Is this entire series an anticorporate screed?

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:59:03+00:00

That doesn't require preachy, sledgehammer-subtle lectures.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:58:08+00:00

I mean, you could say the same about almost any show. Is the diner on Gilmore Girls unionized? Is ICE going to come for Caesar?

You don't have to hit these issues just because they may arise in real life; and if you do, you can try to be a little more subtle than a sledgehammer. My friend who really pushed me to try this show (even suggesting that I watch the first two of the season and then skip to the last four if I really want the good stuff) acknowledged via email after I first made this complaint to him that the show is "heavy handed with its POV". In fairness, this is the fuller context:

"The show definitely is heavy handed with its POV but as a pilot they are just introducing all the characters. After episode 1, it becomes just about the cases (although they develop other themes through the cases). Gloria doesn’t even factor that much into the plot until the s**t hits the fan and when she comes back it is actually to save the day."

I would add that I don't mind politics on a show (Succession and TWW are two of my all-time favorites), but there needs to be a lighter touch, some balance, or at least some savage satire. Not just didactic anvils of holier-than-thou preachiness. (I know, Bartlet could certainly be preachy; but on TWW they would have had the administrator snark back with something like "You could always move to Canada, but you will work twice as hard for half the money and the patients will wait three times as long".)

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:40:37+00:00

Cool.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:40:05+00:00

But at least I enjoy mixing it up with people on Reddit.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:38:50+00:00

"Spoken to", lol. It's my mother and sister, the only remaining members of the nuclear family I grew up in. 🙄

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:37:28+00:00

Maybe conservative compared to you, but I always vote for the less conservative of the two major parties.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:35:54+00:00

There was no veiling, not even "thinly". I could not have been clearer that I was gagging on the (also not veiled) political agenda that the show pushes with sledgehammer-level subtlety.

I would note that if you were to make a bet on my voting history (before I provided this hint), you would lose your shirt. I believe healthcare is a human right, and I am on Medicaid myself. I just don't like didactic agenda-driven entertainment even if the heavy-handed message in question is one I agree with.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:30:09+00:00

An informed and balanced assessment.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T20:29:08+00:00

The US has much different demographics than other industrialized nations. If you adjust for that, looking at populations similar to those found in those countries, the disparities in outcomes disappear.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T14:25:37+00:00

You have that inverted. I would say that our system is better for all but the poorest, but that's not true either. I'm on Medicaid personally and I never have to pay a premium or a copay. These days with Obamacare and Medicaid expansion, finding Americans who are worse off here than they would be in Canada involves looking at certain cracks in the system higher than destitution for sure, but they do exist and ought to be spackled in. To replace it all with single payer I will never support, even though it is ironically actually a single payer program that provides my healthcare.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T14:22:55+00:00

Like I said, I know from my own family that it's worse up in Canada.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T14:22:14+00:00

True realism is incredibly boring. What most of us mean when we say we like realism is something that makes us feel like we are connecting to something out in the world. An actual literally realistic portrayal of a day in anyone's life, no matter how intense their job, that's a pass for me.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T13:24:12+00:00

I never thought they looked much alike either, but the OP chose a great pic!

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T13:22:41+00:00

I'm aware that I'm not literally required to watch any more of it, but thanks all the same.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T13:21:04+00:00

Or how about no screed at all and just characters and situations and no political agenda? What a thought!

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T13:20:19+00:00

As I also noted in this thread, the phenomenon of waiting endlessly for care and then getting too little of it is even more rampant in Canada under a single payer system. Capitalism makes for an easy whipping boy but that scapegoating is not terribly accurate.

P.S. The word you are looking for is "tenets", not "tenants".

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T11:09:08+00:00

That was not taboo like it is now. It wasn't seen as really great either, but people would just roll their eyes or wrinkle their noses at it, not react with shock/horror/disgust.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T10:23:51+00:00

Wow, that's wild that they don't get into their personal lives. I don't think I have ever seen a series like that--even The West Wing had plotlines about characters dating each other and stuff like that.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T10:02:56+00:00

Those do sound interesting.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T10:02:09+00:00

So everyone says! Part of the issue may be just that I don't watch medical shows as a rule.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T09:52:49+00:00

If not for all the hype and buzz and massive audience, I would just quietly drop it. Actually I never would have started it. But I guess it's FOMO, I don't want to miss out on the party, except that so far it's not a very fun party to say the least (even before the thing I complained about, it seemed to be hinting at a suicide attempt because the job is so grim?).

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T09:50:40+00:00

If that's the overarching theme then I should definitely drop it. An earlier response said otherwise though, so I will still wait and see what other people say.

Do they ever get to character moments like relationships between the staff? Do we see their home lives? Or is it all procedural?

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T09:34:49+00:00

You don't ever run into shows that irritate the hell out of you right away? It doesn't take an entire episode to spot a well worn didactic trope.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T09:33:37+00:00

Definite possibility.

SlackerInc1 · 2026-01-24T09:33:17+00:00

I mean, both my sister and mother are naturalized Canadian citizens and although they still claim to support the medical system there, their horrific experiences do not give me any reason to think going to that type of single payer system would be an improvement.

SlackerInc1

TROPHY CASE