One of the details that really stood out to me here is the impact of having swiftly-resolved stories sit alongside unresolved ones. The fussing baby is a great example of this: that could have easily turned into a long-term mystery, but it's just a hair wrapped around a toe. Nair it off, easy! Even some stories with meaningful twists basically resolve in an episode: the festival worker crushed by the speakers arrives, the intern messes up, and he's fine again by the time the episode ends.
But because other cases ARE carrying over, we're always on alert for something to be more than that. And so it feels especially conspicuous when you get stories like the medical abortion where we're left on a literal cliffhanger about what the ultrasound showed, and why the vibes are so off. Maybe it's nothing, but the show seems to be strongly suggesting otherwise. (And so great to see Fortson again).
I definitely like the weekly release. This show is intense and often sad. I can only take that in small doses. I guess I will be the person who defends the COVID flashbacks. When the topic of the pandemic comes up in my life, I notice most people downplay it. It wasn’t a big deal, the worst thing that happened was school closures, and so on. Even doctors will downplay it. These are not the doctors who dealt with COVID but specialists who maybe were affected by the economics of shutdowns. And then there are the doctors who actually went through it. Primary physicians and ER doctors and the ICU. They’re the witnesses and you really don’t hear from them these days. So if a TV show has to remind viewers that this bad thing happened and that it mentally affected first line medical personnel, well, I can’t be mad at that.
I could have done without the bug in the ear patient! I really want Doctor Asshole put in her place. I was touched by the Mister Rogers story. It turned a dying patient into a person you could admire.
I like that the show doesn’t feel frenetic even though there is so much happening in an hour. My 90s memory of ER was chaos and everyone running around.
Given the way the hours have been going by quite fast I think that if this series had dropped the whole season I would have binged the whole thing in a weekend and been satisfied. Still, I think there's enough detail to make digging in week-to-week worth it. The single-shift structure means we get to do things like piecing together's Dr. McKay's history bit by bit - 42 year old resident, ankle monitor, (and new this week) going to AA meetings - where on a regular show it probably would all just be explained in a show outside the hospital.
Really enjoying the show so far and definitely appreciate these reaction posts. I gotta say though, I'm not sure I feel about it as a tv show. I feel like I read some stuff when this show was announced about how the people behind it were in some way bringing an episodic, network sensibility to things, and we're doing 15 episodes and everything, but while there are some stories that conclude in each hour like the dementia patient passing away at the end of this one, and there is the cliffhanger of the patient out in the waiting room, I'm not sure I really feel like there's much episodic about this show. Critics complain often about people using phrases like 10 hour movie, but there are ways this does feel like a 15 hour movie we're just arbitrarily pressing the pause button on. And it's a good "movie" and I like the formal gimmick of making it a real time thing, but I definitely think this would play much better as a binge.
One of the details that really stood out to me here is the impact of having swiftly-resolved stories sit alongside unresolved ones. The fussing baby is a great example of this: that could have easily turned into a long-term mystery, but it's just a hair wrapped around a toe. Nair it off, easy! Even some stories with meaningful twists basically resolve in an episode: the festival worker crushed by the speakers arrives, the intern messes up, and he's fine again by the time the episode ends.
But because other cases ARE carrying over, we're always on alert for something to be more than that. And so it feels especially conspicuous when you get stories like the medical abortion where we're left on a literal cliffhanger about what the ultrasound showed, and why the vibes are so off. Maybe it's nothing, but the show seems to be strongly suggesting otherwise. (And so great to see Fortson again).
I definitely like the weekly release. This show is intense and often sad. I can only take that in small doses. I guess I will be the person who defends the COVID flashbacks. When the topic of the pandemic comes up in my life, I notice most people downplay it. It wasn’t a big deal, the worst thing that happened was school closures, and so on. Even doctors will downplay it. These are not the doctors who dealt with COVID but specialists who maybe were affected by the economics of shutdowns. And then there are the doctors who actually went through it. Primary physicians and ER doctors and the ICU. They’re the witnesses and you really don’t hear from them these days. So if a TV show has to remind viewers that this bad thing happened and that it mentally affected first line medical personnel, well, I can’t be mad at that.
I could have done without the bug in the ear patient! I really want Doctor Asshole put in her place. I was touched by the Mister Rogers story. It turned a dying patient into a person you could admire.
I like that the show doesn’t feel frenetic even though there is so much happening in an hour. My 90s memory of ER was chaos and everyone running around.
More Pitt content! Thanks Emma (and Myles)!
Given the way the hours have been going by quite fast I think that if this series had dropped the whole season I would have binged the whole thing in a weekend and been satisfied. Still, I think there's enough detail to make digging in week-to-week worth it. The single-shift structure means we get to do things like piecing together's Dr. McKay's history bit by bit - 42 year old resident, ankle monitor, (and new this week) going to AA meetings - where on a regular show it probably would all just be explained in a show outside the hospital.
Really enjoying the show so far and definitely appreciate these reaction posts. I gotta say though, I'm not sure I feel about it as a tv show. I feel like I read some stuff when this show was announced about how the people behind it were in some way bringing an episodic, network sensibility to things, and we're doing 15 episodes and everything, but while there are some stories that conclude in each hour like the dementia patient passing away at the end of this one, and there is the cliffhanger of the patient out in the waiting room, I'm not sure I really feel like there's much episodic about this show. Critics complain often about people using phrases like 10 hour movie, but there are ways this does feel like a 15 hour movie we're just arbitrarily pressing the pause button on. And it's a good "movie" and I like the formal gimmick of making it a real time thing, but I definitely think this would play much better as a binge.