If you think about it, a hospital is the best place for any soap opera: it is where strangers meet everyday, each new patient bringing a new storyline, that is woven into the permanent cast’s (read: the doctors and nurses) lives. Which explains why medical dramas such as ER and Grey’s Anatomy have been some of the longest-running shows in TV history. Even Indian TV took a hint and created the short-lived but popular Sanjivani (cue theme whistle) and its spin off Dil Mil Gaye.
But how many of them go beyond portraying doctors in clacking heels with smoldering good looks, to real characters that experience the stress that comes along with being a doctor?
M*A*S*H
The original big daddy of medical soap operas, M*A*S*H’s final episode, ‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen’ was one of the most watched shows and is still remembered for its handling of main character Hawkeye Pierce’s mental breakdown. Hawkeye, a surgeon at the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was himself being treated at a mental hospital and is forced to bring to the surface repressed memories of having to watch a mother choke her infant during the Korean War. The episode effectively deals with PTSD, and the long lasting effect of war on army doctors.
One day at a time
Another show that talks about PTSD among war veterans, One Day At A Time, sees lead Penelope, a civilian nurse and United States Army Nurse Corps veteran, battle with anxiety and depression, pointing out how the condition raises its head even when everything in your life may seem perfectly fine. Living with her mother who in an old-fashioned Latina way, believes depression is something “you just have to get over”, Penelope stops taking her medicines and going to therapy, believing she has finally outrun it -- only for it to catch up with her when she least expects it.
House MD
Ah, yes. The famous Dr House: brilliant, cheeky, brutally sarcastic, irreverent to rules -- the ultimate bad boy of the medical world. But when it comes to handling his own issues, he is less than equipped to do so. Blaming chronic pain in his knees, he regularly relies on painkillers, overdosing to a point that he starts to hallucinate. Though he is shown as trying to overcome his addiction by checking himself into a rehab, he reverts to his habits soon after.
Grey’s Anatomy
Though the show occasionally touches upon how its doctors, from Christina Yang, to Owen Hunt and Meredith Grey, deal with the stress and depression, most of the show’s drama comes from ridiculous plot points (a bomb lodged in a patient’s chest, can you believe?), invented only to pull the narrative forward. The show has problems with continuity (understandable what with doctors dropping dead like flies, and so many permutations and combinations of couples), one of which is surgeon Bailey’s on-now, off-tomorrow OCD.
Scrubs
Even though the show is supposed to be a parody, or probably because of it, Scrubs has a loyal fan following among actual doctors for getting the stresses that come with the job right. The show which specialises in escapist humour, often surprises us with its sensitivity. We watch as protagonist doctor JD comes to term with the reality of losing patients once in a while, and senior doctor Cox gives a chillingly practical advice to focus only on those who can be helped. The show also talks about how the residents’ busy schedules hardly leaves them with a personal life to date and socialise.
