Author | Zhou Walnut, University of Southern California
Most people probably work to live, but junior doctor Adam Kay lives to work.
Bodily fluids, blood, corpses, breathing, heartbeat, the daily stage of death and the delivery room welcoming new life are far more breathless than outsiders think.
The BBC's new drama "Pain Is Inevitable" has constructed such an obstetrics and gynecology department, full of depression and tension, working hours of up to 97 hours a week to basically confuse the work and life of doctor Adam, he is almost late for any party, he cannot attend his best friend's pre-wedding party, and he has not been able to have a dinner with his lover for a month.
"Pain Inevitable" takes you straight into the life of a junior obstetrician-gynecologist: he studied medicine for several years, working in a public hospital belonging to the NHS (National Health Service) in the UNITED Kingdom.
Every day, Adam is confronted with sudden blood, uncomfortable bodily fluids, anxious pregnant women, anxious husbands, never-ending patients, and unpleasant work environments.
And being a doctor is far less glamorous or authoritative than outsiders think, intern doctors with a pitiful salary, even hospital parking fees have become a burden, can only nibble on a cold sandwich in a small duty room, drive a broken car that always can't catch fire, live a two-point and one-line life in the hospital and apartment, and have a pitiful private life.
"Pain Is Inevitable" is based on the diary memoir of former British doctor and comedy writer Adam Kay, "This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor", written and produced by Adam himself.
The series chose the new generation of British power actor Ben Weishaw to play the male protagonist, so a mournful and poisonous male obstetrics and gynecology doctor was born and walked in front of the audience.
Original fiction writer Adam Kay
The series was critically acclaimed as soon as it was launched, causing great discussion in the UK itself, and criticism of the UK's unsound public healthcare system.
"Pain Inevitable" was also well received by Douban in China, winning a super high rating of 9.4 and more than 20,000 viewers participated in the rating.
Medical dramas at home and abroad are emerging in an endless stream, "Pain Is Inevitable" is good in the end, and how to stand out in many medical dramas, let's take a look.
Adam: A doctor who feels like he's going to faint all the time
The tone of the episode is always gloomy, just like the mood of the protagonist Adam.
The first episode of "Pain Is Inevitable" began with the protagonist who had fallen asleep in the car, he was directly tired in the car the night before, and the next day he dragged his tired steps into the hospital, and found a pregnant woman who was about to give birth in the aisle next to the hospital, he immediately woke up, quickly judged, and decisively sent the woman from the staff passage to the delivery room immediately, and successfully delivered the baby. A new day has begun.
Unlike the image of elite doctors in many domestic medical dramas, Adam is by no means a positive and decent character image.
This is also the hallmark of Anglo-American dramas — allowing a protagonist with a moral gray area to appear and accept imperfect characters, and such imperfections and flaws are actually what real humans look like.
Adam satirizes colleagues in person, secretly spits on patients, sighs and mourning are the main themes of his life, and the tiredness of the moment is the main tone. He occasionally made it bad, maliciously sewing tattoos on the belly of racist women after a caesarean section, and he ridiculed his new subordinate Shruti for being ruthless, saying that "I misunderstood you by thinking that you were a doctor in your inner clothes."
Adam and Shruti
Although he has character flaws, he is definitely a capable and good doctor.
He performed very well during the operation and in various crisis situations, always with precision and prompt judgment, from the patient's point of view. He cares about patients, does not stand idly by, and dares to take risks and responsibilities.
Adam Kay's life was exhausting and hectic, and he had planned to attend his best friend's bachelor party, but he was called back to the hospital on the phone, and he had been on duty for two weeks. And this exhaustion also led to the core conflict of the play - the occurrence of medical malpractice in pregnant women with severe eclampsia who were misdiagnosed.
Adam failed to face the symptoms of this seemingly disease-free moaning pregnant woman and sent her home, but she did not expect to be admitted to the hospital again at night, this misdiagnosis led to the fetus at 25 weeks because of the placenta shedding and had to use a caesarean section to remove the fetus early, the pretentious Adam did not want to notify the superior doctor to operate himself, almost led to the death of the mother.
Adam encountered a difficult and nervous abnormality during the operation, at which time the superior doctor came to the rescue
At the end of the first episode, the character falls to the bottom, he falls into intense self-doubt, over-medicates every patient, frantically refers all patients, causing anger from colleagues and questions about his abilities.
And the premature baby who almost failed to die also became Adam's heart knot, he continued to dream of bloody babies and crying mothers, he stood in the locker room and cried secretly, he could not concentrate on the conversation with his lover, but he could not talk about it, nor did he have time to receive psychological intervention and treatment.
Adam visits premature babies born prematurely because of his misdiagnosis
This incident almost ruined Adam's career and life. He has a hard time getting along with himself and with others.
