Getting On

Comedies without laugh tracks tend to be great or awful. The 8.3 rating suggests that this is one of the greats. However, it just didn't resonate with me. A bunch of hospital personal talking over one another about trivialities didn't bring a smile to my face, let alone a chuckle.

However, the really big issue for me was the camera-work. It reminded me of the person who just got their first camcorder. Instead of taking videos, they wave the camera round like a paint brush on steroids. The cameraman would change the perspective from top-town to a shot looking up between the bed rails at one of the characters.

CONFESSION: I gave up after 10 minutes of the first episode. It probably got better later one because I just can't father the great 8.3 rating.

This could have been a good series. The hospital setting has plenty of promise, the acting is good and the script and situations interesting - with plenty of chuckles.

But the camera work is awful to the point of being unwatchable. What is the point of all those motion-sickness inducing sweeps, all those abrupt changes of focus, all those blurry shots of nothing?

Director Peter Capaldi must take the blame. Why was his chosen shooting style given the nod? I hoped series 2 might be an improvement over the three episodes of series 1, but its opening episode was just as bad. Enough was enough.

Incidentally, when Capaldi appeared as a doctor in the first series the camera treated him more kindly. What vanity, what cinematographic incompetence!

The show is truly one of the funniest ever. The fact that it was written by the three leads makes it special. As with any show that is worth anything the situations it portrays are sad in their core but the show gives them a this is what it is point of view. Dr. Moore and Kim Wilde are just incredible and as you watch while the series unfolds you become immersed in their characters. I don't recall laughing as much as I have with this show. I've watched the first six episodes at least 10 times and I can't stop laughing each time. One more thing that needs mentioning is the way the show is filmed. It is documentary style and it is effective.

Is this a "comedy"? It's not really jokes. It's story of strong women working under impossible conditions and against impossible odds. Maybe is the human comedy.

Kim Wilde (Jo Brand) is the lowly nurse who does the work of cleaning up, taking care of endless tasks, and trying to stay sane with a breaking marriage and a job with very little hope. Sister Den Scanlan (her line manager) is the main onduty nurse who is trying to be decent to the people under her care but also navigating difficult personal situations, especially with her own line manager, Hilary Loftus (Ricky Grover). And Dr. Pippa Moore (Vicki Pepperdine) is trying to keep the ward and hospital running by grasping for grants and performing bewildering research projects in hope of getting funding.

The ward is for elderly women, some who are there for their last journey, and some who are there for palliative care in hopes they will be well enough to be transferred to a better long-term care facility.

It's humour found in bathos. Small victories, small failures, some bright moments and perhaps more sad moments.

I loved the show and binge-watched it. I had seen Jo Brand first on "Would I Lie to You," and then when I saw her listed as a cast member in "Damned," I binged watched that. But it was over in 2 seasons. So this series comes up, and I am finding that I love this person who plays these characters: world-weary, gruff, testy, but really there is a person who wants to be kind and wants to be respected.

I wish there were more to this series just as I wish there was more to "Damned." But at least neither of them wear out their welcome. They're cut short before they get stale.

British humour like this is so different from American humor. We have a need on this side of the pond for the happy ending, and there's a greater freedom in British productions to let failure end a story. Much more realistic, sure, and harder to watch, but I think it's more satisfying.

But there are far more good points than bad . I particularly liked Vicky Pepperdine in the role of Dr Pippa Moore and is the interaction between Jo Brand and Joanne Scanlan. One or two of the episodes fell a bit flat but certainly episodes one and three of the first series had me crying with laughter. Well worth a watch to make your own mind up