Getting On

Say what you like about "Getting On," it's not afraid to color outside the lines. Whether we end up liking the solid coal-black crayon smear that results is still up in the air, one of the reasons I hesitate to review any TV show barely a third of the way through Season 1.

There are no truly likable characters on this show. It doesn't make it that easy on us. Instead, it challenges us to find the humanity and the heart inside a team of geriatric care workers at a hospital that even sounds bottom-tier by its name. It's a behavior focused show: you can visibly see the hackles rising as the staff continually alternates between tip-toeing around and blatantly offending one another. Everyone has an agenda and none are very opaque.

It's been years since I worked in an office environment but this show makes me not miss it a bit. It's actually a bit too overwrought with angst, but then that's kind of taken into account when you learn that this particular ward is kind of like an Island of Misfit Toys --- virtually no one here is here by their own choice, except most notably Dawn (Alex Borstein, the voice of Family Guy's Lois Griffin without the RI accent), whose desperation is actually very touching. Most of us have met a Dawn or worked with one --- fanatical about her job because she has nothing else to focus on, reeling from personal disappointments, self-conscious to the point of cringe-inducement. Her self esteem is so low that, when confronted with a new male head nurse who is carting around some serious gay-repression baggage, she throws herself at him in the midst of being berated by him, hauls him to a bar, then goes down on him. As I said, this show isn't pandering to anyone. They don't seem to want your approval...they're almost seeking to repel it.

The always fine Laurie Metcalf plays an ambition-crazed medical director, whose self-opinion isn't any better than Dawn's, and Mel Rodriguez plays overbearing head nurse Patsy with enough fanatical PC self-righteousness to incite thousands of Ditto-heads to take assault weapons to their sets.

This leaves Niecy Nash as junior nurse Didi, for sympathy and pathos, though even her character can be amazingly dense and self-sabotaging. Nash plays her well, though, with an unaffected realism that may eventually make her the ace card in this series, if it can stay on the air long enough.

Personally, I don't want another Nurse Jackie. I don't want another St. Elsewhere or another E/R. All of those shows became very formulaic very quickly, after strong starts. They either ran out of ideas or just wanted to secure a long run by pandering to the lowest inoffensive denominator. Perhaps by going in the opposite direction, Getting On will keep us turning on. Time will tell.

I do know one thing though...my wife, who has worked in similar medical environments before couldn't stand the show. "It's too real," she told me. "I felt like I just got off a double shift at work in 30 minutes." So, health-care professionals, be forewarned.

I've just listened to an NPR Fresh Air interview with Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer, who were constantly referred to throughout as the "creators" of Getting On. They happily accepted this accolade and proceeded, with truly nauseating sincerity, to explain how the stories in the series were based on their experiences caring for their respective elderly mothers, which, we're given to understand, is why it's all so real, so poignant, so personal. Curious then that 95% of the US adaptation of Getting On is identical - and I'm talking line for line, if not quite word for word - to the UK original, created by the wonderful Jo Brand. The 5% that's different is where the US version blunts the humour, misses the point, or merely adds lame phoney-sounding sitcom punchlines to otherwise achingly funny-sad scenes. Maybe Olsen and Scheffer had identical experiences to Brand, and maybe they just forgot to write it down first. Or maybe they actually believe they've added something of value to Brand's work. Or maybe they're just ****s.

I'm watching this series again and i still don't understand why this series did not continue - so funny and all characters are played by choice actors. I'm hoping for a reboot. My favorite character is still June Squibb as the crazy bi-polar patient Varla.

I find myself identifying with the 'oldsters' in the show as much as anything. There are some genuine insights, both from the staff of the hospital dealing with the seniors and from the seniors themselves, looking out from the inside.

The show is well cast and the characters are becoming more developed as time passes; the seasons are short for this program and that limits the screen time the writers can devote to the characters, but even so they are becoming more real with each episode.

The writing is spare and deft. The jokes are subtle, rather than belabored; sometimes you have to think fast.

Dry and witty with the occasional belly laugh and some tender, wistful moments - I suppose it is a dark comedy, but semisweet rather than bitter. Give it a fair trial.

Intelligent , insightful , character-driven comedy. Reno 911 veteran Neicy Nash plays a down-to-earth nurse who just started a new job at an elderly skilled nursing wing of a hospital. Alex Borstein (MadTV's "Mrs Swan") is brilliant as her romantically and professionally insecure mentor. And then there's Lori Metcalf, sinking her teeth into a juicy comic role deserving of her talents. She plays a high strung doctor who feels slighted at having to spend part of her work week assigned to the ward. On the bright side, it does give her access to many feces samples, which she collects obsessively, to be used in her ground-breaking poop-categorizing research study. The script is brilliant, chock full of outrageously funny lines that slip by if you don't pay close attention, but also smartly slowing down for a few moments of genuine emotion (Nash is especially nifty in these.) The laughs come so fast and frequent that you're not quite sure how serious to take the dramatic passages. But that tension is handled deftly, both in the writing and the performances. I've only seen the first two episodes, and I am counting the minutes til episode 3. This is going to be a fun ride.