Getting On

I rarely contribute reviews. I felt compelled to add to the (mere!) 11 reviews posted.

This show is such a gem. It is genuinely funny, the cast is spot-on stellar, and it has a a heartfelt center (without being sentimental). Niecy Nash is a stand-out. She steels many of her scenes. I only know Alex Borstein from MadTV and family guy; she surprises here with really great acting chops. Her dead-pan delivery takes the humor up a level. Laurie Metcald is a hoot as the neurotic doctor. Her characterization is eerily cemented in reality (unfortunately).

I can't recommend this enough. I hope it gets a strong following and continues for a few more seasons.

I never heard of the show and decided to give it a try. Hideously hilarious . I was not expecting to literally laugh out loud -Given such a pasty and drab setting. Alex, Niecy, and Laurie have a great chemistry. Omg and the patients lmao. The connections amongst these characters transition from ep to ep.

Looking forward to season 4

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.

Just when I thought that HBO was beyond help, they finally get one right by largely leaving things alone. Having watched and thoroughly enjoyed many episodes of the British original with the wonderful Jo Brand ( one of the series creators and executive producers )in the lead role, I was very impressed by how much HBO has captured the spirit and quirkiness of this series. I think HBO has wisely kept the starkness of what the patient experience is, and perhaps given the show more room to fly by making it a teeny bit more gritty in terms of language and mature content. At first I was a little baffled by the American casting, but at only four episodes in they've done a great job of setting the stage without yet exhausting the overwhelming idiotic bureaucracy the staff alternately endure and wield like a weapon. So I'll give the show time to grow and capture the flip side - the patient interaction and the audience's need to connect with and root for the one mostly sane staffer.

All around, excellent. The writing and the amazing Laurie Metcalf, Alex Borstein, Mel Rodriguez and Niecy Nash combine their talents to make this this dark, often hilarious HBO comedy succeed. It takes place in a dysfunctional seniors ward at a big city hospital. The supporting cast is also great (look for Ann Guilbert and June Squibb as two of the many beleaguered patients). Molly Shannon and Jean Smart also make funny cameos.

I'm not sure why this series, which was adapted from an English program, only ran three seasons. Too bad. We wanted more.