DVD Review: General Hospital Night Shift - The Complete First Season
Published February 17, 2008
I think what made General Hospital Night Shift appealing to so many soap fans was the single set of the hospital as well as the focus on the interpersonal relationships of the characters: doctors who helped each other battle with addiction, student nurses helping each other with their learning, doctors interacting with their patients, and the romance of the serial's hottest couple of the past summer, Robin and Patrick. Too bad, the show was the catalyst for their demise.
Because Night Shift was a thirteen week series, storylines had to move at a faster pace than daytime is used to, but they were still able to stretch them across a few episodes to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. The end result was that during that final episode the viewer cared what happened to each and every character because we had been brought into their lives and relationships in a more effective way than is often done on the parent show.
In as early as the first episode we learned there was a serial killer on the loose in the halls of General Hospital when an ambulance exploded. Later it was discovered a tank of nitrous oxide had been left on, but that is was no accident. We also met an elderly woman who was first thought to be an attention seeker, but had accidentally stabbed herself in the gut while trying to fix dinner. In later episodes she would return to the emergency room when pneumonia set in because she couldn't afford the antibiotics she was prescribed, only one of the edgier stories the night time drama dared to take on.
Later episodes took on drug addiction among war veterans, the patient's right to die, and the ever present in the real world question of the health care system and health insurance. Through the entire course of the season the hospital was in danger of being taken over by Med Corp, an MHO. Even though it was much more focused on the hospital than the daytime show, we were still treated to gang and gun violence in the final episode "Time Served."
Some of the more irritating themes of GH didn't change just because the sun had gone down. Jason still played superman on more than one occasion and was always the one to save the day when it needed saving. He also was the one — with Spinelli's help — to figure out student nurse Jolene was the angel of death. We also had a few loose ends at the end of the series, including the burn victim from the ambulance explosion in episode one. All we knew of her was that her last name was Barrett and in many of the first episodes she had near misses of running into Jason.
Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she's not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. Contact: Phillips.connie@gmail.com
- DVD Review: General Hospital Night Shift - The Complete First Season
- Published: February 17, 2008
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Drama, Video: Soaps, Video: Television
- Part of a feature: The Night Shift
- Writer: Connie Phillips
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Patti --
There certainly were some drop stories through the course of the season. You mention the one with Maxie, there was also the one I mentioned with the mysterious "Barrett." I think some of that can be attributed to the show finding it's way. Some of it, yes, was just the quality of telling a story from beginning to end. The daytime show is suffering from the same problem with it's text-message killer storyline and Epiphany's heart attack.
I disagree with you that Dr. Drake is supposed to be a McDreamy. I think they've always portrayed him as a dog - plain and simple. Yes, he makes young nurses and some doctors swoon, but it never takes long for them to realize he's commitment phobic and damaged by his mother's death and his father's abandonment.
Regina struggled with the nursing program. Not everyone can get through school easily. She was haunted by the abortion she had and a case of low self-esteem. Dr. Julian helped her through the rough times.
They did make Leyla the 'bad guy' in the break up of Patrick and Robin, and she made a mistake with Stacy. Sometimes people make bad choices and have to live with the consequences. If I remember correctly, in the weeks following she was dealt with on the professional level and she wrestled with her guilt.
I think because this was a weekly show that aired at night, people tuned in expecting to see a Grey's Anatomy or ER. It was never meant to be that. It was always meant to follow the soap opera formula with the freedoms of night time cable.
I never, ever saw Leyla struggle with her guilt, nor did she receive any backlash on a professional level. She was coddled by the male doctors and the arrogant Dr.Patrick Drake let her pick his surgical team, for God's sake. Also, Robin had to apologize to HER, when Robin was the only one concerned about Stacey and had suggested a C-section weeks earlier, which would have saved her life.
Night Shift just reeked on every level.
I didn't have a problem with the STORIES not crossing over from Night Shift to GH and vice-versa. My problem was with how the RELATIONSHIPS between the characters were manipulated on Night Shift.
Jason and Robin had hardly spoken to each other for almost a decade on GH, but on Night Shift they were all buddy buddy. It seemed so fake and came out of left field. How did they find this new, happy place after all this time?
Spinelli was smitten with Lulu on GH, but on Night Shift he was head over heels for his Angel of Mercy Jolene. Huh? Leyla was more blatant about her pursuit of Patrick on Night Shift, whereas on GH she was portrayed as being caught in the middle of a Robin/Patrick feud and being uncomfortable about it.
I hated those glaring inconsistencies and enjoyed the series less because of them. The characters could have maintained the same traits and relationships, but been involved in different stories. There was no need to totally warp the canvas dynamic.
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General Hospital Nightshift has only two good episodes. The first episode and the last one. The writing is awful and all over the place. The promos hinted at an exciting triangle between Jason,Robin and Patrick. That never happens but it would of made the show more interesting. There are not alot of medical cases and for a show suppose to be set in the ER, they are hardly in the ER. The most interesting medical cases are Stacy, the HIV positive pregnant women. She is in critical condition and being escorted to the OR by Nurse Leyla who ditches her patient in the elevator with a kid and mob enforcer because she sees a man with an obvious head wound who speaks her native language. She is hailed as the hottest and smartest nurse after that, while the caring nurse Regina is called a disgrace to the African American race. If you think these things will be dealt with, it's not. The show wants you to agree with them. The second cases is heart patient Maxie. At the end of one episode she is coding, after that you never see her again at all. They reference that she is fine and out of the hospital. The Mcdreamy of the hospital, Dr. Drake, is anything but. He's more of a Mcsleazy with no depth or point of view. The pairings lack chemistry and the show makes a mockery of the nursing profession with poor peformances from those actresses and by giving a complete falseness of what is a priority and a nurses role. Billy Dee Williams is greatly underused and the only stand out performances are Kent Master King, Kimberly Mccullough and Steve Burton.