#anti faith cadogan

[medicallymercury]

Tinderbox (30/12/23)

I did end up waking up super early (on accident) and watching this episode but I decided not to post my review until after it had been on TV. I've really got to start getting into writing my essays now cause I have less than two weeks even with the deadline extension but I can manage to spend 12 straight hours thinking about writing it (rotating Casualty in my microwave brain) and not even realise I've done it until my mum's alarm goes off.

Well, it was an episode, wasn't it? Sometimes Casualty gives us masterpieces of television (cough Switzerland) and sometimes Casualty gives us "what the fuck was that?" (cough Too Much, Too Young - that was a very mixed Saturday) and Tinderbox was, at least for me, pretty much in the middle. I guess I wasn't as invested as I could've been cause there wasn’t much of my faves, I'd probably be more positive if we had more of them.

Pretty busy and all over the place episode but that’s to be expected at the start of a miniseries, I guess.

Stevie my beloved, she was great in this one. Elinor Lawless is very talented!! This has got me looking forward to her own storyline even more.

I know Ryan was unpopular but I loved him as a problematic little bitch character. Shows like this sometimes need a Ryan to cause problems for everyone and he served his purpose. Like, he is terrible but it was amusing to have a terrible member of the predominantly very sweet baby nurse quartet. I’ll miss him, honestly. I don’t imagine he’ll come back since there’s a new new (I still think of the baby nurses as new) nurse joining next week.

I made this last night, he didn’t actually die but I still think it’s funny:

I really liked that final shot of Jodie, Rida and Cam together but, to quote my mum as it happened, “I feel like all three of them have wanted Ryan to get beaten up at least once before”.

I love a good family storyline, especially when the family has multiple members in the main cast cause I think it allows for more development of the relationship (gestures wildly at Jan and Teddy), and Max and Jodie were great today. Loved all their interactions. Especially loved their conversation about Max’s kidney failure and especially “I wouldn’t allow it, even if you wanted to.” “Which I don’t.” “Well at least we agree on one thing” and “I’m sorry I’m not what you expected” (!!!!!!!!!!). I think they’re more similar than either of them realises, and I love that kind of dynamic - in both my ‘main fandoms’ my favourite characters are girls whose relationships with their fathers could be described as “I’m nothing like my dad (I’m just acting exactly like him)”. There’s definitely examples of that in this episode but back in Driving Force I remember a scene where Dylan tells them that neither of them should be treating Max’s mum and they both stand there looking at him with the same expression.

I expected that knowing the Teddy infidelity arc will happen would affect how I watch the show and when Paige and Jodie were treating the same patient I was 👁️👁️ the whole time. Whatever, I’ll get over it (hhhhhhh).

Sah was in this but so barely that the credits didn’t actually include Arin, which is weird to me.

I will say I think Casualty has been on weird pacing recently. I’d blame the miniseries format but it feels like there has been some storylines that are too long-running without saying anything new (FAITH) and other ones that get dropped too quickly without enough time to actually go into the ideas they implied were happening.

I think it was a good start to the new series but I would’ve liked them to cut the Faith stuff and have something actually happening with the paramedics instead.

Yes, I know complaining about Faith is beating a dead horse. However, in continuing to write her and this storyline, the writers have invented a dead horse beating machine to keep beating the dead horse perpetually. It goes on endlessly and has absolutely nothing new to say. And while some storylines have been getting these rushed and incomplete conclusions, Casualty had an opportunity to give the Faith storyline a conclusion with her going to rehab and staying there and then they didn’t. Tired of it. Also, not to be mean to the presumably overwhelmed Holby HR department but why would they ask Faith of Drug Theft Fame to come back??? This is why your hospital is like this, your hiring practices are terrible.

#cas ep: tinderbox #bbc casualty #casualty #shoelace fandom #stevie nash #ryan firth #jodie whyte #max cristie #eh vaguely: #teddy gowan #sah brockner #paige allcott #as always #anti faith cadogan

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Well, Casualty have finally, finally managed it. An episode without Faith The Abuser Cadogan in it. I mean we had to sit through ages of both Paul and Adi but at least Adi’s presumably going now.

I didn’t hate this episode as much as a lot of people did. It was a bit ‘meh’, what with all the focus on the surrogacy storyline. The special effects were way too much and the fight scene was just embarrassing. But thankfully, we had Queen Stevie Nash to carry the episode.

