Two build-ups to a season finale
May. 16th, 2024 07:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessMr & Mrs Smith - 1.07 Infidelity
Not sure I got all of this, but I think I got the gist. An unwell Jane turned up at a woman’s (was that Michaela Coel? Yes, it was, fitting in perfectly well, and her character’s name was Bev) apartment for what seemed like social reasons, but I assumed was a job. Turned out it was when Jane pulled a gun on her, although it seemed like she was mainly driven by jealousy because John was cheating on her with Bev and wanted the details. He’d certainly told Bev a lot. He turned up and Jane ordered her not to give her away, though Bev was clearly discomfited.
Lots of reversals ensued, Bev wasn’t just a mark and would be tough to kill, even though both the Smiths were on it now. A chase through New York followed, with John now bleeding, having very nearly been strangulated, Jane coughing, working together but fighting about the emotional infidelity and their issues. They both lived up to all the problems that had been revealed in the therapy session that made up the bulk of the previously: Jane being terrible at relationships, but John being slipshod, although the tracker gave him some cover. And then Bev had found the tracker, disposed of it mockingly and gone on her way, so that was another fail.
The interesting thing was that HiHi had told them two different things to get them to Bev’s place at the start of the episode (both true.) Despite how John wanted to take care of Jane by making the soup and playing the loving husband in front of his mother who was FINALLY onscreen, he said he was leaving her. So, we had a coda where Jane got a delivery. I wondered if it was a bomb, but it was a new laptop sent to replace the one she’d smashed in temper after John’s announcement. She looked around their apartment suspiciously. Yeah, I think the company’s been spying on you too.
Cardiac Arrest - 2.07 Running on Vapours
This episode was full of far too bitty little scenes and although they made a big deal of Christmas coming up, the way time jumped ahead left me breathless. One second James was being diagnosed with Aids (just getting referred on, with hardly any emotional support because as a trained doctor he should know the answers to most of the questions and it was more about occupational health. I was disappointed in Yates!) The next scene, everyone knew because the local rag’s headline was ‘Aids Doctor at Death Hospital.’
James was obviously to be sympathised with by the audience as there were whispers, led by the male nurse who’d been a bigot to the HIV positive patient in the prvious ep. Raj turned out to be a stand-up friend to him, though. (That would be the same Raj who drunkenly shouted at sick children that Santa was dead and then had to play an unconvincing and grumpy Santa as penance.) Apparently he’d seen through James’s Straight Persona all the while.
There were several times when I was struck by how times have changed. I was actually most shocked and horrified by the arrogant surgeon who wouldn’t take his ex the sister’s word that he wasn’t her son’s father. (Admittedly, she could have said this in a way that was slightly less likely to wind him up.) And then he went and drew the kid’s blood without her knowledge or content and urged him to keep it a secret. (Great father figure you’d be in his life, mate. Great.) Of course, he failed to keep it a secret. I hope the boy turns out not to be his biological son.
Scissors/Claire was totally undeveloped. He had a few awkward moments being a patient at the hospital where he worked, and she turned up a couple of times, appearing all happy and relaxed because she wasn’t being a doctor anymore. They never discussed the row that they’d had or that he’d got into an accident because he was in a state. Weird.
Of course, with Scissors AND Claire out of commission, the hospital, Phil and Andrew were under pressure. And because there’d be compensation to pay to the family of the haemophiliac man who’d died because of Evil Manager’s choices, he and his cronies were rethinking Docherty’s retirement.
But the man himself rebuffed them, pointing out that he was likely to live longer the sooner he retired, so he’d stick to retiring, thanks. (My eyebrows rose up at his being 60 and what his life expectancy was supposed to be in the 90s.) We were teased as to how bad his memory loss was, with a nod to him remembering the important stuff, but overall my judgement was that it was time for him to leave. Evil Hospital Manager basically didn’t seem to be learning the right lessons, trying to suggest James take leave. James was sticking to the rules and stood him down.
