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Aon the many advantages of The Pitt and how it shows the power of hospitals as interesting events: fun places, pressure cookers that bring together people of all kinds, in different areas of poverty. It’s such a great series, and it’s so popular with audiences, that any new medical drama of the future will be judged in its shadow.
This is not good news for shows like Stan The F Ward’s six-episode series, which looks like a childish hour in comparison, with airy, gaudy looks and beats that don’t liven up. There’s a lot of awkward stuff going on in the middle, with a few shakes here and there, even though it feels like a “TV hospital” – familiar and clear but mixed with a lot of nonsense.
The gameplay is pretty good, usually getting better as the series goes on, though not a single character picked me up. This is despite the producers (Dan Edwards and Kelsey Munro, who produced Mr. Stan) and photographers (Munro, Shanti Gudgeon, Jack Yabsley and Nick Coyle) draw them from an interesting point of view: the story revolves around a group of practicing doctors, each filled in different ways, who are given one last chance to come back to the Pines hospital in Sydney. Because what better way to rehabilitate struggling workers than to throw them into the harshest of conditions where they starve?
The students include Jimmy (Ioane Sa’ula), who has a heart problem that he hides, which comes out during the crisis; Ellie (Lola Bond), who once gave a patient the wrong medicine, causing the patient to die; Josh (Alex Fitzalan), a party boy whose father (Jeremy Sims) is an astrophysicist; and former nurse Lisa (Emily Barclay). Mentor’s team includes Dr Gloria Wall (Anna Friel) and the deputy head, Dr Curtis (Dan Wyllie).
This hospital is facing the beach, because this is Australian TV production, therefore of course it is; Beach scenery is so common one wonders if visions of lapping waves and golden sands are government approved. Hospitals within walking distance of the beaches are available – including Sydney’s Mona Vale Hospital, which inspired the one in the show – but here the choice feels like one of many, this time designed for post.
With so much potential for a medical drama, it’s a little disappointing to see the show sell the familiar stuff, for example, workplace romances and graduation parties. There are plenty of “give me a scalpel”-type moments, however, which are to be expected- such as check-ups and the appearance of attached organs. But what is happening in these operating rooms is not good, the camera is often only overhead when it captures the patient’s face, which makes the person under the knife invisible – almost non-existent.
We meet people outside the operating room, of course, in different areas of pain, getting carried away in and out of the story. In one of these episodes, in the third episode (this review includes all six), there is an unexpected display of a swollen male genitalia, which I think was meant to be funny but it didn’t arrive. This is the case on several occasions: for example, Jimmy’s emotional scenes are accompanied by distorted voiceovers, created in a way that cannot be compared to the settings of the best horror movies.
Some well-known Australian actors pop up in small roles here and there, including the always reliable Justin Rosniak as Luke, a patient with cerebral hemorrhage, and very much Alex Dimitriades as Stefan, whom Lisa and Josh meet at the bar. But none of these features move the needle or leave a lasting impression. Hospitals are wonderful places but it’s the people, not the processes, that make it possible. And that’s what’s missing in The F Ward: compelling human stories.
