehow gets lost at times within the scope of the hustle and bustle of society.

Of note, I also believe that while some people say providence is not really about providence, i believe that it does capture different elements of the area. I think it more pulls together the strengths of the community than focussing on a particular group, providing an amalgam of local people. The parents are suspiciously like my grandparents (who are real life providence lifetime natives), even their bedroom is almost exactly like the television set bedroom. Also, personally i had lived in los angeles [originally went there to be in medical / grad school], working as an actor, and returned to rhode island because a family member was on deaths door.

I love the fact that dad, Mike Farrell (MASH) has his clinic in the basement. All those dogs coming in and out is really cute. The younger sister, Joanie, Paula Kyle reminds me of my own baby sister. A little babyish but lovable! The brother Robbie is a nice guy. Hopefully, he will not get addicted to gambling. Dr. Sydney Hansen, played by Melina Kanakaredes, is a beautiful and exotic woman. It is nice to see a woman in such a role. It is also nice to see Leslie Silva playing Dr. Helen Reynolds, breaking some stereotypes there. The mother Linda, Concetta Tomei (China Beach) always showing up in the same outfit is hysterical! I hope the series remains a family type of show. We are enjoying watching it! We loved that show where Joanie ends up using beast milk for her clam chowder recipe.

Providence is a great television drama. It has elements of drama, comedy and romance in each episode, and revolves around the close-knit Hansen family and their fathers vet clinic.

Some parts of it are Ally McBeal-esque, particularly the dream sequences that almost always begin each episode with Sydney Hansens mother and some crazy thing happening to Syd.

After watching just a few episodes you really care about the characters and what happens to them and want to keep watching them.

Some of the parts in the hospital and clinic are a bit like ER but the show is more relationship based.

This is one of my favourite American TV dramas of all time!

I lost my mother in 1997 and this program shows what my family has gone through. From the loss, to the first date of the widowed father. It is entertaining, touching and an excellent portrayal of the different reactions of family to the loss of a loved one.

For a show that purports to show the charm and wonder of living at home in Providence, it certainly misses its mark. Much of the information given about Providence and its surrounding area is highly inaccurate and borders on insulting at times. To top it all off, the writing is poor and the stories inane. For a good look at Providence, Rhode Island, come see our city. For a good Friday night, read a book instead of watching this bilge.

I am one of the only people I know here in Providence who was actually born and raised on the 'east side' of Providence. As a child, I would sometimes amuse myself wondering what a TV show called Providence would be about, and would it be successful? Now, as an adult, my adolescent fantasy has come true, and every Friday night, I can see my little town on the national tube. I see the houses I drove past on my bicycle, and the sidewalks I bruised my knees on when I was running from loose dogs.

You would think I would be happier than I am, but the problem is "Providence" is not even close to what I imagined "Providence" would be like when I was a kid, making up TV stories instead of paying attention in school. You see, "Providence" is a bit of a success (to many people's surprise) and in order to succeed, so often Hollywood has to play down to the audience's lowest, common denominator. "Providence" does just this. All my friends and family thought this show would flop, but America seems to relate to it!

In every episode, you can see how an autistic or abused child can be instantly cured by looking into the eyes of a puppy dog. You can see how the only person with a Rhode Island dialect is the cab driver in the first episode - but really he was probably an actor from Jersey, or something. Of course, they did capture the flavor of our controversial, but politically brilliant Mayor, Buddy Cianci, in all his genuine charisma! His Marinara sauce really is quite tasty!

Yes, I wish I lived in "Providence", where I could bring my cat Whitman to the neighborhood Vet when he gets sick, but instead, I have to watch "Providence" from my TV in Providence, screaming PROVIDENCE!! with every passing scene of my little city, looking better than I ever noticed as a kid. Yes, I have to suffer through this condescending dribble every Friday night, eight o'clock, NBC.

Providence is touching and funny. It is an accurate reflection of the way we deal with painful events in our lives. Not always serious. A fresh new type of drama without the bicoastal cynicism we have come to accept all too easily.

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.

This a great show about the Hansens, who became closer than ever following the death of the wife/mother, who still appears in the dreams of her oldest daughter, Sydney. Syd, a warm, devoted doctor, is played to perfection by Melina Kanakaredes, as are everyone else in the cast. I also love the sets and beautiful scenery and location shots. A great drama!

Hi all. This is my first time posting to this board. I was just wondering if I am the only one who thought that Owen was a bit of a jerk. To me, he just came off as cocky, childish and just a general smart aleck. It seems like Syd would have ended up with some other professional dude, who had some sort of tact and humility. Your thoughts? Also, since I have been missing the episodes, due to my schedule, can somebody please fill me in on what eventually happened to Joany? Also, has anyone heard about any sort of reunion being done for the show? I think it would be cool to see what the characters are doing these days. (i.e. Nicholas in junior high or something.) Thanks