The hospital drama when you don't want a hospital drama (Holby City)

Member Name: cabletow

Product:	Holby City
Date:	30/01/02 (229 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: another hospital drama

Disadvantages: that misses the mark

Take a long draught, It is cold, it is fizzy yet somehow there is a disappointment. You can't put your finger on it. It bugs you. You know it is a lager but somehow it isn't. You want a lager but you don't want another one of these. That is right, it is Kaliber. The lager that isn't. You know how disappointing it is, like sex with a condom. It is like WWF wrestling or a Mike Tyson Lennox Lewis news conference. It is not all that it seems.

Holby City is a hospital drama. It is set in a hospital. It has actors that play doctors and nurses. It has actors that are patients and have diseases. It is a spin off of Casualty, but it is somehow disappointing.

I have worked many years, more than I care to remember, in hospitals. I have seen many patients and worked with many doctors and nurses. Unlike Casualty, Holby city just seems to miss the reality mark. I cannot say why exactly. Maybe it is the mispronunciation of the names of things, maybe it is the wrong emphasis placed on the timbre of conversations or maybe the staff are just too good looking. The meat of the series has been lost in place of the style. This means the wards are just too organised. The chaos is too orchestrated and the acting is just too wooden. Holby city is the nicotine replacement of hospital dramas; it misses the mark when you are expecting a long deep drag of a Marlboro red.

Not that it has always been like this. Holby city introduced us to the arrogant surgeon in Anton Mayer. It introduced us to the caring and intelligent by somehow dippy Paediatrician in Helen Clarke. Both very realistic and well-researched characters. But the nursing staff has become a little vacuous and pretty. The emphasis of their day seems to revolve around getting in between the sheets, or resolving the two or three patient's woes completely. The wards are too clean and there are no trolleys or bed blockers. Somehow the latest series is missing the mark of the true grit that
makes up a modern hospital. It has competition in Casualty, A&E and ER as great hospital dramas. It falls sadly behind these. ER is realistic; it deals with the grime and dirt that goes on in a A&E department. A&E has believable staff and deals with the true relationships that go on, namely those of career needs rather than those of passion. Casualty just is Casualty. It has been with us forever and is now an institution, the soap of hospital dramas, so it will always have a place in our viewing hearts.

I know that many dramas do lose their essence and raison d'etre in second and subsequent series. Many don't ever seem to recapture their flavour. This, I believe, is true of Holby city. I must say that I am not the only one who thinks this as it is losing the rating wars and I am sure the BBC will cancel its run at the end of this series. Maybe we have got too sophisticated for it now, maybe the competition is too great. I will not mourn its passing. Like Kaliber you can get too much of it. It does leave an after taste that reminds you it is not the real thing, and the hangover you can get from it is wicked. Stick to Casualty and Lets hope the BBC will come up with a new drama that keeps its true flavour and kick.

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