The Clinic

An Irish series that originally ran from 2003 to 2009, this is a solid drama elevated by outstanding performances by the two leads, Dominic Mafham and Aisling O'Sullivan. Gary Lydon should also be called out for his portrayal of sad sack resident counselor, Patrick.

The Clinic is the Clarence Street Clinic in Dublin, a multi-disciplinary medical practice, with everything from physiotherapy to homeopathy. Owner general practitioners Cathy and Ed Costello struggle to keep the practice and their marriage afloat. Plots focus on patients and clinic employees in a semi-serialized manner.

O'Sullivan is Cathy, the co-founder and driving force behind the business. She must deal with the conflicts between being a good doctor, a successful business owner, and a good wife. Will something have to give? Meanwhile, her husband Ed would rather just focus on the good doctoring. It doesn't help that Cathy's domineering father, who disdains Ed, owns one-third of the clinic.

Into their lives comes Mafham as Dan Woodhouse, the character you love to hate who never met a consonant he couldn't overpronounce. Dan is an English plastic surgeon taking up an office in the clinic. While his tummy tucks and Botox injections are good for the bottom line, the rest of the staff tend to dismiss his work as frivolous and not real doctoring. His arrogant nature doesn't help.

Most of the characters are likable and evolve over the course of the entire series. As with any long-running show, some characters disappear or are written off, which can be jarring. The plots are mostly ones we've seen before, including many romantic liaisons, but are usually executed well enough to keep your interest. The show is also an interesting look into the Celtic Tiger years in Ireland, prior to the 2008 recession (the last series broadcast in 2009 reflects on this).

I found this show extremely addictive; most series end with a major cliffhanger. Luckily, as of this writing, all seven series are available in the US via AcornTV's streaming service (www.acorn.tv), so you can go immediately from the cliffhangers to the next episode.

An eight for the show's addictive nature, and for the performances of Mafham, O'Sullivan, and Lydon.

The writing got worse, the episode stories more absurd. It was fun but the false medical information and ludicrous situations made the show more like American TV series like Dallas.

What most of the world lives about British TV is how real it is. No need for mass shootings/car chases/endless showing of T&A, drug lords, etc. (England/Scotland/Ireland/Wales/Aussie).

What I discovered is that beginning in Season 4, the two creators stopped writing and each episode was written by someone different. That explains why the show began to feel so different, so really disjointed. The creators were idiots to let go.

But to finish a series as a cliff hanger? I will now check to make sure that I avoid the people who wrote/produced Clinic. Cannot defend themselves. They eventually ruined their show by trying to copy American bs and doing a terrible job...thus the ratings declined.

I guess I didn't realize I would be watching what is and has been described as an Irish soap opera when I first clicked on the title on Acorn.com. Besides being addictive, it is totally nauseating and guilt producing. I could watch (NOT ENJOY) five series, where one character after another first gives hope that they can be normal and likable, only to fall by the wayside and become villainous or unredeemable. Perhaps in later series, there are some who do not fit that description, but that seems to be the case early on.

I began to skip past any segment with Dan, and then those with Clodagh, and then the awful character of Liam's son, Ian. Then it just became intolerable, and as much as I wanted and waited for the writers to do in Dan and that pipsqueak Ian -- and to get rid of Clodagh and even Cara, I could not take one more minute!

When I first read in a local Irish paper that we were to get an Irish Medical drama my thoughts instantly went to those terrible medical dramas that were in the form of aussie soap operas. However I was pleasantly surprised by the high entertainment in it. Up until then the Irish networks had tried their best to give us some high quality entertainment but kept on falling sort of their target.

The first night I sat down with a couple of beers and began to watch it I was curious as to who the cast were. I looked up the Internet Movie Database Base that night and discovered that I had seen most of them before in terrible shows but this was their best effort. The standard of acting throughout was of a very high quality. Each actor slipped into their roles very comfortably indeed and this was the making of it really.

From the first show to the last one each actor/character developed individually each having a crisis in most episodes but it was a recurring theme in each episode that was the development of the character/overall story you see. But to be totally honest with you the script was pretty weak. The script had all the usual medical drama's going on in it and their was nothing new but it was that the acting and the emotions displayed on screen to us that made the show worthwhile.

It has taken the Irish network bosses nearly 50 years to provide us with a great drama and they have finally succeeded in doing so. It will be interesting to see if there is a series two and where it will take us.

This isn't for everybody. Too many viewers (drowning in American slick slop) will need a cheaper fix. But for those who understand how a quality soap is made, it is close to heaven.

The acting is universally good, even great at times. The direction shows competence even when the script occasionally slows. But the scriptwriters do a superb job: never preaching, always entertaining.

Ireland thank you. It's not Wilde, but it's not supposed to be. And I have fallen in love with almost every character - beautiful, sad and wicked - just because they are so believable.

I have never before watched a medical soap which practically makes you feel like a voyeur in a real life clinic. Of course, reality would be unwatchable. The Clinic is sometimes mesmerising.