Meanwhile Caroline was in tears because she’d caught her boyfriend with another woman, and even more willing to hang out with Andrew. His wife was refusing to go out with friends at Christmas, which was when he was having to face the return of Alf whose cancer had spread, and who was still lying to his daughter who was lying back to him. There was some stuff about their feeling Christianity had let them down, though it seemed to me like a rum kind of Christianity. Andrew looked pained. Anyway, Alf died at Christmas, and Andrew, who had taken care of him, had to deal with the daughter’s grief, and ask the nurses to hurry with removing the dead body because they needed the bed for another patient. So, when Caroline knocked at his door, Andrew let her in for long-delayed sex, safe in the knowledge that his wife wasn’t likely to walk in on them in the doctor’s accommodation.
When Turner asked young and baby-faced posh Phil how things were going, he amusingly got to hear all about the extra work on top of the too much work he’d been doing. Turner passed on a ticket for Wembley, blethered about patronage in his plummy voice and literally gave a wink as he said he was on a committee for the job Phil wanted. I rather cynically wondered whether Phil would even get the night off to go to Wembley. Obviously, we were shown that Yates’s patronage is better as he and his wife brought food for Andrew and Phil over Christmas. The Scroogelike Evil Hospital Manager had refused catering for the staff over Christmas. In contrast, when a desperate Phil called Turner for advice, he let him down.
Phil was desperate about having to do up a chemotherapy mix that he was clearly unqualified to do because the emergency pharmacist wouldn’t come, Phil, the least experienced doctor!
As he injected the patient while chatting to his daughter and wife, it was pretty clear what would happen next. Cue a bad reaction, cue a resuscitation attempt with Phil in and out of it emotionally, and an hour later, Andrew being forced to call it, and say there had to be an inquest, although everyone knew Phil had mixed it up wrongly and why. Emotionally, there were echoes of Claire’s situation from a few episodes ago, even if this was less dramatic and blood-drenched.
Andrew and even more baby-faced Phil got to have some complexity, while nearly everyone else was two-dimensional. They might as well have given various characters white hats and black hats respectively.
Not sure I got all of this, but I think I got the gist. An unwell Jane turned up at a woman’s (was that Michaela Coel? Yes, it was, fitting in perfectly well, and her character’s name was Bev) apartment for what seemed like social reasons, but I assumed was a job. Turned out it was when Jane pulled a gun on her, although it seemed like she was mainly driven by jealousy because John was cheating on her with Bev and wanted the details. He’d certainly told Bev a lot. He turned up and Jane ordered her not to give her away, though Bev was clearly discomfited.
Lots of reversals ensued, Bev wasn’t just a mark and would be tough to kill, even though both the Smiths were on it now. A chase through New York followed, with John now bleeding, having very nearly been strangulated, Jane coughing, working together but fighting about the emotional infidelity and their issues. They both lived up to all the problems that had been revealed in the therapy session that made up the bulk of the previously: Jane being terrible at relationships, but John being slipshod, although the tracker gave him some cover. And then Bev had found the tracker, disposed of it mockingly and gone on her way, so that was another fail.
The interesting thing was that HiHi had told them two different things to get them to Bev’s place at the start of the episode (both true.) Despite how John wanted to take care of Jane by making the soup and playing the loving husband in front of his mother who was FINALLY onscreen, he said he was leaving her. So, we had a coda where Jane got a delivery. I wondered if it was a bomb, but it was a new laptop sent to replace the one she’d smashed in temper after John’s announcement. She looked around their apartment suspiciously. Yeah, I think the company’s been spying on you too.
Cardiac Arrest - 2.07 Running on Vapours
This episode was full of far too bitty little scenes and although they made a big deal of Christmas coming up, the way time jumped ahead left me breathless. One second James was being diagnosed with Aids (just getting referred on, with hardly any emotional support because as a trained doctor he should know the answers to most of the questions and it was more about occupational health. I was disappointed in Yates!) The next scene, everyone knew because the local rag’s headline was ‘Aids Doctor at Death Hospital.’
