Five Days at Memorial

You might binge watch this, but the story is very intense and you really need a break after an episode. I watched the first two together and the others separately. My comments are only on these first four. The acting is excellent. The Direction is excellent. The story is heartbreaking. Local authority is unprepared and non existent. The lack of local, state and federal assistance is criminal. A hard lesson that hopefully improved every hospital emergency plan as well as individual, family, corporate, local, state and federal emergency plans dealing with any disaster. You feel drained after watching each of the first four episodes.

I didn't fully comprehend the human suffering or issues at hand back in 2005, in part to being in my early 20s and also slightly jaded from being in the military-where we always help and leaving people is unfathomable. Watching this show, well... I've had to watch in bite size pieces. It literally nauseates me and gives me such anxiety.

The despair. The decisions being made. The decisions being made because of the despair. It was a no win situation. I can't imagine having to decide between my life, another's life, whether leaving them behind is the answer, or helping them go quicker to ease pain and suffering. It really puts the Hippocratic oath to test-first do no harm, right? Very subjective. If the harm is that the patient will be left behind to die, then helping to end that suffering is the right choice, right? But they could survive, we don't know if more help will come tomorrow once we evacuate, right? Is there a right? Is there a wrong? The only wrong during the aftermath of Katrina, was doing nothing. And we saw a whole lot of that, as we see here in this docuseries.

I can't imagine. I just can't.

The loss of the pets; first, I don't comprehend how there were pets in a hospital in the first place. All I know? If it came to leaving my best friend (4 legs) to fend for herself, putting her down, or staying with her to surely die myself... I know which I'd chose-the one I could live with, no matter how short that would make my own life.

I'm so sorry to those who lost loved ones, who had to witness such despair, or make such gut wrenching decisions. Perseverance isn't for the faint of heart.

This show, sucks.

I'm from New Orleans, was born in that hospital, when it was Baptist. My grandfather died there and I know a guy who worked there. The film was perfect, in terms of acting, everything. I did find one probable flaw that made me give it a 9/10. Emmett Everette had oxygen tubes to his nostrils the whole time. Those are usually hooked to an electrical device that pumps in supplemental oxygen. But there was no electricity. Could have been bottled oxygen, but the supply room was under water. And nobody keeps those tubes in tf he or she isn't getting oxygen. A small flaw, so I'd say 9.9/10. One last thing: That "Butch" character, if real, should be made to live on the LA coastline with no evacuation allowed. Then he might learn how hurricanes can mess with your mind.

This really is mind blowing...at same time it is exactly what I'd expect it to be.

Even tho I knew what to expect it was still a very hard watch, and I've done so over a month.

(I went in cold, no searching internet or reading reviews)

I remember Katrina, the stories coming out about NO, the dome, the utter 'What the serious *#:@ is happening here?'...I'm very surprised it took THIS long to make something like this- so very looong over due!!!

I know it's dramatized but at same time...it's not. This is just a 10% slice of that horror, just one story. I think it did an excellent job of trying to convey the desolation of that whole horrific BLIGHT (thank you bush 😠) in US history. It seems to sum up the rawness of dealing with Katrina. I thought there was enough real footage shown in conjunction to Memorial.

It's sad that it ever came to these decisions but if one thinks about all the violence that happened in NO post Katrina, I give the doctors/nurses kudos for helping ANY patient be rescued, AND give a peaceful end of life!

If you watch this and you are too young to remb or not a us citizen, then use this as a kind of guide of one of the worst disasters to be fall US- and I mean from EVERY perspective!

Dark and brilliant docudrama, or is it dramadocu, that takes a good hard look at how humans fare in crisis, showing the best of us and the worst, but most importantly showing our prismatic human reaction to inevitable death. There is no editorializing here, which makes it so profound. Depending on your moral ground you'll pick your own heroes and villains, and wonder what you might have done.

I like the fact that they keep out of politics and moralizing and let the audience makes it's own decisions.

The acting is superb, the dialog is real, the Direction doesn't flinch, and a for sure Emmy winner.