This is Going to Hurt - starts 8th Feb

[ouch321]

I loved the book of this by Adam Kay. I know others weren't so keen.
BBC has dramatised this and starts in early Feb. Just a heads up for others who liked the book.

As others have said, to label it a comedy is totally misleading, it is a drama with the sort of black humour that people almost inevitably employ to help get them through stress and horror.

I’ve just finished episode 2 and Ben’s character is horrifically traumatised but trying to keep going in whatever way he can.

Yes he is an arse, but an arse without the support he clearly needs to find a better way of managing under horrendous pressure. It is brutal but compelling, and very well acted.

Try watching Bodies for the hospital politics. Apparently things now aren't quite as bad as that.

I finished watching episode 6 and it's actually better than I thought after the couple of episode.

SPOILER SPOILER

Shocked the Shruti story in episode 6 . I didn't see that coming.

@SilverGlassHare

Not every case of treating a patient poorly is misogyny, just because the patient is a woman! Misogyny would be treating women poorly because they are women - there's no evidence that's the case in that particular scene. Did you even watch it? He's on the phone to his boyfriend instead of concentrating. I suppose you could speculate that he'd have paid more attention to a male patient but it would be pure speculation. The worst story so far in the series is the description of the degloving incident and Adam is definitely shown as being disrespectful about that. It's a male patient though!

Your ad hominem attacks on those who disagree with you don't make you look great, btw. Again, just for your information.

Spot on.

I was incensed by the book.

It illustrates why I had homebirths!

But the series imo, despite being misogynistic improved by the end.

I dont see why they made such a big thing of his relationship though. Just to be trendy?

I dont see why they made such a big thing of his relationship though. Just to be trendy?

Who’s making a big deal of it? It’s not unusual for main characters homelives to be included. Adam Kay is gay.

Your use of the word trendy is quite unpleasant.

Really enjoyed the series and didn’t find it particularly misogynistic. I’m privileged to know some excellent female doctors, including an ObGyn consultant, who does - in private - have much the same sense of humour about her work.

I’d much rather have medics who deliver good care, albeit in very difficult circumstances, and who are able to see the dark humour in much of what they do.

Please can someone, anyone, explain the misogyny to me. I am perfectly willing to accept that it is there and I just can't see it, but I need someone to explain it.

My questions are: what is the reason for believing that he treated his patients in a less than ideal way BECAUSE they were woman?

And, can someone explain what leads you to think he would have acted differently if he had been in a different specialism with male patients?

Or have I completely missed the point somehow? In which case, what is the point?

I have no strong feelings on this either way. I am just genuinely confused.

His relationship isn't really mentioned that much in the book this is based on
Just a few references here and there.
I read the book in two days. Lots are changed for the tv.

Just finished it.
I liked it, I think it should have been trailed as a drama though, not a comedy. The main thing I took away was the chronic exhaustion of the doctors and pressure of life and death actions.

Adam Kay says he deliberately disguised the sex of his partner in the book because he didn't want people to be distracted by it. And he wasn't out at the time he was writing about. What he wrote applied to all doctors, men and women, gay and straight. Very difficult to maintain a relationship when you're working such long, unpredictable hours - especially when placements to gain a variety of experience mean you have to move all over the country.

I'm a bit disturbed by the fact the posters making an issue of him being gay seem to be the ones accusing him of misogyny, as if gay man = misogynist. On a personal level, I've never experienced that. The reverse, if anything.

I'm v glad that some pp seem to be changing their minds a little having watched the whole series. As I said earlier, the trailer was v misleading.

Cross posted!

Just finished it. I really enjoyed it, particularly the last few episodes. I didn't think it was misogynistic at all, I think the same type of humour and attitudes would have been used in any department, I would love to see another series

@SilverGlassHare

Tbh I’d say it has the same “level” of comedic content as House has. And I’d much more serious than Scrubs, say.

And Mash.

Even Casualty has its dark humour CDU = Can't Decide Unit

Having hated the book and yes, found it misogynistic as I posted above; I did watch the series so I could see for myself how it compares before commenting further. I actually enjoyed the series, I didn't find it brought over the same language and attitudes as his book and was enjoyable enough to watch. I stand by my feelings about the book and his songs though.

For me the misogyny in his book in my opinion was the way he seemed to speak with contempt about the women he cared for, that he came across as superior and a bit of ah what silly and stupid women. Some of his accounts seemed to pour or disgust beyond ew some blood which most people would find gross. I guess due to the issues with women's healthcare, especially maternity care, a man writing about it like he did and profiting from it seems a bit gross to me.

@Canaloha

For me the misogyny in his book in my opinion was the way he seemed to speak with contempt about the women he cared for, that he came across as superior and a bit of ah what silly and stupid women. Some of his accounts seemed to pour or disgust beyond ew some blood which most people would find gross. I guess due to the issues with women's healthcare, especially maternity care, a man writing about it like he did and profiting from it seems a bit gross to me.

Do you think he would have spoken equally contemptuously about men? Because there doesn’t seem much evidence that he didn’t like some of his patients because they were women. More that he simply didn’t some of his patients.

Do you think he would have spoken equally contemptuously about men? Because there doesn’t seem much evidence that he didn’t like some of his patients because they were women. More that he simply didn’t some of his patients.

Probably not a popular view, but I don't think misogyny is literally just a case of would someone also treat another man like this because the power balance between men and women isn't equal. It didn't come across to me just that he disliked some and it would have been the same regardless of their sex.

I'm a fast reader and just read book 2 about his various Christmas's and New Years as a Doctor ( and the fact he spent so many on the wards )
It's not as graphic , or sad , as book one, but I have noticed that a few of a stories on tv are a mash up of the two books. Worth a read.

I’m horrified that the NHS let barely qualified doctors deliver babies in an emergency situation.
Shocked and horrified and totally speechless at the contempt for women, their bodies and babies.
Utterly sickening.

people have to learn on the job

@LittleBearPad

I dont see why they made such a big thing of his relationship though. Just to be trendy?

Who’s making a big deal of it? It’s not unusual for main characters homelives to be included. Adam Kay is gay.

Your use of the word trendy is quite unpleasant.

The relationship was included in the book to show how difficult it was maintaining it.

Women deserve better , but even the author acknowledges this ( in his own way )
It's just not how it works though in the NHS :(
Maybe if men had to give birth it might be different , but who knows?
I'm just pleased that my two were straight forward deliveries. Just luck , I guess.
It is sad how women are treated though :(

@Malibuismysecrethome

I’m horrified that the NHS let barely qualified doctors deliver babies in an emergency situation. Shocked and horrified and totally speechless at the contempt for women, their bodies and babies. Utterly sickening.

I agree malibu. It should be experienced practitioners caring for women and their babies, leading the more junior staff and teaching them properly. The more junior staff should never be put in that terrible position and women and their babies should never have to accept substandard care as a result. But that is why it is so important that the NHS looks after the HCPs better, so that the experienced staff don't burn out and leave. Leaving newly qualified staff behind to battle on and perpetuating the cycle. Staff retention needs to be a priority. For the sake of the women and babies.

someone was teaching someone when i was stitched up, after giving birth, the midwife/the doctor can't remember who was teaching who,
there was a remark about doing blanket stitch which caught my attention.