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shallownessCardiac Arrest - 2.2 The Cold Heart
This show has settled into what it wants to be this series, which is mainly about doctors. By now we can split them into two, the good ones: Andrew, Claire, Mr Docherty, Mr Yates (not Welsh, but northern), possibly Scissors (he didn’t have much to do) and James the Anaesthetist (but I think you need a hazmat suit to do this.) The ones we’re not rooting for: Mr Turner, the new surgery consultant who isn’t Betancourt and the posh baby doctor.
The one I haven’t mentioned is Raj, who is definitely put-upon (and remains a sexist perv, see how he behaved around the young woman with a sprained wrist. She should have asked for a woman doctor, although good luck with that, as Claire is the only one, like Raj is the only doctor of colour these days.) But, after being racially abused by one of the many, many patients he was having to see, he messed up twice. He messes up every episode. No wonder the nurses treat him like a joke. It wasn’t so much the lady with the headache that was something far more serious as reading the X-ray the wrong way round. And yeah, he’s overworked, but in a sink-or-swim world, he seems to deserve being called a ‘no-hoper’, even if Docherty was being jokey.
Also a sexist perv? James. (Ha! His name has finally sunk in.) For part of the episode he’d decided to read a bodice ripper to Claire, emphasis on the bits when the bodice got ripped. Ideally, his file would be full of sexual harassment citations these days.
Claire was focusing on one patient this episode (unlike all the other doctors), a kid with hypothermia. Also she was waving about a Diet Coke can like she was in an ad (considering this is and always was a BBC show.) She fought down all the nurses, bossed James into staying, had the support of her senior doctors and STARED DOWN the new hospital manager, insisting they kept on and on treating the kid beyond what the nurses thought was reasonable. Eventually, she got vindicated. It was one of the nurses who had tried to talk her into giving up who got the kudos, so her victory was a little spoiled.
Oh, and towards the start of the episode, she and Scissors saw each other in the corridor. (I remember that they become a couple.) Instead of thinking ‘Why is this prat on rollerblades?’ she had an ‘Ooh, wasn’t he dreamy as Shane from Neighbours?’ look on her face, while he had a ‘Ooh, look at her a few years before she appears on Friends?’ look on his.
More substantially, Andrew was properly beleaguered, told off for spending too much time talking to patients (although he’s the doctor who manages to build the most genuine relationship with them), undermined because he’s not posh enough, and for the same reason (and penny pinching) was told he’s going to cover a speciality he's not been trained in. Oh, and his missus was giving him grief for not being committed enough to church activities…because he was at work.
His ex, the nurse, was hoping her boyfriend was going to propose in an exchange that felt more like season 1, but it’s season 2, so there was much more time with the consultants, with a key meeting where the hospital manager was evil, and the nice consultants tried to fight the good fight. Docherty is definitely flirting with his secretary and either pretending to or actually losing his marbles. Fewer ragged edges, but some broad brush strokes.
Expats 1.3 was kind of hypnotising, because not a lot happens for a lot of it (especially when the classical music kicks up on the soundtrack,) it just gets you into various characters’ heads. We learned a few more things. There were a couple of very disturbing examples of parenting (Margaret and Mercy’s mother) and guilting Hilary for not being a mother. It felt as though they skipped a scene regarding Gus’s case at the start of the episode, but then it seemed as though there might have been a breakthrough towards the end.
This show has settled into what it wants to be this series, which is mainly about doctors. By now we can split them into two, the good ones: Andrew, Claire, Mr Docherty, Mr Yates (not Welsh, but northern), possibly Scissors (he didn’t have much to do) and James the Anaesthetist (but I think you need a hazmat suit to do this.) The ones we’re not rooting for: Mr Turner, the new surgery consultant who isn’t Betancourt and the posh baby doctor.
The one I haven’t mentioned is Raj, who is definitely put-upon (and remains a sexist perv, see how he behaved around the young woman with a sprained wrist. She should have asked for a woman doctor, although good luck with that, as Claire is the only one, like Raj is the only doctor of colour these days.) But, after being racially abused by one of the many, many patients he was having to see, he messed up twice. He messes up every episode. No wonder the nurses treat him like a joke. It wasn’t so much the lady with the headache that was something far more serious as reading the X-ray the wrong way round. And yeah, he’s overworked, but in a sink-or-swim world, he seems to deserve being called a ‘no-hoper’, even if Docherty was being jokey.
Also a sexist perv? James. (Ha! His name has finally sunk in.) For part of the episode he’d decided to read a bodice ripper to Claire, emphasis on the bits when the bodice got ripped. Ideally, his file would be full of sexual harassment citations these days.
Claire was focusing on one patient this episode (unlike all the other doctors), a kid with hypothermia. Also she was waving about a Diet Coke can like she was in an ad (considering this is and always was a BBC show.) She fought down all the nurses, bossed James into staying, had the support of her senior doctors and STARED DOWN the new hospital manager, insisting they kept on and on treating the kid beyond what the nurses thought was reasonable. Eventually, she got vindicated. It was one of the nurses who had tried to talk her into giving up who got the kudos, so her victory was a little spoiled.
Oh, and towards the start of the episode, she and Scissors saw each other in the corridor. (I remember that they become a couple.) Instead of thinking ‘Why is this prat on rollerblades?’ she had an ‘Ooh, wasn’t he dreamy as Shane from Neighbours?’ look on her face, while he had a ‘Ooh, look at her a few years before she appears on Friends?’ look on his.
More substantially, Andrew was properly beleaguered, told off for spending too much time talking to patients (although he’s the doctor who manages to build the most genuine relationship with them), undermined because he’s not posh enough, and for the same reason (and penny pinching) was told he’s going to cover a speciality he's not been trained in. Oh, and his missus was giving him grief for not being committed enough to church activities…because he was at work.
His ex, the nurse, was hoping her boyfriend was going to propose in an exchange that felt more like season 1, but it’s season 2, so there was much more time with the consultants, with a key meeting where the hospital manager was evil, and the nice consultants tried to fight the good fight. Docherty is definitely flirting with his secretary and either pretending to or actually losing his marbles. Fewer ragged edges, but some broad brush strokes.
Expats 1.3 was kind of hypnotising, because not a lot happens for a lot of it (especially when the classical music kicks up on the soundtrack,) it just gets you into various characters’ heads. We learned a few more things. There were a couple of very disturbing examples of parenting (Margaret and Mercy’s mother) and guilting Hilary for not being a mother. It felt as though they skipped a scene regarding Gus’s case at the start of the episode, but then it seemed as though there might have been a breakthrough towards the end.
