The British drama "Pain Is Inevitable" awakens all our despair about work and life with a kind of pain, but ultimately gives some strength to survive in despair.
Adapted from the self-description novel "Absolutely Hilarious Abandoned Doctor Chronicles", it tells the whole process of an obstetrician-gynecologist's survival in the public hospital system from a first-person perspective, although the word hilarity is used in the title, but this drama has little to do with comedy, and can be said to be more like "depressing".
There is only the life of a social animal that consumes the will
Compared with the high-scoring medical drama "Good Doctor" on the other side of the Atlantic, this one presents two completely opposite qualities.
A story that focuses on patients, seeing their lives and how to solve the problem of disease, the doctors in "Good Doctor" all show different personality traits, full of personality, they focus on discussing how to cure a complex, strange, rare disease in a certain way, they are also discussing the love dilemmas in their lives, family relationships, and unfolding each person's story in a multi-line parallel way;
And "Inevitable Pain" is more macroscopic, it also has specific cases, but more is concerned about the overall situation of the protagonist Adam's work in the hospital, rounds, surgery, overtime home...
Here, all people seem to live a similar life, the decency in "Good Doctor" seems to be a fantasy here, colleagues basically rely on yelling and mocking each other, they do not have too many obvious personality traits, like screws tightly bound to the cogwheels of the hospital, tightly sewn and painfully moving forward, and the display of personal life is more focused on how to balance work and life, and the "social animal spirit" is exerted to the extreme.
As mentioned in Pain Is Inevitable, the huge discrepancies between publicly-funded medical responsibilities and the intricable treatment of doctors between the NHS (The National Health System) and private hospitals are at the heart of the problem that is almost impossible to resolve.
Doctors work more than 10 hours a day, work overtime to the fragmentation of family life, face the difficult situation of low salary, difficult promotion, extreme psychological pressure, to face the unreasonable demands of patients and the impersonal feelings of superiors, there are few warm and emotional conversations and clean surgical scenes in the NHS, more helpless quarrels and blood stains on the ground.
So Adam had to survive in the hospital in a way that looked very poisonous, using pungent irony to fight against all the weights that were oppressed on the body and heart, and when Ben Weishaw (who played Adam) on the screen turned his head and broke the fourth wall to say a string of inner dramas to the audience, there was not much humor or hilarity, just making people feel pitiful and tired, barely able to squeeze out a bitter laugh.
Systemic challenges that cannot be solved
How bad is the NHS living? In the hospital there is no washed uniform can be worn, to work overtime can only take a set of ill-fitting covers from the dirty clothes basket, the ground has sewage buckets at any time, between the bed and the bed is a thin curtain, pregnant women who come to the hospital share a lounge and are often crowded, the alarm at the front desk makes unwarranted noise every few minutes, looking for someone to repair is a few days of pulling for a few weeks, there is not enough rest time, many times can only sleep in the car and then continue to come back to work, patients can use complaint threats, And this kind of complaint can easily ruin a doctor's path to job hopping and promotion. Everyone who works here has a face full of "numbness."
When faced with the inspection of the Minister of Health, all the loopholes were temporarily filled, and everything that seemed beautiful was nothing but whitewashed.
Adam puts on a brand new suit and prepares to show his skills, but is sprayed with half of his blood by the mother who gave birth underwater, and then immediately after the change is to help the mother and child who were beaten and abused during pregnancy and the endless threat to leave the domestic violence offender, watching the police take away the domestic violence man, and also watching the minister and other colleagues approach the next room to inspect - one step away from being recognized, adding a few points to the heartache in the workplace. What was Adam's resistance?
You can only use black humor to change the letters on the blackboard to "FUCK IT" in a group photo to show irony, after the next second of funny and revenge pleasure, no difficulties are solved, and life is still suffocating.
Even death is a spiritual black hole that floats lightly
Warmth is short-lived, "Pain Inevitably" is very serious about the concept of "life will have continuous pain", and the previous two years of the very popular "Fucking World" is quite similar to the sense of frustration, when we see that doctors are understanding each other, Adam and the intern doctor Shutty are also trying to understand each other and accompany each other, when they all seem to be on the right track, with a heavy hammer to reveal the tragic end caused by pressure.
One might find it hard to understand why Shutty chose to commit suicide, after all, she seems to be able to get a lot of encouragement from reality: her parents are happy that their daughter is doing meaningful work and wants to visit her; Adam invites her to a party, affirming her ability to work; and finally passing a difficult exam after a long preparation..... It seems that there is still a lot of good things waiting for the future, and the mistakes of the past have also ushered in a turnaround, but she still chose to end her life.
The play does not give specific reasons, but can be glimpsed from various performances to get a glimpse of the truth, Shuti is the lowest level of the NHS system, the most unspoken intern, she saw the superiors and superiors are secretly consumed in the chaos and humility of public medical care, every day work is an overdraft of body and spirit, even if you go home, there is no way to calm down and rest, because high-intensity labor has made it impossible for her to have a normal social state and social circle, no one really cares, understands what she has experienced, What if a brief hope arrives?
Sadly, Shutty's death did not bring any changes to the system, and after a brief remembrance and sadness, people will return to their lives and quickly forget the tragedy that has occurred – as the physician at the memorial service said: "Soon this olive tree will also die because no one waters it." "Even the tree that symbolizes her death exists and disappears in the hospital only in a flash.
Of course, there is also warmth and companionship in such a life, from family, from friends, from lovers, these are the spiritual strength that makes Adam and countless social animals continue to support and constantly heal the hardships of life.
Mutual understanding became the last straw to save the soul, Adam's boyfriend Harry had to get used to this lonely life, when the other half only had a few hours of free time every day, not even enough sleep and rest, let alone a romantic relationship of love, waiting and being broken became the norm.
When Adam's work pressure soars and unexpected situations arise, he chooses not to tell anyone, silently bears, and seems to be a more withdrawn one in this relationship, until finally discovering that when everything does not develop as expected, the people around him can be trusted.
Life may be inevitable pain, no matter what, it will go on in the continuous pain, sadness and warmth coexist, but just as Adam, who is forced to a desperate situation by work, will also meet his love, in this world, there are many people trying to understand you.