I love Stevie. I know I say that like every week now, but I really do love her, and she just keeps getting better and better. It helps that she reminds me SO much of Henrik - more specifically, Henrik back in the day before Holby stopped calling him out on his shit. What was that anon ask ages back about watching Holby for Henrik because he’s “my poor fucked up little man... I need him to go to therapy... I need to see what he will do wrong next”. That’s how I feel about Stevie. She’s like Henrik - but, ironically, without the sexual harassment. (Although she faced more consequences for false allegations of such than Henrik did for actually harassing Sahira. :/)

Actually, thinking about it, Stevie’s sort of like early Henrik, yeah, but she’s also like a mini Gaskell. To the point I’m tempted to nickname her Mini Gaskell now. To be fair, that’s probably because most of the traits she has in common with Henrik are also ones Henrik has in common with John. Stevie is probably what would happen if Henrik and John somehow produced a kid. But what Jonty called the ‘self-righteous’ “I’m Dr. Nash and I can do no wrong” attitude, it feels more John than Henrik to me, so yeah. Not that her selfish streak isn’t a trait shared by both of them. (Indeed, you could compare Jonty’s rant to Mr. Clarke’s description of Henrik in S19E03: “A terrible old narcissist’s power struggle. [...] Acute lack of empathy. Borderline sociopathic need for immediate and total obedience.”)

Stevie is what John could’ve been if he were written well. Stevie is how you do a villainous mentally ill character right - her mental illness affects her behaviour just like anybody else’s would, but it’s not, at the end of the day, the reason she’s a villain (well, more like antagonist or anti-hero by now, but still). She’s a wonderfully complex character and I cannot praise her enough. Elinor Lawless is brilliant, too, her performances are so fantastic.

I really do think tonight’s episode providing insight into Stevie’s psyche is probably one of the only reasons I enjoyed it. She got a lot of interactions and all of them were fascinating. Despite the Jonty drama, she proved herself ultimately a good doctor in how gentle she was with the woman who was a rape survivor, and how she talked to the pregnant woman trying to decide whether to have an abortion. (Incidentally, this is actually another aspect in which she reminds me of both John and Henrik, but especially John. One of John’s trial patients, Mara, was a domestic violence survivor and he was just lovely with how he treated her.)

I don’t know where I was going with this really. I just love Stevie. I think she’s great. She rescued what otherwise would’ve been a mediocre at best episode for me.

Also, speaking of Jonty, he was throwing stones from his glass house with that rant about Stevie being a bad person. Just saying.

There was really only one other storyline tonight, and it was the Marty/Adi/Paul/Robyn surrogacy stuff. That was... eh. I’m glad Marty’s broken up with Adi and I hope we never hear from Adi again now - he’s outstayed his welcome already.

Speaking of people who have outstayed their welcome, Paul doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. He and Robyn are a thing now, I guess.

Watching Paul yell at Adi was the epitome of that “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point” meme. Like, he wasn’t wrong, but also... he’s Paul. And we’ve seen him being a bit of a misogynistic prat himself.

What the fuck was that fight????? The fact that they tried to play it as comedic when the rest of the storyline was serious made the tone feel seriously off. And the music was SO not needed.

In other news, why are we barely seeing Ethan at the moment when he’s literally leaving the show in a few months? This lack of Ethan scenes is going to be especially frustrating if they go the route of him having a sudden severe Huntington’s decline for his exit story. Just... sigh.

One thing I complained about last week was that, unlike the rest of the series so far, the episode didn’t feel busy enough - thankfully tonight’s episode fixed that, and it felt like a busy, crowded department again. So I did like that.

All in all... meh. Liked the Stevie stuff. Liked that we saw a lot of patients. The rest frustrated me. I wouldn’t mind if we were getting a better episode next week, but unfortunately, there’s no ep on the 15th. It’s that “Casualty gets shifted around the schedules for Strictly” time of year again, I suppose. Next recap will come whenever we get another episode.

#BBC Casualty #Stevie Nash #Casualty spoilers #tw;abuse mention #tw;rape mention #tw;sexual harassment mention

[medicallymercury]

A History of Violence Trailer Review

so, the trailer happened…

I just feel a bit like

bros….. (usual ranting below the cut)

I’ll talk about Teddy first because what is the point of this blog at this point, if not to go on about him? I watched through most of it and I was like “wow, he’s not being slutty, this is amazing for me” and then we got to the end and I clocked into the PR job. For some reason, probably projection-related ones, I struggle to believe he’d cheat on someone. But Casualty has deigned that he must and I guess that Holbyverse infidelity is basically a minor moral offence that about 50% of the population of the city must have committed at least once. Still feels especially bad coming from Teddy; hypocrisy you can see from space or whatever I said about “New Romance For Teddy” in that post a while back. Him crying? Great, I’m horrible to my faves and I love all the episodes where he is sad. And Jan’s there for him, so their relationship hasn’t been ruined past the point of no return (which I’m not surprised about, those two were always going to reconcile). If it weren’t for the infidelity, I’d probably be really excited to see what happens next in Casualty and with Teddy but it’s kinda casting a shadow that I need to come to terms with.

