As everyone has probably guessed right now much of my time is spent watching hours of television, mainly because of my lacking social life at the moment. This means my mind has many hours to create new ideas for blog posts - hence this title. If you haven't already guessed, today will focus on the two BBC hospital serial drama legends Holby City and Casualty.
Casualty was first broadcast on the 6th of September 1986. When I read this I was like.... woah. That's a lot of storylines with someone falling off a roof in the rain with a wonky ladder or having preposterous accidents at really low speeds in public car parks. Before writing this post I actually sourced the first episode on YouTube which is here if you want to take a look (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kNIQ9iRscU). Casualty is actually set in an emergency department of Holby City Hospital, a fictional NHS run hospital in the heart of bustling Holby City - I see what they did there so 10/10 for creativity.
The show has really come a long way over the past 27 years and is now in its 28th series. The first thing I noticed about the first ever episode and the current series is how similar the opening titles and themes of the programme actually are. In the first episode there is this whole lightning, electricity bolt thing going on which is actually quite alarming and could possibly seen as quite edgy and racy for the times - although I'm not really sure because I didn't exist in 1986, maybe I'll ask my mum. In the current series we see the same thing happening, the viewer gets the feeling that they are being wheeled down the winding corridors of the hospital at great speeds whilst medical staff look on all concerned and fearing for your health and life. So it's all quite dramatic. We can also partake in a bit of armchair medical diagnosis courtesy of the new titles which have fancy medical jargon such as articular ventilation and hypertensive popping up all over the place - the only thing I don't like about this format is there isn't any time to read what is on screen. If they are going provide information allow us the time to read and understand it clearly, in my case the title scene would be 20 minutes long. The newest version is all very clean cut with a sparkling department that has access to all the latest equipment and in contrast the first series looks like a bit of a dump, but I guess that's not much of a surprise considering it was new an all.
The first ever episode kicks off in true Casualty style with some sort of dodgy dealings happening down by a dockyard near the sea which will no doubt cause injuries that will land people in the casualty department. The actual premise of the the show doesn't tend to change much - somebody does something foolish or looks unwell which lands them in the hospital, where they are then treated by the staff who all have their own personal issues that either compromise their professionalism or strike a chord with them causing a whole personal exploration of their feelings to be played out on scene. We also learn that not everything is as it seems and usually patients are all involved one way or another with each other which makes for sometimes juicy viewing. I actually enjoy Casualty and its varying, intertwined storylines because it adds grit that is of course predictable to a degree but can also make you go 'oh I wasn't expecting that to happen'.
I like to think that Holby City is Casualty's dull and slightly tedious cousin who always wants to come and stay. Compared to Casualty's, slightly ridiculous at times but otherwise fairly interesting storylines that are filled with reasonable amounts of action, angst and emotion unfortunately, Holby City fails to bring the goods big time. The show started in January 1999 and is currently in its 16th series. Unsurprisingly, the show has been criticism for lack of realism due to many of the nurses being portrayed as 'sex objects' which was especially true of nurse Faye Byrne (née Morton, previously Michaels, Hewson, Wilson) - she was a bit of a slag. But my problem with the show isn't the obvious lack of realism, it's the excruciating attention to NHS and wider government policy that seems to dominate the whole show, if anything I find it all too real. People don't want to worry about staff redundancies on telly as well in real life, these shows are supposed to be a form of escapism not a reminder of all the bad shit that is going on in your own life. A character I can't stand is the Director of Surgery Henrik Hanssen. He is absolute essence of emotional detachment which he uses to help him remain professional and aloof from his feelings which would be all well and good but I feel as if the writers have taken it a little too far, and have put the character in grave danger of just being a bastard that calls himself a doctor. He doesn't seem to really care about the patients and his bedside manner leaves a lot to be desired - now I sound like I'm filling out a complaint form, which I actually would happily do if he was my doctor. In fact Holby City and Casualty can't really seem to go one episode without having a major cock up that results in an official complaint being made against a member of staff.
Once, when Linden Cullen, nurse Faye and Joseph Byrne were still characters in the drama, the storylines was actually quite angsty and you wanted to know what was going on but now I feel as if I don't really care too much missing a week or two which isn't a good sign at all. The writers need to juice it up some. Add a decent affair story that is going somewhere, with multiple aspects like another family with a child who is seriously ill or illegitimate or something. I want spice and I'm getting rice.
Overall, each programme has good and bad points. I am going to continue to watch each sporadically but I can't see myself being too upset if I miss some shows. Shame really. Maybe the problem is the shows are so wrapped up in being realistic they've forgotten the difference between a drama and a documentary. I do recommend that anyone who is unfamiliar with the show watch it if only for your health.
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