Although the knot is always difficult to solve, the work must continue. Although "Pain Is Inevitable" does not explain the lives of the various patients handled by Adam, it shows several cross-sections of many patients in a few strokes, outlining the portrait of a british inferior class: domestic violence, poverty, ignorance, psychological problems, and racial discrimination.
With just a few lines and a few shots, "Pain Inevitable" concisely enriches the story of Adam's character while trying to show a floating portrait of an English patient. The story is short and powerful, without losing focus.
Shruti: Tragedy in the British public healthcare system
The original novel, written by Adam in 2004 and recorded in 2010, is a complete description of how a British doctor can climb from medical student to consultant.
The title and interpretation of the promotion position of junior doctor in the UNITED Kingdom; junior doctor refers to a doctor who has just graduated from medical school and has not yet had more than 10 years of experience. There are around 55,000 primary doctors in England, a third of the entire healthcare system workforce
A new character, Sho (Senior House Officer) named Shruti, is added to the series to show Adam's early story. As a person of color, Shruti came to the hospital for an internship while preparing for the exam to become a professional obstetrician and gynecologist.
Shruti is under too much pressure.
The breathless pace of life in the hospital, the poisonous and mean-spirited superior doctor (that is, Adam), the difficult exams and the basic zero revision time, the unprepared racial discrimination and the expectations of the family.
In the hospital, doing a good job is basic, and it is rarely praised, but the cost of doing it wrong once is huge, under pressure Shruti rarely has a smile, she can't talk, and the only time she asks for advice from her superior, She gets a rather harsh reply.
Because it was a world of the weak and the strong, Shruti tried his best, but doubted whether he could use it as a career for the rest of his life.
Shruti's experience resonated with a wide range of audiences.
"Pain Inevitable" is set in the United Kingdom in 2006, but today, the British medical system has not improved much. After the original book was published and the series aired, writer Kay received letters from doctors from all over the world, and "Pain Is Inevitable" let them know that "I am not the only doctor who can stand in the locker room and cry."
There are also angry parents who claim that Kay's book prevents their children from studying medicine, but Kay believes that all children should understand the cost of being a doctor before becoming medical students.
Similarly, "Pain Is Inevitable" uses the story of Adam and Shruti to refer to the British public healthcare system.
The NHS was first created in 1948 to make medical purposes clinical needs, not whether patients can afford to pay. This is a great achievement in the UK and the faith of the 1.4 million healthcare workers in the UK who work hard.
However, "Pain Is Inevitable" allows us to see the truth behind this belief, which is the pain of every medical worker who sacrifices his or her personal life. What "Pain Is Inevitable" makes us realize is that every patient and the medical system should better understand that doctors are human beings, not gods.
Whether it is many news about doctor-patient conflicts or medical dramas, the commonality that can be seen is that many patients have excessive and inhuman expectations of doctors. They demand that doctors never make mistakes, always be energetic, always be patient and attentive.
But what patients overlook is that doctors, like them, have their own ups and downs of life, have their own friendships and love to maintain, and have family members who need to be accompanied, they can't be online 24 hours a day, they can't be called, and they can't never make mistakes.
"Pain Is Inevitable" also reveals how the British medical system treats junior doctors with inhuman terms, that is, doctors of the Adam and Shruti levels.
In a behind-the-scenes interview, Adam Kay talks about the novel's creation set in the 2015-2016 junior doctor contract dispute in the UK.
The UK government plans to promote the 7-day hospital system nationwide, and junior doctors went on strike on April 26, 2016, dissatisfied with meager pay packages and plans to work on weekends. And that day's strike led to the postponement of 13,000 routine surgeries and the postponement of 100,000 appointments.
The dispute between doctors and the government focused on Saturday's compensation package. The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, requires that all-day Saturday pay be paid at a higher standard for non-normal working hours, but the government insists on paying general wages for work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The then British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt accused junior doctors of becoming too greedy, and this accusation prompted Adam Kay to publish his diary memoirs, revealing the difficulties of the job and the harsh conditions that the medical system imposed on doctors from the perspective of a junior doctor.
"Inevitable Pain" visually brings the poor work environment directly to the audience, the dim work environment, the dirty curtains in the emergency department, the crumbling ceiling in the ward, and the alarm that breaks down all the time.
Such an environment is not the worst, but even worse is the breathless pressure and suffocation, the low salary that is completely disproportionate to the labor effort, and the feeling of always disappointing those around you.
As Adam said at the end of the episode, at a hearing dealing with his complaints, the public should not take for granted the efforts of NHS doctors, which should be paid accordingly, should be respected, and should be recognized and seen.
The contradictions between most patients and doctors, doctors and colleagues, doctors and superiors seem to be mutually exclusive, each with something that needs to be understood, but what we should not ignore is the deeper contradictions hidden under these contradictions, which come from within the system.
Unlike many domestic medical dramas that only set the dramatic conflict between doctors and patients, "Pain Is Inevitable" reveals the problems of the British medical system and the areas that need to be improved urgently, which is where the work is more in-depth and more realistic.