Also, I’m a tiny bit convinced Sah might leave/be killed off and I have been for a while. I don’t think I’ve seen a picture of Arin filming in ages but I’ve seen loads of pictures of all the others together, without them. I thought it would be weird for them to fake-leave only to real-leave a couple months later but this trailer has also got me like 👀👀 for reasons I won’t specify because I’ll sound like a conspiracy theorist, I’m probably being silly and I’m not necessarily expecting that Sah will go but I’m definitely considering the possibility.

Brief acknowledgment of FAITH STUFF WILL NEVER BE OVER, WILL IT? Still no comment beyond that.

For all that I don’t enjoy Faith and Iain stuff, it does seem to be related to some Jacob and Iain stuff in the trailer and I’ve really been enjoying their interactions so there’s that. Honestly, Jacob joining the paramedics has made Iain feel like he’s more integrated into the paramedics as a team than he was when it was just him, Jan, Teddy and Sah.

The stuff with Stevie looks really, really good. I’m really excited to see where they go with that.

So does the stuff with Jodie and Max. And Max’s mum is back too! I do wonder if the same issue I’m having with Teddy right now might start to affect Jodie a little but at least she hasn’t got anyone she should be being loyal to. I also enjoy Dylan’s continued involvement in the Max and Jodie stuff.

New characters look great, we’ve heard about Siobhan joining and she looks interesting even if I’m still bitter about Donna, but I think Ngozi is introduced to us by this trailer so that’s exciting (though I do worry a new staff nurse means Ryan, who was slowly growing on me, is leaving). Also, Zoe returning, which is something I feel like we’ve known about forever now.

Brief, but there was Rida and Rash stuff and I hope we’re about to get a sweet romance with no horrors. I guess I love the horrors on some level, or I wouldn’t watch it, but it’s nice to have something pleasant happening in between.

Oh yeah, Charlie’s leaving. That’s the whole big thing. I know it’s a big landmark for the show but I don’t really care.

Overall, I guess I’m looking forward to it being back. The focus seems to be on the Stevie storyline and the Max and Jodie storyline, and at least that hopefully means that the continuation of the Faith Stuff will take a backseat compared to before the break. Teddy… I don’t know. I believed that the questionable things he did before the break made sense for his character, they felt like reasonable developments on his personality even if they weren’t always the writing choices I would’ve made (cough the proposal). But I struggle to believe he’d do this. I think he would have to be really going through it to do something like that, and I guess he has been really going through it, but unless the writers lean into that fact when making him do this, I think I’ll struggle to come to terms with it as part of his character. A real mixed bag of a trailer for me but at least Casualty-typical horrors are still being inflicted on the paramedics, some things never change.

[I recognise that Iain is also THE STRUGGLER right now, but this is how I made it so this is how it stays.]

#just posted it with ‘teddy isn’t a bit of a slag he’s a total slag’ on my close friends story #i forget what made me give up on holby i wonder what my casualty last straw will be #bbc casualty #shoelace fandom #teddy gowan #jan jenning #sah brockner #anti faith cadogan #iain dean #jacob masters #jodie whyte #max cristie #rida amaan #rash masum #semi anti charlie fairhead? #im just ambivalent to him #also paige and dylan but i don’t like to tag if mentions are only in passing

[medicallymercury]

Liability (27/01/24)

Me and my mum watched The Big Night of Musicals before Casualty tonight because we are incredibly cool, and because we were watching all these musicals I got thinking about all the Holbyverse actors who have done stage stuff cause most of them have done something at some point. Anyway, did anyone know that Di Botcher played Madame Thenardier?????? I know there’s an audio recording of her in it out there and I’m now on a mission to find it like I was on my mission to find the recording of Milo Clarke as Max in TPTGW.

