Tonight! 10pm! BBC4!

Woo!

Hope this series lasts more than 3 episodes.

Six.

A solid start, but not as funny as any of the first series episodes. That said, the "taking the piss" line was LOLy. And looking forward to the potential matron relationship this series.

Not sure about the opening sequence/song at all...

It gets a lot of the little things right, this show, but it does seem to be offering a vision of in-patient geriatric hospital care which pretty much ended in the 1990s. It seems to regret/not notice the passing of the demoralised and under-resourced NHS of the Callaghan/Thatcher era and tries to pretend that it still exists. Also, the cut-off age for Gerontology/Elderly Care (in most hospitals) thesedays is at least 75 (if not 80) and above - and is usually reserved those with multiple medical problems/co-morbidities. An abundance of progressive, irreversible chronic conditions is the main reason that Elderly Care wards can be such depressing places, not so much the resources or the attitude of staff.

There have been one or two comments in the newspapers that this show is brutally accurate. It's not. Nor, as they have also suggested, is it particularly timely due to the Budget Deficit Plan.

What it does get right is some of the characters, which are spot on; as it does the policy-heavy/politicised language and attitude of the post-New Labour NHS. Jo Brand and Ricky Grover especially give excellent performances. The doctor character is well-played and mostly recognisable, but the target somewhat misdirected I feel. Having worked for a time in COTE/Geriatrics, these Consultants are usually the more clued-up and compassionate of physicians. I agree with Chip that this first episode was not as funny as any of the first series. I just wonder whether or not it pretty much said all it had to say in those first three shows and doesn't really have anywhere to go now. It's a collection of snippets of somewhat recognisable observational humour, but the first episode didn't - rather like the patients - go anywhere. Maybe this is intentional, but I still think any sitcom (and I'd question if Getting On really is a sitcom) always needs a serviceable plot to drive it.

Do you think if you weren't a doctor you might just enjoy it?

(Like me.)

Quote: zooo @ October 30 2010, 12:24 PM BST

Do you think if you weren't a doctor you might just enjoy it?

View original

I don't think that's much to do with it. The only reason I make some of the above points is really in response to the papers going on about how realistic it is, that's all. Of course, there's no reason it should have to be realistic, but the programme makers seem to be quite happy to go along with the journalistic consensus that it's like some kind of NHS cinema vérité. It really isn't. The style/attitude of the show would be a bit more believable if it were set in an NHS-run nursing home, but even then...

And I'm not someone who needs their comedy to always be gag-heavy or laugh-out-loud, but I found very little in the writing in this episode that was funny in any way. Moving beds between wards constantly (which, by the way, doesn't really happen much anymore) can only be amusing for so long. Much is made of the writing, which was pretty good in the first series. However, it's relatively easy to write realistic dialogue when you don't really have to convey a joke or a dramatic point. Much more difficult when you are.

Sorry.

I found aspects of the bureaucracy and processes absolutely spot on, especially for the hospital I sued.

Uh-oh...

The other point I'd make about Getting On is that it views illness and death in old age through a filter, saying that it must be pure bleakness, daily boredom and suffering. The patients in the show are rarely, if ever, given a chance to speak for themselves. It adopts a stereotypical "youthful" view of old age and death, projecting the fears and values of younger generations onto old people. Plenty (the majority actually) of elderly patients go into hospital for whatever treatment, get compassionately treated, then leave again. That story doesn't fit the agenda of the show, but it happens all the time and this should at least be acknowledged by creators and reviewers. Yes, chronic illness and death in old age may be banal in one sense, but this show decides that an elderly person's final days on the planet are undignified and worthless. Not so.

There is something ever-so-slightly ageist about this show which I don't like very much.

It's certainly a bleak and nihilistic portrait of old age. A sort of anti-Last of the Summer Wine. The patients seem little more than ciphers, just there to stare into space, mess themselves or die.

I did get to see two episodes from the 1st series. I worked in a nursing home and it had two sections, one for terminal patients and one for more active folks. We had more work to do in the section for healthier patients. We had to keep them out of bed with each other. Lots of STDs I'm afraid. We actually had to give the safe sex condom talk to them. That was awkward.

We had to go as far as trying to figure out who the swinger of the group was.

"Now Gertie, who do you think gave you the Clap?"

Now that would be a good way to punch up Getting On!!!

Whether or not it's that 'realistic', I think it must be a more accurate portrayal than we have seen before? Green Wing, TLC, Doctors and Nurses - even Holby City - are far from accurate based on what I've seen of the inside of hospitals.