If you've seen your share of A&E reality shows, you'll know what to expect here. This is not a compliment. Pounding music, quick cutaway scenes, dialogue that seems conveniently scripted, you get the idea. What saves the show is the actual content, which is quite interesting. New Orleans is one of the most violent cities in one of the most violent industrialized countries in the world. Wander outside the French Quarter and you have a higher chance of meeting your death that you would at the height of the Iraq war. But it's also a party city and has a world class university (Tulane). So imagine being emergency services/first responders in this situation and that's what this is.You see everything from paramedics to firefighters to police to SWAT, but my main interest is the paramedics. There are various partnerships on the show, but for my money, they could literally build an entire show around the partnership of the paramedic crew of Holly and Nick. These two are charismatic, caring and from what we see on the show, highly competent. And apparently the paramedics in New Orleans are highly tattooed, but I digress.I would rather see a more gritty version of this show to fit in with the city itself, but I really love seeing docs about paramedics so I'll take what I can get.

I absolutely LOVE this show it's kind of like COPS but it follows a group of EMS workers in "The Big Easy" or New Orleans. I like how they are all like a big close family.They really love their jobs and always have the other's back. Some of their reactions to situations are hilarious and you never know what's gonna come out their mouths. One thing I have to warn is that scenes can get kind of gory. On some of the calls, if you're queasy you WILL have to turn your face away from the TV. But thank God some of the more grotesque injuries are blurred out from the network.I always like how at the end of the show there are good updates for the people they treated.

When facing high stress situations it is easy to forget that these people are human beings. EMS didn't come fast enough. The police officer was rude. Somehow they become the bad guys. It takes a special kind of person to do what these people do. Every day they put themselves in harms way to help others. What I love about this show is that it reveals the obstacles that police, fire, and EMS face in an effort to do their job. It gives you an inside peek into how much these people love what they do and, more importantly, why. New Orleans practically crackles with energy and life. But there is a dark side to the beauty. Filming Night Watch there is a brilliant idea because you see it all: the darkness and the light, the good and the evil of man. I am completely addicted to this show.

From the beginning this show seemed very reminiscent of a UK show called "999," which chronicled the duties of emergency services in Blackpool, England (which shares some broad similarities with New Orleans). "999" featured outstanding camera work and a superb soundtrack, leading to a great, somewhat dark, yet polished tone.Unfortunately this show is formatted like the rest of what airs A&E. The drama seems forced and the difficult duties faced by emergency services are clouded over by sound effects, predictable music, and thrilling camera shots. Not to mention there seems to be a fair bit of staged scenes (which is I guess is still commonplace in reality-TV).But honestly, what turned me off the most was the dubbed-in siren sound effects. There is basically one sound effect that is almost everywhere in post-production sound editing for emergency vehicle sirens. It's distinct and it's obviously fake. In several places throughout the show you can still hear the original siren of whatever vehicle they're filming while the fake one is overlapped. I guess the idea is that the audience doesn't feel a police car or an ambulance is in a hurry unless you can clearly hear a siren (emergency vehicles respond without sirens all the time). While obviously the siren itself is a stupid issue to get hung up on, to me it has become a blatant indicator that a show is less interested in reality and more focused on cheap production quality and satisfying the perceived unintelligent audience. What fascinates me are people. When I sat down to watch this, I wanted to know more about the lives of the people they were filming. What impacts does seeing the dark-side of society have on these men and women? What I got was action shot after action shot: stick around through the commercial break.This show and its producers have the potential to make this something truly special. New Orleans is a perfect setting for showing how much really goes on "behind the scenes." Unfortunately it plays out like any other C-grade "documentary" on A&E, and much to my dismay, I'm afraid that won't change. But overall, it's definitely worth a watch.