James was obviously to be sympathised with by the audience as there were whispers, led by the male nurse who’d been a bigot to the HIV positive patient in the prvious ep. Raj turned out to be a stand-up friend to him, though. (That would be the same Raj who drunkenly shouted at sick children that Santa was dead and then had to play an unconvincing and grumpy Santa as penance.) Apparently he’d seen through James’s Straight Persona all the while.
There were several times when I was struck by how times have changed. I was actually most shocked and horrified by the arrogant surgeon who wouldn’t take his ex the sister’s word that he wasn’t her son’s father. (Admittedly, she could have said this in a way that was slightly less likely to wind him up.) And then he went and drew the kid’s blood without her knowledge or content and urged him to keep it a secret. (Great father figure you’d be in his life, mate. Great.) Of course, he failed to keep it a secret. I hope the boy turns out not to be his biological son.
Scissors/Claire was totally undeveloped. He had a few awkward moments being a patient at the hospital where he worked, and she turned up a couple of times, appearing all happy and relaxed because she wasn’t being a doctor anymore. They never discussed the row that they’d had or that he’d got into an accident because he was in a state. Weird.
Of course, with Scissors AND Claire out of commission, the hospital, Phil and Andrew were under pressure. And because there’d be compensation to pay to the family of the haemophiliac man who’d died because of Evil Manager’s choices, he and his cronies were rethinking Docherty’s retirement.
But the man himself rebuffed them, pointing out that he was likely to live longer the sooner he retired, so he’d stick to retiring, thanks. (My eyebrows rose up at his being 60 and what his life expectancy was supposed to be in the 90s.) We were teased as to how bad his memory loss was, with a nod to him remembering the important stuff, but overall my judgement was that it was time for him to leave. Evil Hospital Manager basically didn’t seem to be learning the right lessons, trying to suggest James take leave. James was sticking to the rules and stood him down.
Meanwhile Caroline was in tears because she’d caught her boyfriend with another woman, and even more willing to hang out with Andrew. His wife was refusing to go out with friends at Christmas, which was when he was having to face the return of Alf whose cancer had spread, and who was still lying to his daughter who was lying back to him. There was some stuff about their feeling Christianity had let them down, though it seemed to me like a rum kind of Christianity. Andrew looked pained. Anyway, Alf died at Christmas, and Andrew, who had taken care of him, had to deal with the daughter’s grief, and ask the nurses to hurry with removing the dead body because they needed the bed for another patient. So, when Caroline knocked at his door, Andrew let her in for long-delayed sex, safe in the knowledge that his wife wasn’t likely to walk in on them in the doctor’s accommodation.
When Turner asked young and baby-faced posh Phil how things were going, he amusingly got to hear all about the extra work on top of the too much work he’d been doing. Turner passed on a ticket for Wembley, blethered about patronage in his plummy voice and literally gave a wink as he said he was on a committee for the job Phil wanted. I rather cynically wondered whether Phil would even get the night off to go to Wembley. Obviously, we were shown that Yates’s patronage is better as he and his wife brought food for Andrew and Phil over Christmas. The Scroogelike Evil Hospital Manager had refused catering for the staff over Christmas. In contrast, when a desperate Phil called Turner for advice, he let him down.
Phil was desperate about having to do up a chemotherapy mix that he was clearly unqualified to do because the emergency pharmacist wouldn’t come, Phil, the least experienced doctor!
As he injected the patient while chatting to his daughter and wife, it was pretty clear what would happen next. Cue a bad reaction, cue a resuscitation attempt with Phil in and out of it emotionally, and an hour later, Andrew being forced to call it, and say there had to be an inquest, although everyone knew Phil had mixed it up wrongly and why. Emotionally, there were echoes of Claire’s situation from a few episodes ago, even if this was less dramatic and blood-drenched.
Andrew and even more baby-faced Phil got to have some complexity, while nearly everyone else was two-dimensional. They might as well have given various characters white hats and black hats respectively.
