Medics have strange senses of humour - I spent my life married to one. They need some outlet for their uniquely stressful life. It wore my poor OH down.
The scene in the first episode where Adam was on a trolley holding in a prolapsed cord really does happen - my OH ran alongside a trolley, up in the lift and along the corridor to theatre with his hand inside a patient holding in the cord. That is not something that normally features in someone's life.
It all wore him out and made any semblance of home life very difficult. I think this aspect was very well depicted in the TV series. We all got used to Dad being permanently wrecked and under stress. I got used to him stopping being able to talk about it and get more and more unhappy. No job should wreck people's lives like this.
The depiction of the vast additional stress caused by the system in which they work was also well shown: endless paperwork, equipment failures, window-dressing for visiting dignitaries, staff going off with stress and the remaining staff doing double shifts, endless meetings to get basic needs met, doing a more than full-time job whilst also having to study for exams etc. The PC classes were real - I went to several when I was working in hospitals. My OH used to come home furious, fed up with wasting him time on this "bollocks," as he used to say, when work was piling up.
There was of course a degree of exaggeration - but really not much. It truly is a very very stressful environment and the arrogance of consultants was very real - I have some hope that this is less so now.
I thought the acting was excellent.
It was however quite a weird presentation in many ways and I can understand that someone who had not worked in the setting might find it far-fetched.
unacceptable!