Hospital drama delivers realism
PICK OF THE WEEK This is Going to Hurt TVNZ+ or TVNZ 1 on Sundays
It’s basically the least heartwarming and sentimental episode of One Born Every Minute you’ve ever seen.
Based on Adam Kay’s eyeopeningly candid and grimly funny memoir about his experiences as a junior doctor working in Britain’s National Health Service, This is Going to Hurt shows what the obs-gyn ward is really like behind the scenes, and just how unglamorous the life of a junior doctor can get.
Unlike the doctors in ER or Grey’s Anatomy , for example, Adam (Ben Whishaw) doesn’t have time for a quick extramarital shag in the supply closet after he’s done saving someone’s life. A lot of the time doesn’t even have time to shag his own boyfriend. Some days he sleeps in his car, in the hospital car park, and still manages to show up 10 minutes late for his shift.
It’s chaos before he even sets foot in the door — a woman’s gone into labour in an alley down the side of the hospital. In a scene that would seem far-fetched if it weren’t for the fact this is based on a memoir and presumably this or something like it did actually happen, the baby’s arm is hanging out. Medically this is not ideal.
The hospital’s like a mall the week before Christmas, so — again, presumably this or something like it did actually happen — he bungles her into a service lift to help expedite the emergency C-section. “It’ll be fine,” he reassures her. “I might be fine,” he tells the camera. (The doctors on ER or Grey’s Anatomy don’t break the fourth wall, either.)
This little life-or-death moment is just a starter. It’d be lucky to crack the top-three most harrowing or stressful experiences of Adam’s day. “Welcome,” he again turns to address the audience, “to the NHS.”
WORTH WATCHING The Summer I Turned Pretty
Prime Video
Young adult author Jenny Han is all about the trilogy. Her To All the Boys trilogy has already been adapted into a successful trio of Netflix movies, and now Prime Video is turning her The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy into a TV series. Where Boys was a classic letter-writing romance, this one’s a classic summer vacation romance, involving a family friend’s beach house and a love triangle between a girl who’s reportedly just turned pretty, and a pair of brothers who we can only assume have just become major teen heartthrobs. Which one will she kiss? And will her best friend ever forgive her? Don’t act like you don’t love it.
Pistol Disney+
Want to feel old? The little boy from Love Actually is now old enough to play Malcolm Mclaren in a Disney+’s TV series about the Sex Pistols. This punk period piece was adapted from guitarist Steve Jones’ autobiography by
Australian screenwriter Craig Pearce (Strictly Ballroom) and directed by Trainspotting director Danny Boyle, who’s managed to inject it with plenty of energy and get some strong performances out of his cast, but still runs into the usual groaning rock biopic cliches. What did Johnny Rotten think of it all? “The most disrespectful s**t I’ve ever had to endure.”
The Baby Neon
What’s far scarier than any gremlin, goblin or ghoul? A gorgeous baby, that’s what. British comedy horror series The Baby follows the nightmare plight of a proudly childless 38-year-old woman ( The Duchess’ Michelle de Swarte), who finds herself unexpectedly and mysteriously saddled with a rosy-cheeked child one day. She does what any good citizen would do and tries to get it back to its rightful owner, but it soon becomes apparent this isn’t just any infant — it is, unfortunately, some kind of demon. A very unique but ultimately better-thanexpected mix of comedy and horror ensues.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK Hustle
Netflix
There are Adam Sandler movies the fans like and there are Adam Sandler movies the critics like. The only time the two groups ever seem to agree on Adam Sandler movies is when they’re really, really bad. That’s just how it’s always been, at least until Hustle came along. Now everybody loves the Sandman’s latest movie, about a grizzled NBA scout who spots a once-in-a-lifetime talent playing in steel-toed boots on the streets of Spain and risks his career to get him to the NBA. A happy medium between Happy Gilmore and Uncut Gems , it’s an instant classic sports movie.
FROM THE VAULT Broadchurch (2013) TVNZ+, from Thursday
Almost 10 years on it’s still hard to go past the first season of Broadchurch as a perfect example of the grim crimedrama genre. Tennant and Colman — what a pairing — investigating the death of an 11-year-old boy while a cocktail of grief, suspicion and media attention does an absolute number on his family and their close-knit coastal community. Three seasons, eight episodes each, all of them ticking every box you want a crime drama to tick — remember this next time you need a good depressing series to watch. — Calum Henderson