Medical mystery tugs heartstrings

About halfway through "Coma" (9 p.m. July 3, HBO) comes a moment when you desperately will a man named Tom to nod his head. So heartbreaking is his story — and those of three other patients documented here — that no matter how excruciatingly difficult it can be to watch this film, you can't help but become attached. There but for the grace of God ...

Filmmaker Liz Garbus ("The Farm: Angola, USA" garnered two Emmys and earned her an Oscar nomination) uses two high-profile media stories — the "spectacle" of Terri Schiavo as well as the case of Terry Wallis who "awoke" after 19 years — as her jumping-off points. And her film tackles all sorts of questions: Is it possible to emerge from a comatose state? How does one decide, in the wake of brutally stark language from doctors, whether it's time to give up hope?

"Coma" focuses on one emotional year in the lives of four people being treated at the Center for Head Injuries at the JFK Medical Center in Edison, N.J. Car accidents, a fall from a balcony and an assault have put two college students, a restaurant worker and a sales manager there. What follows is a medical mystery story as much as a tragic family drama; hope followed by horror followed by, you're praying, something positive.

"It's a very private, independent trauma," says one mother, trying to explain what she's going through. The film's power never lets up. Coming at the very end is one of the most unsettling parts of the film: the statistic that a traumatic brain injury occurs every 15 seconds in the United States.

For those looking for a one-time complement to the pleasing "History Detectives" (9 p.m. Mondays on KCTS), and who have no trouble with some profanity and plenty of references to pop culture, HBO also delivers Robert Wuhl ("Arli$$") in a college lecture hall talking smack about Franklin Pierce and giving the benefit of doubt to Britney Spears. In a quick half-hour, "Assume The Position 201 with Mr. Wuhl" (10 p.m. July 7) imparts informational gems about some of our presidents, and if this show didn't have all those (constant) cutaways to college kids cracking up at Wuhl's teachings I'd have given it an A.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com