Critical Online

I can appreciate some skepticism from reviewers when watching this drama. Mette Fredsted Gram's review however seems altogether unfairly harsh and so i put forward my review. I have never written a review but here we go...

Firstly, compared to other a&e dramas such as Casualty, Critical is the most accurate when it comes to procedures and interventions. I have seen some of these completed on real people and i must praise the writers for taking the time to get this right.

Critical is a drama based in a 'major trauma center' where an hour long episode (including adverts) centers around the golden hour of trauma treatment for one patient. As each episode takes this format, writers use staff conversations to tell the story of each staff member.

I do wish hospitals would have the funds to spend making each A&E department look like the amazing suite in which Critical is based. This is the most unrealistic part of the drama!!

In the real world trauma jobs such as the ones featured in this series are thankfully not everyday occurrences. This means that when these jobs do arise, nerves will be apparent and perhaps the writers wanted to use this human emotion to let us care about the characters. We must acknowledge that Critical is primarily a drama designed to entertain and so these tensions are exaggerated to keep the audience in suspense.

Actors and Actresses of the drama portray the team spirit of a medical team well. The use humor to deal with stressful situations but the true emotion of the character is clear.

All in all i think Critical is worth a watch and worth the 10 stars awarded not the 1 that one reviewer has stated. I cant wait for the next episode.

critical is a gripping drama with a brilliant background story -I feel like I've gone through a trauma at the end of every episode never have I seen a program that has me on the edge of my seat like this! It's set in a 24 style with each episode being in real time 60 minutes.

Great acting, great story, brilliantly done -

Def a 10 out of 10 and cant wait to watch the next series

If you're looking for a exciting medical drama then look no further!

Sally B

Bristol

UK

There are many medical TV shows out there but when I saw this advertised it looked different. Ever since I started watching I've been on the edge of my seat, and eagerly anticipating the next episode!! I can't rate Critical enough! In my opinion the acting of all the actors is amazing and the choreography and fluency of the characters is funny and enjoyable. The medical jargon and realism seem pretty outstanding (mainly because I don't get half of it)! But arguably most of all, the quality of the plot and the quality of the makeup for the surgery/injuries just takes my breath away!

I'm so hoping for a second season and one just isn't enough! Both me and my sister love sitting down and watching it together! And you should try it too!!

This is by far the best television show ever since "The Wire", the best show ever on the screen. Lennie James makes the show..His acting in this show should win him many awards along with the rest of the people. Show 8 was simply amazing, amazing acting, just so emotional.I watched it three times. I wish they would sell this show in the US. I get my copies of the show from over seas but you guys real need to put this show on in the US, you would make a mint. Don't't know why it isn't... could be on HBO or another channel. I watch these several times. There is not more to say then if you could give a higher score then 10 I would.

This show has just begun airing in Australia and I can say, without a doubt that I am hooked! To watch outstanding acting using realistic medical language, in real time and having realistic human emotions and reactions is truly refreshing. So many other medical shows feature the alpha male (or female) arrogantly performing difficult or first time procedures and reviving patient with only badly performed CPR and shouting "c'mon goddamit!

As for the review posted by Mette Fredsted Gram, I would love to know how long she has been an emergency trauma Doctor? How lucky she is to be able to perform life and career threatening procedures that she has never done before without feeling remotely nervous!

Congratulations to Jed Mercurio on writing yet another outstanding television show, I just wish there was going to be a second season.

The show LOOKS great and is for the most part compelling, and well acted. I have loved Lennie James in his other work, but in this I find him a touch over the top. He seems to be saying his lines in a very DRAMATIC way , whereas the character of Glenn repeatedly tells us this is his speciality (critical injuries). Most of the other cast maintain a calm dignified and professional tone in the presence of some immensely bloody trauma, and the obligatory internal hemorrhage. It would open the show out a little if we saw how the patients had suffered these accidents, and the paramedics work, etc. Don't watch while you're having your dinner, by the way.

Cannot believe yet another great series that's cancelled WHY!!!??? Lennie James shows what a versatile actor he is and extremely talented, this is a great realistic series about a trauma team who have the what they call the golden hour on the clock to stabilise the patient, as well as lots of realistic trauma scenes there is also a back story of a lost love and hospital politics. Such a great show and yes I've said it twice but I'm dropping the realistic bomb again , as an sfx artist I can appreciate the talent and work that went into the scenes . Highly recommend this

I came here after seeing Line of Duty (which I rate 10/10) from the same creator. I knew it was a medical show and having seen House and others, I knew what I was getting into.

The problem with this show is the same problem with many medical shows. They're procedurals. Every week you get a new patient who is treated and released by the end of the episode. It's a formulaic format, even if they come up with new and original injuries every week.

Because the patients are disposable characters and story lines, the show needs continuity, so it finds it in office romances, gossip and office politics. This creates a reversed situation from serials. Serials have a main story arc that runs throughout the season and the little gossip, romances and love interests are the side dish.

For example, you tune in to Line of Duty (same creator: Mercurio and same star, Lennie James) and you're curious as to what the next step is for the Gates investigation. You're curious about the professional work, not the gossip.

Here it's the opposite. Since you can't tell who the next patient is, you're only left with gossip and office romances that have continuity. There is some office politics and bureaucratic power plays, but they're so minor that no one could care.

There's not enough gossip to keep it interesting for people that like Grey's Anatomy and there's not enough continuity for everyone else to tune in. I myself don't care for the office romances and politics, and since patients only last an episode, there's no reason to care about them either.

