We're really enjoyed the BBC series 'Bodies' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398427/).
'House' was an excellent platform for Hugh Laurie's wonderful acting skills, with a pleasant little medical mystery woven in, particularly in the early episodes. 'Bodies' seems much more like the real thing.
It's, naturally for a BBC series, got the standard political stance - elective caesarians are seen as sins against the Holy Ghost, though, to be fair, even there the episode makes the proponents of both sides of the (very simplistic) debate such unlovely characters that the BBC opinion isn't shoved too firmly down the throat. It is a little heavy-handed to have the pro-elective party also the hysterically litigious one, but, there you are, the laws of the BBC universe can only be bent so far.
What I like most is its examination of complicity, camaraderie and their insidious conversion into corruption. It looks as if the rest of the series will be examining corruption, and it's always an important matter - humans can never be rid of corruption, it can only be dealt with by constant vigilance.
I am, and always have been, a huge fan of the whistleblower - one of the few genuine heroes, in my opinion. This series makes it clear just how much honesty of this sort is hated and how difficult it is for even brave, principled and intelligent people to blow the whistle - even on corruption with extremely grave and wide-spread consequences.
I enjoyed the scene of the 'golden corridor' - the enclave of the administrators. It is interesting that the decision to wrest hospital administration from the dead cold hands of the Lancelot Spratts, of Richard Gordon's delightful fictions, was both the most obviously sensible, and the most clearly barmy decision one could imagine. Naturally the corruption simply passes from the medical to the administrative - without, of course, removing the opportunities for medical corruption so ably depicted here.
The acme of corruption is where the self-interests of both the medical and administrative staff coincide - I look forward to a good battle with, one hopes, humanity winning over the Kafkaesque Leviathan of the NHS.
The humour isn't quite up to the level of Jo Brand's 'Getting On', but it's getting on for being as good in places.
It's a dramatisation, and a good one, so you can't expect too much complexity, but the stark line between medical incompetence and administrative error is badly drawn. There seems to be no room left for the genuine and real possibility of misadventure through pure chance. The slimy, incompetent surgeon is seen to make a mockery of the judgement that 'nobody is to blame' - but, often, that simply is the case.
I look forward to the treat of watching the rest of the series!
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