Getting On: Series 2, Episode 3 (2010)

 

Another pretty great episode, another instance of Kim being out from under everyone’s thumbs and generally doing pretty well with it.  Coincidence?  I hardly think so.

 

We drop in on the ward in the middle of a night shift.  Kim’s fellow on-duty nurse has had to run out on her, and Kim is left to juggle the many demands on her.  There are the usual concerns – pain, medication, sleeplessness.  There’s the new variable – a just-arrived patient who speaks nothing but emphatic Italian.  And surprisingly, Kim’s second-season awesomeness goes one step further; along with all her hospital duties, she manages to tend to most of the regulars’ personal lives.

 

Through reasons that shall remain unspoiled, Den shows up during the shift but is kept uncharacteristically subordinate to Kim.  Den is an absolute mess of personal problems at the moment, and so the person ostensibly there to help Kim just winds up making more work for her, not to mention dragging her issues onto the ward where a bunch of elderly women are trying to sleep.

 

Long story short, all manner of insane stuff happens, the whole cast appears at the hospital for some reason or another, and most of them act childish, petty, and unprofessional for the duration.  Kim comes out looking like a champ, and the only grown-up of the bunch.  She’s definitely becoming my favorite.

 

Lots of director-y goodness in this episode.  The whole night-shift atmosphere is fantastically done, from the lightning to the shadows to the background noises.  PC does a great job capturing the many moods of the night.

 

Also, literally every single entrance is a directorial winner.  Seriously – they’re all memorable and effective.  Slam dunk for PC, I’d say.