by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
My mom worked as a nurse for a long time. She worked as a nurse at a VA hospital, and she also was a travel nurse for home health care for a long time. I learned a lot from my mom about how big of a toll working in health care was, and in all fairness, still is to this day. It’s probably infinitely harder to work in health care now with the pandemic going on. Because my mom worked as a nurse, I never really watched medical shows. I occasionally watched ER,I would occasionally catch House, and Grey’s Anatomy was a hard pass from the start. The only medical show that I really like is Scrubs. It was the perfect blend of humor, but also showed the audience just how difficult being a doctor or a nurse can be. I took a leap and found another medical show to give a chance though because of the interesting premise and performers.
This Is Going To Hurt, created by Adam Kay, and based on his book of the same name, follows junior Dr. Adam Kay (Ben Whishaw) in the labor and delivery ward at the National Health Service hospital in England. We see the joys that childbirth gives to people, but also the devastation when tragedy strikes as well. We follow the doctors as they struggle with the day-to-day work while also managing to balance their lives at home. The show demonstrates toll being a doctor takes is explored, while also showcasing just how difficult it is to be a doctor for a public funded hospital. This Is Going To Hurt is available through AMC+ or BBC.
This is a show that requires a trigger warning for sure. There is a lot of blood and death in a hospital setting. From a content standpoint, This Is Going To Hurt does not shy away from showing graphic imagery when it comes to childbirth. A lot of the images might be startling because unless you’ve seen it before up close, this might be as graphic as it gets for a fictional show, versus watching something in a health class or a birth video. There’s also a trigger warning for things like premature births, stillbirths, domestic abuse, and suicide. Although this show is labeled as a dramedy, it gets very heavy in a hurry during certain scenes. So if these are topics you find to be triggers, steer clear, or at minimum, proceed with caution.
As far as medical shows go, this might be the most raw I’ve seen that wasn’t a documentary. I had all kinds of different emotions watching it for a variety of reasons. I think the reason why it feels so raw is because of the subject matter, which takes place in a labor and delivery ward. This is an interesting setting for a show, and the audience sees some very graphic and hard scenes. As a parent myself, this wasn’t easy to watch, because not every childbirth has a happy ending. Just thinking about that makes me emotional, so to watch some of it play out was hard. There is something that feels authentic about this show, and it’s probably because the creator is also the author of the book the show is based on. There had to be some type of vision, where he was given a bit of leash to run it however he remembered it.
Labor and delivery is an interesting place for a medical show. I don’t recall there being one dedicated to a specific part of a hospital since ER, which focused on the emergency room specifically. This Is Going To Hurt absolutely lives up to its name, because there are moments that are incredibly hard to watch because they involve the tough choices that doctors have to make day in and day out. One thing that is particularly great about the show is how it shows the toll being a doctor takes on one’s personal life. This is far beyond the typical issues that we’ve seen before, where a doctor might lose a patient and then struggle to get back on their feet, or if there’s so much drama with a group of doctors because they’re all sleeping together. This shows the constant struggle of balancing life outside the hospital given the demands of a taxing job. There’s no better portrayal of that than Shruti’s (Ambika Mod) story.
Shruti is a doctor who Dr. Kay takes under his wing, in a sense. She looks like she has all her stuff together, because she’s learning how to do more technical procedures and is getting ready to take her exams. What we don’t see is her own personal struggle with the mental toll being a doctor takes. This is a side of the profession that is often overlooked due to the literal life-and-death demands of the jobs. It obviously has to bleed into real life. Whishaw is great in this role and he’s just such a joy to watch on screen. He does such a great job. If there was a standout though, Mod takes the cake. Her story is heartbreaking but all to real, as Dr. Kay puts out during the final episode.
For a show this heavy about tough topics, there were some genuinely funny moments. Some involving personal lives, some involving instances in the hospital, and some involving patients. We’re not going full on Scrubs with the comedy, but there are still plenty of moments that will make you laugh. Some moments are meant to play out for comedy, but are a little uncomfortable because it’s meant to break tension. Some of these landed and some didn’t. Dr. Kay also serves as our de facto narrator, which presents some moments where he breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience directly. It sometimes feels distracting and out of place. The moments when he’s trying to be funny feel a little odd, but the moments where he’s trying to explain what’s going on in a situation, or if he’s struggling with a patient feel more like a real opportunity to educate the audience or convey his frustration. The comedy never feels completely off base or rude, but there are times that it just feels like an odd choice.
This Is Going To Hurt highlights just how tough being in medicine is. The performances are great, the story is fascinating, and the message being sent is phenomenal. It’s not an easy watch, nor is it something that is must-see viewing that is the tipping point on whether or not you get AMC+. If you’re looking for a solid story and can stomach some graphic moments regarding child birth, this is definitely worth a watch.
Score: 8/10
You can follow Mike Hilty on Twitter and Letterboxd