Getting On (2009–2012) User Reviews

A true gem, comedy genius

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 3 March 2016]

Without any doubt Getting on has been one of my favourite comedies of the last few years. What a creative trio in Joanna Scanlon, Vicki Pepperdine and Jo Brand. The three perform magically together, the laughs are side splitting and painfully funny, but its set against such a grim environment, the laughs are definitely tinged with sadness. I've said it several times, and will again, sadness and humour work so well hand in hand.

Many moments throughout this show had me crying laughing, Den and Kim's altering of Doctor Moore's speech (plop plops,) Doctor Moore's stool sample programme. Other moments produced tears of another kind, the demise of Mrs Fyvie, and the effects on her poor daughter Beedy.

Some frightening realism in this show, please ladies bring it back one day. This is by far the superior version. Its one of those shows I thought got better and better as it went on.

9/10

Like the curates egg

[a_mobbs · 8/10 · 31 January 2019]

But there are far more good points than bad . I particularly liked Vicky Pepperdine in the role of Dr Pippa Moore and is the interaction between Jo Brand and Joanne Scanlan. One or two of the episodes fell a bit flat but certainly episodes one and three of the first series had me crying with laughter. Well worth a watch to make your own mind up

Dark, poignant and satirical

[gee-15 · 7/10 · 12 October 2020]

This series about the gerontology wing of a hospital in the UK will not be to everyone's tastes but having worked at one point in my life in a nursing care facility as well as having seen my father-in-law work his way through four facilities after developing Alzheimer's, there is some definite reflection of reality here (ramped up by about 100 of course).One of the saddest (and darkly comic) episodes concerns a patient dying of cancer and her daughter's grief-stricken interactions with the staff who aren't completely unsympathetic but ultimately need the bed of the terminally-ill woman for another patient. It's one of the more uncomfortable episodes.

Interestingly, none of the three main characters (as well as the additional characters) are presented here as "incompetent", but simply wildly distracted by their private concerns and blind to their own weaknesses. Jo Brand as Kim seems to be the most grounded of the characters as well as the most compassionate (though she can be lazy and slapdash). Joanna Scanlon is very funny as the head nurse whose messy private life often spills over into her job. And Vikki Pepperdine is really, really good as the obtuse and officious Dr. Moore who is more concerned with her research than her patients. But even the unsympathetic Dr. Moore gets her moments of humanity in this series that never loses sight of the fact that ultimately these women (as silly as they may be at times) are people not caricatures.

A great bit of true to life comedy.

[jacko07 · 2 February 2011]

Set on a geriactric ward in a NHS hospital..Getting On is one of the best comedies of 2010. Jo Brand is a funny woman and turns out to be a great comic character actor. She is so convincing as the as the ward's dogsbody, the portrayal is as true to life as you will get and without being reminded Jo Brand was a former psychiatric nurse..this part must be written on her experiences. Joanna Scanlan and Ricky Grover are great and Vikki Pepperdine just brilliant. This first series is possibly the best and funniest scripts I have seen for a while. I am writing this on just seeing the first three episodes on DVD. I have just ordered the second series and hope it is as good as the first.

What I have seen so far 'Getting on' is as good as 'The Office'..I hope it gets even better. The BBC seem to be putting on a lot of good stuff of late. This certainly has cheered me and a few others up these dark winter nights.

depressing and unrealistic

[johnfb1986 · 3/10 · 16 March 2012]

A friend of mine saw Jo Brand in a nurses uniform at her hospital the other day so I suppose there is another series of this show coming: hence the belated review.

I've never got on with this program. The cold filters and joyless staff make it hard watching and the laughs just aren't there. My main beef however is that in contrary to what almost every review I've read has said, this is one of the most unrealistic portrayals of a hospital I've ever seen. Including Carry On Matron.

While Jo Brand has caught a flavour of the bureaucracy on NHS wards and the tendency to follow protocol over all else, Brand has utterly missed the feel of a ward. The scenes are empty and utterly, utterly quiet.

The main reason for this is that three quarter's of the staff are missing- where are all the other nurses? Where on earth are the junior doctors? No wonder things go wrong on this show, the only medical cover is an (admittedly fairly plausible) consultant and a gaggle of students.

Geriatric patients certainly don't lie mute in their beds. They are often pretty confused and you never quite know what is going to happen. On one memorable day someone pooed in Sister's office... There were no witnesses, so who was the culprit? An afternoon spent comparing the sample to patients' stool charts did not reveal the answer.

That's another point- where is the messing around? Green Wing captured it pretty well.

Perhaps the show is so grim that people assume it is accurate, which is frankly rather worrying. Cheer up viewers! everyday tragedy notwithstanding the average hospital ward is a far more pleasant and funnier place than this.

Unwatchable

[bootlebarth · 2/10 · 27 October 2018]

This could have been a good series. The hospital setting has plenty of promise, the acting is good and the script and situations interesting - with plenty of chuckles.

But the camera work is awful to the point of being unwatchable. What is the point of all those motion-sickness inducing sweeps, all those abrupt changes of focus, all those blurry shots of nothing?

Director Peter Capaldi must take the blame. Why was his chosen shooting style given the nod? I hoped series 2 might be an improvement over the three episodes of series 1, but its opening episode was just as bad. Enough was enough.

Incidentally, when Capaldi appeared as a doctor in the first series the camera treated him more kindly. What vanity, what cinematographic incompetence!

Impossisble to watch

[docterryc · 3/10 · 29 June 2019]

Comedies without laugh tracks tend to be great or awful. The 8.3 rating suggests that this is one of the greats. However, it just didn't resonate with me. A bunch of hospital personal talking over one another about trivialities didn't bring a smile to my face, let alone a chuckle.

However, the really big issue for me was the camera-work. It reminded me of the person who just got their first camcorder. Instead of taking videos, they wave the camera round like a paint brush on steroids. The cameraman would change the perspective from top-town to a shot looking up between the bed rails at one of the characters.

CONFESSION: I gave up after 10 minutes of the first episode. It probably got better later one because I just can't father the great 8.3 rating.

Disappointing

[matrix11001 · 4/10 · 13 July 2017]

This series stars Jo Brand (a former psychiatric nurse) working on an elderly care ward.

I used to work on a great number of hospital wards and have to say this series is so unrealistic and unprofessional I'm surprised most of the people there haven't been fired already. I find it hard to believe some people find this the funniest thing in 2010. Jo Brand does serve well as a general dogsbody and does have some humour to an extent. However it's hard to look past the incompetency of the staff, inappropriate language/relationships and general lack of training/knowledge that in most circumstances is very basic. The doctors are absolutely clueless, without humour and unlike any doctor I have come across. I find it hard to believe there is only 2 staff to look after so many dependant patients. Ward management is inappropriate, ineffective and wholly incompetent. Another series with a less serious tone could play this for a laugh, but nothing seems to hit any level of humour even though it's marketed as a comedy. The ward environment and type of patients is accurate. As a hospital ward it is not very believable. It comes across as very much so a poor man's Green Wing, which does what this series wants to accomplish but so much better and with more realistic scenarios and staff.

It was a pleasant surprise to see Peter Capaldi in the series - he seemed the most competent in the room whenever he was on screen.

There is very little humour to the series, just shows the incompetency rather than the terrific doctors and nurses the NHS really has who are trained to a high degree.

I am concerned there are no Health Care Assistants who would definitely be present on a ward of this type.

I's suggest avoiding this series and watching Green Wing which is far superior to this bland series.

This is not what wards are like - where are the cleaners, junior doctors and other consultant's team? All AWOL