There's no way around this in a medical show. House MD goes around this and makes it about ethics and hard choices. But here the patients are slabs of meat and can't say or do anything.

People simply prefer shows with more continuity now. That's why In Treatment worked because it's continuous, same patients, same cases. A conveyor belt of patients gets boring quickly.

That's what happened to this show, even though everything else was very, very good.

I am disappointed that this won't go to season 2 as it's one of the best medical dramas I have seen; the character development in between these crucial, life-saving, actions is brilliant, the script, the cast, the tempo... perfect. It is no cliché drama with awful love- story tactics that make the medical interventions a welcome break – every aspect is very, very well crafted. While the genre is hard to get right if it's about one team (in this case critical emergencies), which means pretty much 2 or 3 things that can be done to help the patient and a LOT of beeping, this manages to hold its own and brilliantly.

British do drama series very well and this is a prime example. Still very disappointed with no season 2....

This might not be everyone's cup of tea but I loved it.Maybe not as good as Bodies the best medical show ever but still excellent.I love the increasing tension between the main characters.I hope there is a series 2 with some more back stories maybe? I don't imagine there is such a team in existence but I don't really care.When I first starting watching I was distracted by all the fervent glances but after a while the characters became real to me and I forgave the hospital drama stereotype. Maybe Our hero Glen does a bit of too intense angst but when he smiles all is forgiven.Of course when I see them saving someone who has had no oxygen to the brain for 10 minutes I cannot help but think that that is one of the things wrong with modern medicine.This show never tells us what happens to the saved person,presumable existing on in a home somewhere without quality of life. Still the show gripped me and was compulsive watching..

Incredible surgery scenes, so realistic, thriller concept, lots of blood and gore not for the faint-hearted, intriguing and major love story gone bad in the background. Love it <3

If I was rating just one of the episodes I would probably rate it at 9 or 10. The only reason I dropped to overall rating to 7 is that each episode is basically the same, concentrating on the medical trauma and the intervention. There is a slight story running in the back ground but it´s weak at best. A stronger underlying story would make this series so much better. An excellent example of that is the series Bodies which is in the same genre but because it had a great story as well as the raw medical content it was just brilliant. But even as only a seven, still well worth watching.

Dear God this is dire! OMG! We have 60 minutes to save the world, and every other stereotype you can think of. It's scripted more like a Quinn Martin disaster movie than serious T.v. Having had lots of surgery,I Can categorically say this was written by someone who's never been in an operating theatre. It's very dramatic, but how much drama can you take in 60 minutes! Very 2 dimensional characters and the patient seems to be little more than a bit part. After the first few episodes, it wasn't so much theatre, as theatre of blood. Seriously, we get it, but do we really need so much blood and gore by the bucketful! Thank God SKY have done the decent think and killed this show.

The overall story isn't that bad. Well, it's not good either, but I've seen worse. But I don't recall ever having seen a show THAT unrealistic, without it having been on purpose. "Follow the drama at a state-of-the- art Major Trauma Centre", they proclaim. Well, state-of-the-art Major Trauma Centre, with incompetent doctors. "Doctors" who apparently have no medical training what so ever. Shaky hands, bad stress handling, mid-surgery discussions, staff nearly puking, the list goes on. The doctors and nurses just generally seem like they have no idea what they're doing. Like every day is their very first day on the job. Or just their very first meeting with the health care industry in general.

At first I thought that it must be a post-apocalyptic scenario where none of the "doctors" had medical training, but were forced to a "learning by doing"-approach to safe mankind. Like maybe they were a mere 20 people left on earth, and therefore had no other choice than to try to save their dying race, despite their lack of medical training and bad motor skills. That would have been a much better show.

This show cannot be taken seriously. It's just THAT bad. What were they thinking, when they made this? Have they ever been at a hospital, even? Or met a doctor?

No real doctors would ever act like that! Any normal functioning person will see right through this. I really don't understand why nobody has stopped this show before it happened.

Boy this must have looked good in the concept stage.

We'll do the most graphic medical drama in history, said one exec to the other, and we will overlay classic dramatic arcs to keep it moving along.

Well, the first bit worked. This is the most graphic show of its kind. It is even more graphic than many medical documentaries.

The second bit did not work. Never underestimate the viewer. By the third episode the viewer has figured out 3 key things about this series:

1. No matter how straightforward the procedure, no matter how skilled the staff, something will go wrong at the 30 min mark and stretch it to a one hour operation.

2. Overlaying life and death surgery with maudlin and peevish character arcs does not work.

3. Overall, I would rather work in my garden.

Which is why even with James (who is always great) this imploded after one season.

If you like blood and guts (and nothing else), this one is for you! Other than a constant showing of gory scenes from the OR, this series has absolutely nothing in it. We do not get to know any of the protagonists or any of the victims. Consequently we are left emotionless, we do not care what happens to any of them, if the victims live or die, for in this series they are reduced to nothing more than lumps of meat.

One more mishap was that Lennie James in the principal role was totally miss-cast. He comes through more like an NFL linebacker than a surgeon. He is outright intimidating... Only Catherine Walker is salvageable as Dr. Fiona Lomas (and she looks very sexy as well). I do not know how realistic the OR scenes in the series really are, but even if they were perfect (which I doubt) that is nowhere nearly enough to salvage the series. No wonder it was axed so soon. Sad really, we have gotten used to great made for TV products coming out of the UK. This is definitely not one of them.