I FIND MEDICAL SHOWS HARDER TO WATCH THAN HORROR MOVIES
Do you like scary movies? Well, yes, I do. I have no problem with the likes of Scream, Us and The Strangers. (Although I did once patrol the house with a knife after getting back from a screening of The Ring. I was alone; it was dark, OK!?) But what really makes me squeamish is all those medical shows clogging up certain TV channels. When you know the blood and gore you’re seeing on screen isn’t actually raspberry jam it can be quite unsettling.
The stakes are also obviously much higher in a medical observational series than in the latest Nightmare on Elm Street reboot. Real people’s lives are on the line and not just those of some horny high school jock and his bimbo girlfriend. It’s impossible to feel detached when you are watching actual tragedy, like in longrunning series 24 Hours in Emergency (which returns for a 12th season on Sun., May 26 at 9.30; Lifestyle). No, not every case that finds its way into the London A&E department ends badly, but even those stories with a happy ending put you through the wringer first.
But it goes deeper than that. For me, it taps into my discomfort with thinking about mortality. It’s one thing to watch characters fight off monsters – human or otherwise – in a horror movie, knowing the vast majority
won’t make it the closing credits. It’s another to ponder actual death. Medical series have an uncanny skill of hammering that point home, whether they’re fly-on-the-wall hospital shows – Channel Nine has just started production on Emergency – or something you’d think would be less confronting, like Dr Michael Mosley’s Reset (starts Tue., May 21 at 10.05pm; SBS).
In the latter, the good doctor talks to a panel comprising experts and lay people about issues such as obesity, the subject of the first episode. Even Reset’s fairly harmless format had me thinking about all the things I could – and should – be doing to lose weight and lead a healthier life so I didn’t run the risk of heart disease, diabetes and, well, death. You don’t get that kind of wake-up call in The Conjuring franchise, unless you make it a habit to play with creepy-looking dolls.
Also starting this week on SBS is Medicine or Myth? (starts Mon., May 20 at 8.30pm), which is like a medical version of Shark Tank. Each episode, a panel of experts hear pitches from everyday Australians about their unique home remedies in the hope of finding one that can be analysed further in trials. Again, you’d think this would be less confronting than an average episode of Ambulance Australia, but I was ready to bail as soon as I heard – and saw! – the first pitch: using earwax to cure cold sores. Gross.
But my least favourite medical show has to be GPs: Behind Closed Doors, firstly because it takes factual TV to a depressing low. What next? Inside the Post Office: watch as people complain about the cost of stamps these days. But also because hearing about other people’s minor ailments on GPs is a new type of horror. •