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shallowness) wrote2024-06-01 08:43 pm
shallowness) wrote2024-06-01 08:43 pm
Entry tags:
Getaways
Cardiac Arrest 2.8 The Betrayed
Just a bit on the nose (and almost up characters’ noses given the love of close-ups, sometimes extreme ones), but it tied up this second season of the series decently.
James was having a hard time from the Evil Hospital Manager, but also because of the return of Raj the adolescent, asking him if he’d ever fancied him. A photographer getting a candid of the doctor with AIDS in a corridor felt a bit much, but it may be based on real events. James was called upon to help out with one of the sisters’ daughter, when the replacement anaesthetist was having problems, reminding us that James is good at his job. Dochery was bemoaning the waste to his secretary, who told Docherty to either stay and fight or quit and be quiet. He decided to do the first (although I think the case has been made for him to retire) on the condition that James got back to treating patients.
The Jag-owning surgeon learned that the boy was not his. (We learned that the sister had used another doctor to, er, doctor the results of the unethical blood test instead of going after the surgeon for assault, meaning he was her son’s biological father, but she’d decided it was better for all that he never knew. Canon was pretty clear that this was for the best.) He would drown some sorrows with Claire who was dithering over her future. She’d broken up with Scissors because he was too nice and ended up having TV sex (the bra stayed on) with the Jag-owner because that’s her damage.
Scissors, now on crutches, was back at work, perhaps too early, because the system didn’t care about doctors. But this would mainly be hammered home by Phil’s case. The Evil Manager and Turner were conspiring to try to get him to shoulder the blame at the inquest. Yates was having none of it, but Turner tried his smarmy charm on Phil, because he was ‘one of us’. You’d have thought Phil was posh enough to have a lawyer in his family.
But the inquest went on like a junior doctor’s nightmare. It came out that Phil had been working a 36 hour shift with no break, the system forced inexperienced doctors to mix up chemotherapy in conditions that were much worse than a pharmacist would have, while not letting pharmacists come and do it on call. Andrew gave his evidence (he had little to do all episode even though the title had suggested that there might be ramifications to his adultery), as did Yates, who tried to plead for Phil, but Phil had swallowed the line and promises Turner and the Evil Manager had given him. Unfortunately, the coroner, (apparently they did have lady coroners in the 90s) who had jumped the gun a little in her questioning, declared that it was an unlawful killing and she was passing the case on to the CPS. Phil looked sick. A chap introduced himself as the doctors’ solicitor as everyone digested this. Turner smarmed up to poor Phil, then the grieving widow unloaded on him. Poor kid.
Claire was distracted in a conversation about a cushy 9 to 5 position that wasn’t proper doctoring – it wasn’t quite a job interview as it was being held in a pub – by an obviously unwell man. By the time his heart attack had started, she was on it, claiming to a member of the public, ‘it’s all right, I’m a doctor, it’s my job.’ It’s worse than that, Claire, it’s your calling.
Yates came to tell the Evil Hospital Manager that they were having trouble filling a registrar’s post because word had got around that the hospital/system wouldn’t support its doctors. The Evil Hospital Manager replied that it wasn’t his concern. Foolishly, Yates thought he was being held accountable. Of course, he had been promoted and his assistant (a woman we’ve never seen) was taking the rap. (If we hadn’t already known the Hospital Manager was evil, the fact that he had quite a sleek mobile phone of his own would have cued us in.)
Back to the ward to close, with some nonsense about Raj lying to a patient to make a quick getaway from the family of the woman his mother had promised he’d marry (I think.) James was back as an anaesthetist, Andrew and the nurses were doing their best, but their patient was having complications. But! in swooped Claire, the new registrar. The final shot was a freeze frame of her grinning manically, back where she belonged after three or four episodes of being chilled and well-rested.
For the next series, could we please get another woman doctor or for the sisters/nurses/secretaries to make it onto the main credits? I’m not greedy enough to ask for some nuance, time for storylines to breathe and consistency of tone.
Just a bit on the nose (and almost up characters’ noses given the love of close-ups, sometimes extreme ones), but it tied up this second season of the series decently.
James was having a hard time from the Evil Hospital Manager, but also because of the return of Raj the adolescent, asking him if he’d ever fancied him. A photographer getting a candid of the doctor with AIDS in a corridor felt a bit much, but it may be based on real events. James was called upon to help out with one of the sisters’ daughter, when the replacement anaesthetist was having problems, reminding us that James is good at his job. Dochery was bemoaning the waste to his secretary, who told Docherty to either stay and fight or quit and be quiet. He decided to do the first (although I think the case has been made for him to retire) on the condition that James got back to treating patients.
The Jag-owning surgeon learned that the boy was not his. (We learned that the sister had used another doctor to, er, doctor the results of the unethical blood test instead of going after the surgeon for assault, meaning he was her son’s biological father, but she’d decided it was better for all that he never knew. Canon was pretty clear that this was for the best.) He would drown some sorrows with Claire who was dithering over her future. She’d broken up with Scissors because he was too nice and ended up having TV sex (the bra stayed on) with the Jag-owner because that’s her damage.
Scissors, now on crutches, was back at work, perhaps too early, because the system didn’t care about doctors. But this would mainly be hammered home by Phil’s case. The Evil Manager and Turner were conspiring to try to get him to shoulder the blame at the inquest. Yates was having none of it, but Turner tried his smarmy charm on Phil, because he was ‘one of us’. You’d have thought Phil was posh enough to have a lawyer in his family.
But the inquest went on like a junior doctor’s nightmare. It came out that Phil had been working a 36 hour shift with no break, the system forced inexperienced doctors to mix up chemotherapy in conditions that were much worse than a pharmacist would have, while not letting pharmacists come and do it on call. Andrew gave his evidence (he had little to do all episode even though the title had suggested that there might be ramifications to his adultery), as did Yates, who tried to plead for Phil, but Phil had swallowed the line and promises Turner and the Evil Manager had given him. Unfortunately, the coroner, (apparently they did have lady coroners in the 90s) who had jumped the gun a little in her questioning, declared that it was an unlawful killing and she was passing the case on to the CPS. Phil looked sick. A chap introduced himself as the doctors’ solicitor as everyone digested this. Turner smarmed up to poor Phil, then the grieving widow unloaded on him. Poor kid.
Claire was distracted in a conversation about a cushy 9 to 5 position that wasn’t proper doctoring – it wasn’t quite a job interview as it was being held in a pub – by an obviously unwell man. By the time his heart attack had started, she was on it, claiming to a member of the public, ‘it’s all right, I’m a doctor, it’s my job.’ It’s worse than that, Claire, it’s your calling.
Yates came to tell the Evil Hospital Manager that they were having trouble filling a registrar’s post because word had got around that the hospital/system wouldn’t support its doctors. The Evil Hospital Manager replied that it wasn’t his concern. Foolishly, Yates thought he was being held accountable. Of course, he had been promoted and his assistant (a woman we’ve never seen) was taking the rap. (If we hadn’t already known the Hospital Manager was evil, the fact that he had quite a sleek mobile phone of his own would have cued us in.)
Back to the ward to close, with some nonsense about Raj lying to a patient to make a quick getaway from the family of the woman his mother had promised he’d marry (I think.) James was back as an anaesthetist, Andrew and the nurses were doing their best, but their patient was having complications. But! in swooped Claire, the new registrar. The final shot was a freeze frame of her grinning manically, back where she belonged after three or four episodes of being chilled and well-rested.
For the next series, could we please get another woman doctor or for the sisters/nurses/secretaries to make it onto the main credits? I’m not greedy enough to ask for some nuance, time for storylines to breathe and consistency of tone.