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shallowness) wrote2024-02-07 07:58 am
shallowness) wrote2024-02-07 07:58 am
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TV from now and then
Expats - Episode 1
Watched because I did like Lulu Wang’s ‘The Farewell’ and there’s maybe some similarity in shooting style, although it was all a bit too confusing for the first third or half. Not so much Margaret’s situation (the audience could bask in being more clued up than the insensitive party planner), but it took a while to figure out/learn how all these other people were connected. It seems that the main characters are more or less connected to the accidental death of Gus(?), Margaret’s son with Clarke. I’ve seen Nicole Kidman play a mother who’s lost a child before in Rabbit-Hole, so that felt far from new, although she’s perfectly capable of playing a highly-strung woman who has had great trauma. And yet, she kind of got in the way of things, because I found myself wondering ‘And how old is Nicole Kidman these days?’ as we learned Clarke was celebrating his 50th. Is she playing her as a slight cougar?
While I could see that her mother-in-law’s judginess would be intolerable, Margaret wasn’t all that sympathetic. (Let Phillip draw a picture of his brother with Jesus, if he likes! It’s probably cathartic.) (Though, kiddo, your mother will tear that picture down from the fridge when she sees it.) ‘Bitchy’ seemed to be the favoured tone of all the other expat women gathered at Clarke’s birthday. Mercy had seemed to be dismissive of David/Dirk after the sex, but then her best friend seemed obnoxiously loud and insensitive. I suppose the kids are the most sympathetic characters.
There isn’t much that’s hooky – I guess we’ll find out more details about the accident, Mercy’s level of involvement and where David/Dirk’s lies come in, but I’m fine with the vague outlines. Mercy with her latest job and don’t-care bravado at drinks, alongside the mainly Hong Kongian servers, was a reminder that not everyone is as loaded as most of the main characters, even as we got to admire Margaret’s fancy dress. (Don’t know how much they’re going to delve into the dismantling of democracy in Hong Kong or if it’s going to be a background detail, like Mercy losing her job at the newspaper and what I took the protest she walked in the middle of to be about.)
Cardiac Arrest - 1.6 The Edge
Big things happened this episode, although I started nitpicking about a few of them post-ep. We saw Mr Monica, like, properly, in a brief little scene that indicated she’d hit her child (because of the drinking?) and her husband was sending them to her mother’s. From the 2020s, it’s notable that it never occurred to him to step up and be the primary caregiver especially after things had gone so wrong. Poor kids, especially given what happened next.
Raj was under pressure from covering for Monica (he got a neat lecture from some woman before he walked into ITU off the ward, which I enjoyed, because he and the anaesthatist had been odiously sexist) on top of his own work, so when the sister who would turn up on Teachers asked him to talk to Monica, he understandably enough said no. (He has tried a little in the past.) The sister would inncocently enough be the one to give the keys to that Monica could get the means to kill herself. Ouch.
Before that, Andrew and some nurses had watched Claire give a high enough dose that it would kill a very distressed patient (I didn’t understand what they were saying about her airway.) Andrew was, as ever, getting all the scut work going in the hospital, and was pretty much told that he couldn’t get (badly needed) leave if he wanted a recommendation to go on to work in A&E. He and Claire were involved in the care of an old man who was in huge pain, with the Geordie sister and the man’s wife badgering them as to whether they could do more.
Still, the same consultant (the older, Scottish one with the tash) did come off as human after Monica’s suicide, telling off Betancourt, who wasn’t coming off as human, like, AT ALL, and taking the time to talk to Raj. I did feel that this scene screamed ‘things Jed Mercurio might have liked to hear when he was a doctor’ rather than being entirely based on something that happened to him, for here was the senior doc acknowledging the unendurable pressure these very young, newly qualified doctors were under these days and how very different his experience had been. Raj would later admit to the sister that his first thought on hearing the news was ‘oh no, more work for me.’
Claire and Andrew briefly discussed all this, but, of course, they’d barely met Monica, which was a little shocking to us, as we'd followed them all so closely. Andrew was tempted into giving a drug directly that would have killed the patient (who’d asked him to help him die). Claire had set it up, though, told him he’d only injected water and pointed out the situation wasn’t the same as her mercy kill.
She was then called down to A&E to override a dithering bearded doctor, as they tried to resuscitate a little girl. She diagnosed something, but it was way too late. There was ambiguity as to whether if the other doc had diagnosed it from the off the child would be alive, but it was pretty clear Claire was the better doctor. But then, it turned out the dead child was the one Claire had met the other episode, and she volunteered to tell the mother, who she knew, and father. The mother was devastated. The ep and series ended with Claire and Andrew being called on to the next case, because their work is relentless.
But killing off the child that they’d introduced a few episodes ago to show Claire’s human side was a set-up too far (a la giving the slave-driving hospital manager a heart attack that a sleep deprived Andrew had to treat.)
In the middle of all this the nurse Andrew thought he was involved with was giving him the runaround, while the new male nurse she’d been sleeping with was annoyed with her for lying. Fair enough, thought I, but then nurse Luke went off-duty (in a very nineties jacket that gave me flashbacks) to meet his ‘friend’ only he was a kissing and flirting friend (and possibly the anaesthesiologist. I can’t be sure, because the filming wasn’t clear, but given the incestuous vibes, I suppose it was him and they’re going for man hides that he’s gay by being a cartoonish lad.) ANYWAY, where do you get off being snitty that the nurse you’re sleeping with is lying to Andrew if you’re lying to her, sunshine?
