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The Best...medical drama |
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After 12 years of watching ER, I still have no idea what a "C-spine, chem 7, CBC, chest film and blood gas" is, but it sure as hell makes me feel like I'm eavesdropping on the way things work in a city-centre American A&E.
No other medical show has taken such a risk with its audience as ER. Despite the soap opera ethics, scenes of wholesale slaughter and moral dilemmas, its intense medical realism means that only a small percentage of the audience is likely to understand exactly what's going on. So what makes it so highly addictive?
Certainly, it doesn't skimp on the action. We've had an outbreak of smallpox, a "lockdown" quarantine and a shootout by armed criminals. All in the one hospital. And that's not counting Dr Luca Kovac being able to sleep with every female staff member, plus veteran nurse Haleh's amazing nine-stone weight loss between seasons.
It's also gone through more cast changes than Blue Peter, with each new doctor bringing their personal crises into the arena of medical chaos. In fact, the only thing missing these days is a boo-hiss villain you pray will get electrocuted by their own defibrillator paddles, at least now that Kerry Weaver has gone all soft and "Rocket" Romano's been flattened by a falling helicopter.
But it's the level of sophistication on ER that makes it stand out from the crowd. Take the BBC's Casualty for instance: a drama still reliant on acting that comes straight out of a Crimewatch reconstruction, nurse manager Charlie Fairhead's middle-distance staring, a lot of extended sighing to end scenes and moments on the ward where staff members really lose it in front of all their colleagues.
To show just how little things have changed since 1986, the opening episode of the latest series of Casualty (Saturday 24 September) even had one of those formulaic and uninspired large-scale calamities (in this case a bus crash) that should have been signposted with "beware - big, yet unambitious, set piece" flashing on-screen.
Whatever the accident - a lorry exploding, a nuclear waste spillage - it always has the dramatic resonance of a Public Information film and the pace of an elderly lady on her way to the shops. Someone slap a DNR notice on it, please.
In ER, there's no time for long sighs and staring. Not with all the long steadicam shots, breakneck editing and sub-plot upon sub-plot that feature in almost every episode. Yet characters are still given space to evolve, sometimes over the course of years.
Take Dr Carter's growth from naive med student to overseas aid worker, or Dr Greene's post-traumatic stress following his assault. These things have unfolded with care and attention, but also blended effortlessly with the split-second decision-making in the workplace.
Hectic, relentless, intense and authentic, ER is indispensable TV. It raised the bar where medical drama is concerned and still leaves the rest looking in need of a shot in the arm.
David Brown
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