Eoin Macken plays an unorthodox doctor in The Night Shift. The Knick takes viewers back to the early days of dramatic medicine. Choi Jin Hyuk and Song Ji Hyo star in Emergency Couple. Even though I’ve been hospitalised only once in my life — when I was born — I feel like I know all the ins and outs and intimate workings of hospitals. That’s because there’s always been a steady intravenous drip of medical dramas and comedies to watch on television. Like cop shows, family sitcoms and Oprah, they are a reliable staple of the TV industry. For the past few seasons, political dramas have been the in-thing. But now, medical dramas are back in a big way, with several new shows set in hospitals lined up. And instead of rehashing your usual gauze-and-suture fare, they now come in darker and edgier incarnations. Premiering next week is the new drama The Night Shift, starring Eoin Macken (from the BBC series, Merlin) as an adrenaline junkie and unorthodox doctor recently returned from duty in Afghanistan, who faces the challenge of handling all the weird, crazy stuff that happens during night duty in an underfunded hospital. (If you’re still crying over Cristina Yang recently leaving Grey’s Anatomy, well, this might help to dull the ache.) In August is Cinemax’s new series, The Knick, which is set in 1900s New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital. It’s directed by Steven Soderbergh and stars Clive Owen. The trailer, reminiscent of American Horror Story: Asylum, makes it look like a lot of goosebump-raising experiments will be taking place here in the name of medical advancement. In K-drama land, there’s the currently-airing Emergency Couple, starring Song Ji-hyo and Choi Jin-hyuk as a divorced couple who meet again as interns in a hospital. divorce is an atypically dark Korean drama subject, but that’s balanced out with some comedy. And if you like The Mindy Project, the show about a quirky and loveable gynaecologist, you might like this, too. Speaking of Korean dramas — such as last year’s Medical Top Team and Good Doctor — there is news that Daniel Dae Kim is planning an American remake of Good Doctor, the show that starred Joo Won as a trainee surgeon who is also an autistic savant. See? Can’t flip the channel without landing on a gurney. Why does television keep checking itself into hospital like a hypochondriac with ample medical insurance? The Night Shift’s leading man, Eoin Macken, opined: “I think it’s because there’s so much drama. There are so many things that could happen in it. I think that’s what works and what makes a good platform for a show. “And the whole life and death thing, which is very dramatic and I thought was too obvious to mention,” he said, adding that his all-time favourite medical shows were Scrubs and ER. That makes sense because if you ask anybody who works at a hospital, they’ll probably tell you that the drama you see on TV doesn’t come even close to the drama that takes place in real life. I have a friend who, while making the rounds in the maternity ward, welcomed a baby that had decided to make an unscheduled entrance. “It shot out and I took a flying leap and caught it in mid-air,” was his hand-on-heart account. TV IS THE BEST MEDICINE It’s not just doctors who are unfailingly hot. Did anyone else melt a little at Thomas Ong’s portrayal of a caring nurse in The Caregivers? If you’re an actor playing a nurse, doctor, midwife or even an intern, like Song and Choi in Emergency Couple, you’ll feel as if you have covered the basics of medical school. “Shooting a medical drama requires special knowledge. Even though our characters were just interns, it was difficult to look as if we knew medicine,” said Choi. Song said: “I am afraid of sharp items, including needles. But we used so many medical instruments and needles in this drama, that it helped me overcome my fears a little.” There are so many actors who have played doctors that if you happen to have a medical emergency while on a plane, and a doctor has been paged but only George Clooney shows up, well, you’ll still be in relatively good hands. Come to think of it, hospitals figure prominently even in shows that aren’t set in medical facilities — just because it’s more dramatic, plot-wise, when there’s a medical emergency. This, I think, applies especially to Hong Kong, Korean and local dramas. Every other Asian drama contains a variant of this scene: Tae Hyun: Omo! Your finger is bleeding! We’ve got to get you to a hospital! Eun Mi: Oh, that’s just bibimbap sauce. Tae Hyun: Don’t be a heroine! Anyway, we can’t stay here — that would be too undramatic! I’m taking you to the hospital! Eun Mi: Wait, just let me put my shoes ... Tae Hyun: What for — when you can’t even walk? You have an injured finger, for heaven’s sake! (Scoops Eun Mi up into his arms, applies a cold compress to her bangs and rushes out of the house) Even though we know that Eun Mi, after an intravenous drip, a nice nap and some soap and water, will be fine, going to the hospital has demonstrated to us that (a) Tae Hyun is touchingly concerned with her well-being and (b) Tae Hyun has put in enough time at the gym to carry her several kilometres to the hospital. Yes, as a plot device, the hospital really can’t be beat. Now hand over the remote — stat! Source
