Friday, April 4, 2008

The Best Show You've Never Seen - Green Wing


Every once in a while I'll come across a show that is so funny and fresh that I recommend it to all of my friends. It is even less often that that show will lead me to something even funnier.

In early 2003 I somehow stumbled across the BBC2 televisions series Coupling and instantly fell in love. Described by some as a rip-off of Friends, it is so much more. When it was canceled after four series' I looked online to see what else the cast of Coupling has been up to. That's when I discovered Green Wing.

More Scrubs than Grey's Anatomy, GW is a show about the lives of hospital workers; and not just the doctors and nurses like most of these shows. The show gives (nearly) equal time to the doctors as it does to workers in the Human Resources department.

Green Wing begins on the first day of new doctor, Caroline Todd, and focuses on hers, and others, lives. She immediately meets Dr Guy Secretan whom she can't stand, and yet might possibly love (there's also the impossibly large poo that she makes in his toilet that just won't go down). The other object of her affection is Dr "Mac" Macartney. Don't be misled, this is no romantic comedy of a show; it's far more about making the audience laugh and escape for an hour at a time.

As far as I'm concerned though, the real star of the show is Michelle Gomez and her portrayal of Sue White, the staff liaison officer whose job, as she describes it, is "To soothe, to bathe, to listen to the workers' woes". The only problem is that she causes more woes to be soothed.



Oh, and we can't forget about when she attempted to murder a co-worker.

I don't know where to suggest that you look to find the show, but if you search the internet hard enough I'm sure you can find it (or buy the region 2 DVD's from amazon.co.uk). Regardless, if you like British humor, and haven't had your funny bone removed, you won't be sorry. A+

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