62 •Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM
There is a consistent use of shallow focus throughout
/TKRD, with each scene’s central character highlighted against
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is worried, anxious or making a key decision. While watching
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the showrunners trying to be clever? Why is this effect nec
essary? But, as/TKRDcontinued into its second half, it all
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of mislaid trickery, but rather to represent everything that
goes unsaid between doctors and patients, husbands and
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hints at the severe symptoms, or the smoking in hospital
gowns, that patients hide from loved ones to stop their
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shielded by doctors until worthy of concern, or the likely
easily treatable causes not revealed until proven beyond
doubt. In a hospital, as/TKRDdemonstrates, what doctors,
patients and loved ones arenot told can be more impor
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/TKRDis also a show about all the moments that we, as
patients and visitors, don’t see. The series shows us that,
often, the greatest acts of empathy by
our doctors and nurses – like the chair
and fresh blanket I returned to that day
in hospital – are all the things they shield
us from. The dodgy equipment that needs
to be replaced. The names below ours
on the waiting list they’ve disregarded
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care centres, so they can stay an extra
hour at work for us.
The good doctors say things like, ‘I’m
sorry you’re going through all this,’ or, ‘It’s
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we’re going to work this out.’ The good
ones know to say and do the right things,
and when, but even then they may not
understand how exhausting being sick
can be. They may not know what it’s
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ships, on your job, on your family. What they see is the strain
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they may not understand what it’s really like to be sick.
/TKRDbridges this disjuncture through Frankie.In the
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hospital. The two would sit side by side through the long
hours of dialysis, rarely speaking but playing cards or hang
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thereby putting his health in danger, Frankie is reminded
of the exhaustion of treatment: ‘You know what it’s like,’
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chimes in, ‘if it’s still worth it’.
There is a level of understanding that only comes from
lived experience, and we see this radiate from Frankie
as she talks to patients – the extra time spent explain
ing a treatment, the additional care given to make sure
patients understand what’s ahead, the touch of the arm,
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are scared, confused and alone, told to make an immedi
ate decision about their son’s wish to donate his organs.
Frankie stops, drops her anxious shoulders and listens
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which Frankie replies, ‘The strangers would be people like
you and me. Or your son.’ Frankie recognises she is speak
ing beyond her purview, but is also aware of the need to
offer guidance during such an emotionally fraught time.
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stop seeing you as one of the living,’ Frankie tells Berger,
after she questions his need to keep his illness a secret
from his staff. But she has her own health problems that
she is trying to conceal, as revealed to viewers when
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primary motivation is always patient care – and, if she is
known to be unwell, it’s likely she won’t be promoted to
positions that will enable her to make a difference tothose
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mulaic lines that doctors resort to –
‘That must be really hard’, ‘You must
be tired’, ‘I know it’s not fair’ – she
knows that nothing can compete with
the words of someone who has been
there themselves.
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afford to get too attached to her pa
tients,she replies: ‘If you can’t relate to
them on their level, how can you begin
to know how to help them? We may as
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‘One day, you’re going to have to tell
someone that there’s nothing more you
can do for them. If you’re too emotion
ally attached, you will not be able to.’
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Medicare. The patient, admitted for kidney problems, re
quests a termination of a pregnancy caused by rape – but,
as she is seven months pregnant, there is nothing Frankie
is legally able to do for her. ‘Is there any other way that
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frustrated by her ethical limitations.
This is just one example of how/TKRDpaces out the
dramas surrounding Frankie’s profession by incorporat
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to moral and legal standards, their responsibilities to their
patients often remain blurred.An established practice
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many of my peers, I grew up watching the big American
hospital shows of the 1990s and 2000s.ERand, to a lesser
extent,"GHB@FN 'NODset the precedent that has led to
'NTRDand&QDXR M@SNLX, among an exhaustive list of
others. In each of these series, the drama is drawn almost
entirely from within the hospital walls: the tensions betweenPulseis also a
show about all the
moments that we, as
patients and visitors,
don’t see. The series
shows us that, often,
the greatest acts
of empathy by our
doctors and nurses
are all the things
they shield us from.