In need of Adrenalin? (Casualty)

Member Name: Whitehorse

Product:	Casualty
Date:	05/11/00 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Long-running, sometimes excellent drama

Disadvantages: Sometimes a little flat

Yes I was there at the beginning when Charlie sauntered around in his leather jacket with his curly locks and a fag in hand. As a teenager I was obsessed with this hard hitting gritty drama that showed the true face of hospital life - and death!

One of Casualty's greatest assets is their willingness to explore complex life issues. Over the years there must have been hundreds of themes ranging from rape to aids, lonliness to care of the elderly. Racism and sexism in the workplace has also been tackled and the writers are certainly not shy of bringing in the conflict between floor and office staff in the NHS.

Main characters are believable, well scripted and cast. Characters Duffy and Charlie have become well-rounded due to their longevity in the series and sometimes as a viewer it feels like they are old friends. Mike Barrett (played by the wonderful Clive Mantle) is personal favourite of mine although he is now in Holby City.

However, even though I am a loyal viewer and have no intention of giving up on Casualty I have lately been finding it a little flat. The main character storylines are still fine but I have started getting a little irritated by the amount of obvious starting out actors in the programme. Sometimes I am not sure whether I am watching Grange Hill or Casualty!

On the one hand - to be fair to the programme makers - it is great that there is a platform for new young actors to break into the professional business. Some of these youngsters are very good.

However - some are not so good and it kind of puts my teeth on edge. I find myself echoing what my Dad very often says - why is it that so many young British actors can't act? I KNOW that sounds harsh and I don't want to put any young actors off but perhaps there are other platforms more suitable?

I know that there are an awful lot of up- and-coming actors who CAN act. I recently saw a young peoples stage production and it was fantastic.
Is there something about the training they receive at stage school that makes them so obvious sometimes? I don't know.

At the moment it feels as though the Casualty writers are running out of ideas or steam for even the main characters.

By comparison Holby city seems to concentrate much more on the main characters with fine actors to boot. It sometimes feels like Casualty has got a lower budget (or has to stretch it further?) but I don't know if that is really the case.

So that's my little gripe about Casualty. Come on the writers...lets inject a little bit of adrenaline into those storylines and add some of the polish that Holby City is receiving.

Summary: