At the start of Critical’s first episode, an air ambulance helicopter comes in to land on the rooftop helipad of a building called General Hospital.
However, any suggestion that this familiar name brings with it the comfortable ‘doctor/nurse romance’ territory of the afternoon soap is promptly expelled as the anonymous patient-of-the-week projectile vomits a spray of blood (twice) in the time it takes to wheel him from the lift into the trauma centre.
With Doctors, Holby City and Casualty all airing year-round, it would be hard to claim that our TV screens are crying out for yet another medical drama, but this is the latest brainchild of Bodies creator Jed Mercurio, whose most recent success has been BBC Two’s Line of Duty. With that pedigree Critical at least promises to give us a fresh take on an old genre.
The previews have made much of its realism and of its real-time element, promoting the show as a mix of ER, CSI and 24, but the comparisons are a little misleading.
More than misleading in fact. The only moments that really fall flat in this debut episode are those distinctly CSI-style moments, absurd blown-up views of flesh being torn and of the camera tracking a breathing tube down inside the patient. It may be realism in one sense, but it’s an unnatural and showy presentation that takes us out of the drama.
A far better playing of the realism card is the opening section of the programme, where an ever-expanding group of characters does nothing but spout medical jargon. It could easily have sent the casual viewer flicking to another channel and yet oddly it works, perhaps by deliberately challenging the viewer to try and keep up.
After this initial barrage of terminology, the drama builds via a resuscitation or three, culminating in a real ‘edge of the seat’ scene where the newbie trauma nurse seals a hole in the patient’s heart with her finger while her boss sews it up. It’s gripping stuff, although I will admit that during some of the more graphic and bloodier views, such as the patient’s chest being crowbarred open to expose his heart, I developed a sudden fascination for the sitting room wall just to the left of my TV.
It would be a bit harsh to say there are too many characters, but there certainly are a lot for a one-hour pilot to introduce. By the end of the season no doubt they will all have had their moments, but at present some have made considerably more of an impression than others.
It’s far too early to expect viewers to remember half their names, but so far I feel we’ve warmed to newbie nurse with the magic finger, are unsure about wide-eyed Welsh lady, and have definitely taken against the pale, thin-lipped Scots matron.
As for the rest, bone girl and Twix lady have yet to make their mark and OCD CT guy (“nobody touch any buttons”) at least provided a little light relief that was much appreciated amidst all the blood. We might well have liked trauma team leader ‘Mum from Outnumbered’, but she appears to have been sacked during the ad break.
But it’s early days. Next week we get yet another character with the arrival proper of Lennie James (prominent in the launch trailer, all but absent in this episode) who is presumably coming in to take over the trauma team.
The indications are that he has had some kind of relationship with one of the current team. So who knows, maybe we will get a bit of ‘doctor/nurse’ drama after all.
Aired at 9pm on Tuesday 24 February 2015 on Sky1.
> Order Season 1 on DVD on Amazon.
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