It’s an indication of how engrossing Critical is that despite my squeamishness with regard to medical matters I’m finding it compulsive viewing.
In fact during this week’s episode I found myself delighted to focus on the exposed chest cavity of the patient – mainly because it allowed me to divert my attention away from the grim surgery being enacted at the same time on his lower half.
‘Bone Girl’ Dr Rebecca Osgood hasn’t made much of an impression over the past couple of weeks, but Episode 3 gives her a chance to shine as the action moves into the operating theatre and she finds herself faced with the task of removing both the patient’s legs in an effort to save his life. Emma Fryer conveys the understandable revulsion alongside a professional determination, with very little in the way of dialogue. Like much of this programme it’s very unshowy, which makes it all the more powerful and ‘real’.
At the other end of the patient Glen Boyle (Lennie James) manages to get the aortic clamp that he was so insistent on last week and in the process manages to generate some incredibly tense scenes of his own. The clamp is gradually released to the calm pronouncements of “Dropping… Holding” from Ramakrishna (Prasanna Puwanarajah) as he monitors the patient’s blood pressure. There’s even a standout shot of the clamp, still in place and ticking in time with the patient’s heart.
Alas long before the end of the episode the patient is pronounced dead and in a very moving moment we find Dr Boyle as fulsome in praising his staff (“I want to thank everyone”) as he has previously been in barracking them.
As ever the episode occurs in real time but on this occasion the latter half of that time takes us through the aftermath of a patient dying in theatre, both professionally with the procedural requirement to leave everything as is until it has been recorded; and personally, when alone in the locker room Boyle rages at his failure to save one.
The locker room scene also reveals that Boyle has the name ‘Fiona’ tattooed onto his arm, still clearly visible despite an attempt to strike it out. Having been responsible for Boyle arriving in the first place Fiona herself (Catherine Walker) seems determined to keep things strictly professional between them. Quite why, we don’t really yet know (“I didn’t return your messages for a reason,” she tells him. “You know exactly why.”).
There are plenty of secrets in the mix here, from the abrupt off-screen removal of Dr Rappaport in the first episode to this week’s suggestion that Boyle’s talk of his time at Camp Bastion may be fake. Hopefully the truth will emerge as the season progresses.
Aired at 9pm on Tuesday 10 March 2015 on Sky1.
> Order Season 1 on DVD on Amazon.
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