Combat Hospital

Are viewers ready for another 'doctor show'? Are they ready for a show that deals with a situation that dominates the nightly news? Regardless of recent activities abroad, it's obvious that the producers are only interested in recouping their investment.

While some may 'try' to compare the show to a past military themed comedy, the show smacks of a road map to 'China Beach'. It's hardly a comedy and it doesn't take a writing wizard to figure out that the most successful shows that have a theme that encompasses a particular military conflict are usually written and produced several years after the fact so as not to inflame relatively fresh wounds. Completely bad timing! But who can expect writers and producers to figure that out? I do – if they're Canadian. Only US producers make mistakes like this.

Anyone that's been to Afghanistan, (three years here), knows that the show is quite unrealistic in many respects. No need to go into details, because there are so many.

During the time this drama is set, I was deployed to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center as a member of the USAF medical corps. While a number of the depicted situations weren't perfectly accurate, they did portray the essence of combat medicine and captured many of the emotional dynamics as well.

I liked very much how the many conditions and dynamics of deployment were at least broached: insurgents, local terps, illicit recreational sex, lesbian (bisexual?)soldiers, military politics, reaching out to locals and some of the inherent trust issues that exist on both sides, and the heartbreaking violence requisite of life during wartime.

Not all kudos here, for the writing and character development could have been better, and had the tendency to lapse into stereotypical characterizations, i.e., arrogant surgeon (Dr. Hill), idealistic internist (Dr. Trang), over-achiever female surgeon (Dr. Gordon), and no-nonsense commander (Dr. Marks). Also a number of plot twists disappointed for their already-done expectedness in other media.

I appreciated this show and its complex elements; of course the medicine wasn't perfect nor were the uniforms/military protocol, but all in all, it was a rather insightful look into military medicine at its finest--saving lives under the incredible pressures of war. Additionally, I do make the note which must be bared in mind: Hollywood (or Toronto), rarely depicts occupations and their intricacies accurately simply for lack of dramatic effect. It is the provenance of the creative arts to take license with 'the truth.'

All said, I enjoyed this show and was able to comfortably relive some events from my own life, which was an engaging experience. For a fairly comprehensive look into combat hospital life, check out the 2008 documentary by Terry Sanders, "Fighting For Life" filmed at stateside and in-theater military hospitals.

Finally, in reading the varied reviews here, I find the disinterest/criticism of certain comments to be less about the content of the show and more reflective a commentary on the American (and Canadian)public's apathy toward these wars and its less than one percent of Americans engaged in them. I hope some entity will find the wherewithal to reincarnate this show and bring this much-needed perspective back on air in the future.

This show is reminiscent of *M*A*S*H insofar as the effect of being a hospital in an active war zone, but has very little of the comedy associated with it.

It's very hard to judge an entire show based on just a few episodes, but I liked both of them a lot, enough to look forward to the 3rd episode.

For those of you that might be intimately familiar with such surroundings, it might not seem worthwhile to watch this show, but for those of us that only know 2nd hand, it might help us to understand them better.

i found this to be a brilliant drama portraying life and drama around a combat hospital. it is nothing like m.a.s.h and how anyone can compare it to it is ridiculous . but i was very disappointed to hear that there wasn't a second series and personally feel this should be reconsidered. i found it helps to portray the stress and the life that our forces have to deal with every day and how their lives live on the edge every minute of every hour of every day yes it has some not so factual element's but don't most dramas at least this one has more elements of truth than most dramas. I'm proud of our men and women that are deployed over seas and i think that it was a great idea for this series to of been made just a shame there isn't going to be another series

I've tried a lot of new shows over the years, and have found one thing... as I re-watch early episodes of my favorite shows, rarely is a hit born overnight, and rarely would I have stuck with even my most favorite show (LOST) after the first few episodes alone.

There's a lot of ground work to be laid with Combat Hospital, but I like the casting,and am anxious to see some potential story lines evolve further. It has enough to engage me - I was looking forward to the second episode this week and sought it out deliberately.

Haven't said that about many shows this last year.

We'll see how it evolves but so far, it has my vote!