Watched because I did like Lulu Wang’s ‘The Farewell’ and there’s maybe some similarity in shooting style, although it was all a bit too confusing for the first third or half. Not so much Margaret’s situation (the audience could bask in being more clued up than the insensitive party planner), but it took a while to figure out/learn how all these other people were connected. It seems that the main characters are more or less connected to the accidental death of Gus(?), Margaret’s son with Clarke. I’ve seen Nicole Kidman play a mother who’s lost a child before in Rabbit-Hole, so that felt far from new, although she’s perfectly capable of playing a highly-strung woman who has had great trauma. And yet, she kind of got in the way of things, because I found myself wondering ‘And how old is Nicole Kidman these days?’ as we learned Clarke was celebrating his 50th. Is she playing her as a slight cougar?
While I could see that her mother-in-law’s judginess would be intolerable, Margaret wasn’t all that sympathetic. (Let Phillip draw a picture of his brother with Jesus, if he likes! It’s probably cathartic.) (Though, kiddo, your mother will tear that picture down from the fridge when she sees it.) ‘Bitchy’ seemed to be the favoured tone of all the other expat women gathered at Clarke’s birthday. Mercy had seemed to be dismissive of David/Dirk after the sex, but then her best friend seemed obnoxiously loud and insensitive. I suppose the kids are the most sympathetic characters.
There isn’t much that’s hooky – I guess we’ll find out more details about the accident, Mercy’s level of involvement and where David/Dirk’s lies come in, but I’m fine with the vague outlines. Mercy with her latest job and don’t-care bravado at drinks, alongside the mainly Hong Kongian servers, was a reminder that not everyone is as loaded as most of the main characters, even as we got to admire Margaret’s fancy dress. (Don’t know how much they’re going to delve into the dismantling of democracy in Hong Kong or if it’s going to be a background detail, like Mercy losing her job at the newspaper and what I took the protest she walked in the middle of to be about.)
Cardiac Arrest - 1.6 The Edge
Big things happened this episode, although I started nitpicking about a few of them post-ep. We saw Mr Monica, like, properly, in a brief little scene that indicated she’d hit her child (because of the drinking?) and her husband was sending them to her mother’s. From the 2020s, it’s notable that it never occurred to him to step up and be the primary caregiver especially after things had gone so wrong. Poor kids, especially given what happened next.
Raj was under pressure from covering for Monica (he got a neat lecture from some woman before he walked into ITU off the ward, which I enjoyed, because he and the anaesthatist had been odiously sexist) on top of his own work, so when the sister who would turn up on Teachers asked him to talk to Monica, he understandably enough said no. (He has tried a little in the past.) The sister would inncocently enough be the one to give the keys to that Monica could get the means to kill herself. Ouch.
Before that, Andrew and some nurses had watched Claire give a high enough dose that it would kill a very distressed patient (I didn’t understand what they were saying about her airway.) Andrew was, as ever, getting all the scut work going in the hospital, and was pretty much told that he couldn’t get (badly needed) leave if he wanted a recommendation to go on to work in A&E. He and Claire were involved in the care of an old man who was in huge pain, with the Geordie sister and the man’s wife badgering them as to whether they could do more.
Still, the same consultant (the older, Scottish one with the tash) did come off as human after Monica’s suicide, telling off Betancourt, who wasn’t coming off as human, like, AT ALL, and taking the time to talk to Raj. I did feel that this scene screamed ‘things Jed Mercurio might have liked to hear when he was a doctor’ rather than being entirely based on something that happened to him, for here was the senior doc acknowledging the unendurable pressure these very young, newly qualified doctors were under these days and how very different his experience had been. Raj would later admit to the sister that his first thought on hearing the news was ‘oh no, more work for me.’
Claire and Andrew briefly discussed all this, but, of course, they’d barely met Monica, which was a little shocking to us, as we'd followed them all so closely. Andrew was tempted into giving a drug directly that would have killed the patient (who’d asked him to help him die). Claire had set it up, though, told him he’d only injected water and pointed out the situation wasn’t the same as her mercy kill.
She was then called down to A&E to override a dithering bearded doctor, as they tried to resuscitate a little girl. She diagnosed something, but it was way too late. There was ambiguity as to whether if the other doc had diagnosed it from the off the child would be alive, but it was pretty clear Claire was the better doctor. But then, it turned out the dead child was the one Claire had met the other episode, and she volunteered to tell the mother, who she knew, and father. The mother was devastated. The ep and series ended with Claire and Andrew being called on to the next case, because their work is relentless.
But killing off the child that they’d introduced a few episodes ago to show Claire’s human side was a set-up too far (a la giving the slave-driving hospital manager a heart attack that a sleep deprived Andrew had to treat.)
In the middle of all this the nurse Andrew thought he was involved with was giving him the runaround, while the new male nurse she’d been sleeping with was annoyed with her for lying. Fair enough, thought I, but then nurse Luke went off-duty (in a very nineties jacket that gave me flashbacks) to meet his ‘friend’ only he was a kissing and flirting friend (and possibly the anaesthesiologist. I can’t be sure, because the filming wasn’t clear, but given the incestuous vibes, I suppose it was him and they’re going for man hides that he’s gay by being a cartoonish lad.) ANYWAY, where do you get off being snitty that the nurse you’re sleeping with is lying to Andrew if you’re lying to her, sunshine?