Sky1’s Critical is an ultra-realistic real-time medical drama from Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio. Lennie James (Line of Duty) leads the ensemble cast as locum trauma consultant Glen Boyle, alongside Catherine Walker (Strike Back) as trauma registrar Fiona Lomas, Claire Skinner (Outnumbered) as trauma consultant Lorraine Rappaport and Kimberley Nixon (Fresh Meat) as junior … >
If we were talking about an episode of Casualty then a lot of screen time (and budget) would have gone in showing us the major accident which has caused so many injuries. That kind of big-screen action isn’t Critical’s bag – instead it happens ‘off-stage’ and our focus is on the pressure it puts on … >
Two old friends are back in this week’s Critical, dropping straight into the drama without ceremony. The first is Sister Campbell, last seen being escorted off the premises a couple of weeks ago. Nothing is mentioned but we have to assume that in the wake of Clive’s dismissal, her removal has been overturned. The other … >
As if to compensate for last week’s comparatively bloodless outing this week’s episode of Critical has it everywhere – spouting into the air, pooling on the floor, spraying all over the staff… Everywhere except staying inside the patient, who spends a good three quarters of an hour bleeding out – which is the sort of … >
There is a slight sense of ‘same old, same old’ and ‘what else have you got?’ to this week’s episode of Sky1’s new medical drama. A non-responsive, hypothermic teenager is a serious case but it does feel like a bit of a come down after recent weeks. Or maybe I’m just becoming as hard-hearted as … >
Upping the ante this week, the Critical team’s patient is one of their own. The patient is burned so severely as to be unrecognisable, but even before Fiona has asked “Has anybody seen Lorraine today?” the audience is ahead of her. A member of staff, rescued from the female locker rooms – who else was … >
Having said last week that the patients in Critical are never conscious, Episode 7 proves me wrong with a patient who is not just awake, but alive and kicking. As well as ripping out her cannula during the initial examination, she also kicks Justin (John MacMillan) right in his ‘emergency department’. Poor Justin, last week … >
Six episodes in to Critical, and we’re getting used to the format of Sky’s new medical drama. A patient arrives, probably with breathing difficulties; there’s a period of jargon-led assessment; via a detour to the CT department we move to theatre; and ultimately the patient will be opened up, at which point cue graphic detail … >
In a nice change of pace to the usual problem of insufficient resources and staff, this week the Critical trauma team has quite the opposite problem when they find themselves with too many doctors. More specifically, Lorraine Rapparport (the marvellous Claire Skinner) is back after her sudden disappearing act in the first episode. It turns … >
“It’s working, you’re making the team a unit,” says Fiona to Glen at the end of this week’s Critical. It’s probably as reckless a statement as saying, “See you back in Blighty” during a War film, and almost certainly next week the team will be disbanded, or will be fiercely at loggerheads with each other, … >