Getting On
7.7
This hospital series achieves a fine balance between its grim premise and dry comedy
TV Show
United States of America
English
Comedy
2013
Alex Borstein, Joel Johnstone, Laurie Metcalf
30 min
TLDR
Grey’s Anatomy but make it HBO.
What it's about
In an extensive care unit, an eccentric doctor and her team of nurses power through the day-to-day challenges of caring for elderly women, all while dealing with their personal and interpersonal issues.
The take
Understandably, a show about extended care doesn’t sound too appealing, especially if it's led by such complex characters as Dr. James (Laurie Metcalf) and Nurses Dawn (Alex Borstein) and Didi (Niecy Nash). But Getting On mostly works because of many factors. It has a whipsmart script and a stellar cast, who manage to make their characters’ unlikeability into their best and worst assets. Most impressive, however, is how the show successfully balances its tone. It takes some getting used to, the way one patient dies one second and the nurses make a humorous remark in another, but the show finds a rhythm similar to real life itself. Of course, nothing goes according to plan in real life, but sometimes all you need is to crack a joke or see someone smile to feel better.
What stands out
Watching this nearly 10 years after it first aired makes me feel giddy. Sure, they were in a little-seen, immediately canceled show back then, but in a few years, Metcalf will earn an Oscar nomination while Borstein and Nash will win Emmys for their respective works. This show was so ahead of its time that it cast award-winning actresses even before all that public recognition!
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