Because I’ve been so tired this week I haven’t really been following the spoilers, especially cause I wasn’t that excited for this episode based on its main stuff anyway. So when I went into IPlayer to watch it and Teddy and Jacob were the picture for it I was really pleasantly surprised (and then disappointed that they got like 10 minutes). Also because I’ve been so busy, I’m not gonna do my review for last week, sorry, I’m just tired and don’t have all that much to say beyond “hate the engagement being back on, loved seeing more Max and Dylan interactions but why no Donna mention?”.

Despite only getting 10 minutes of them, obviously and unsurprisingly my favourite part of this episode was Teddy and Jacob. Honestly, the episode wasn’t exactly full of competition for my ‘favourite part’ anyway but I think I would’ve enjoyed this even in an episode that had better other storylines happening. First of all, it was nice to see Teddy just doing his job and not anything that raises my blood pressure. Second, it was nice to see Teddy and Jacob just working together because I feel like the last time we got that was probably back in early Welcome to the Warzone.

I also feel like lately Teddy has seemed a lot more confident in his job which is surprising because normally when he’s going through it (which he currently is) then he’s also feeling on some level like he isn’t any good at his job.

Ngozi is actually so fun and brilliant and I love her so much. She has quickly become one of my favourites and yet we’ve barely met her yet. I appreciate her playing wingwoman for Cam but I also don’t think I really want him and Jodie to get together all that much anymore? She’s so ~Casualty~ and he’s still largely ~Normal~ and I don’t know if it would work.

Rash and Rida my beloveds, I’ve seen the spoilers for next week and I hope things work out for them. Rash’s storyline hits very close to home for me because my grandad had dementia and I just appreciate the portrayal even if it makes me sad.

I get that we are supposed to understand that Stevie is overdoing it and in many ways she is but if felt really ineffective to show that by having her think Harry was abusing his wife because who wouldn’t think that in that situation? Very reasonable assumption.

As I have repeatedly established, FAITH IRRITATES ME. But specifically it irritated me that she was acting like it was so unfair that she had to work under supervision as if she wasn’t STEALING DRUGS. The fact that she even still has a job is ridiculous but to be then acting like it’s so unfair that she can’t do her job like normal?? Consistent saying whenever she was on screen “YOU STOLE DRUGS!!”. No one trusts mee… you work in a hospital and YOU. STOLE. DRUGS.

On the spoilers: can Teddy not? Tired of him and Paige going back and forth, feel like they’ll probably end up getting back together at this rate. Don’t really like him and Jodie together. When I asked for him and Jan stuff this is not what I meant. Miss Sah.

#if this had any major grammatical issues or whatever please ignore im tired and drunk #bbc casualty #cas ep: liability #teddy gowan #jacob masters #ngozi okoye #cam mickelthwaite #jodie whyte #rash masum #rida amaan #stevie nash #anti faith cadogan

[medicallymercury]

Hard Pill (09/09/23)

Today’s Casualty review coming at you live from New Street Station while my friends discuss Grey’s Anatomy.

The Jan and Gethin storyline was my favourite part of this episode. I’m definitely gonna cry at this week’s episode.

This episode’s Teddy scenes have me overly defensive of him again. I feel so sad about him lately. Anyone noticed that people are calling him “Ted” way more than they used to (insert over analysis about “Teddy” as a diminutive nickname implying a lack of maturity here)?? Gethin telling him he’s “turned into a good man” and that realisation moment had me heartbroken. I also enjoyed the detail that Teddy’s teenage bedroom was a mess, hardly surprising considering what we’ve heard about his flat but I appreciated that.

I love Donna and I like Max but I am getting a little annoyed at their fling now?? YOU’RE AT WORK and YOU BOTH HAVE KIDS (and one of you has a kid who also works in the hospital), have some decorum or at least close the blinds.

Poor Dylan :(

The concept of Stevie going for drinks with the baby nurses was amusing to me.

Still want the Faith storyline to end, the way she’s treating Natalia is horrible.

#cas ep: hard pill #bbc casualty #casualty #shoelace fandom #jan jenning #teddy gowan #donna jackson #max cristie #dylan keogh #stevie nash #anti faith cadogan

[medicallymercury]

faith cadogan fuck off challenge (impossible)

#casualty: what if almost all of the scenes with teddy also had faith? #pmdd still hitting me bad so this might be all i can say abt the ep #(tmi again) #she’s so condescending as well can she just be quiet #anti faith cadogan

[medicallymercury]

Barriers (13/01/24)

First week back at uni done. Very Tired. Got a high 2:1 in my first ever uni essay, though.

This took a while to post and will probably be pretty short for ~reasons~ but I thought I should post it before tomorrow. Probably very noticeably, I'm not gonna do all my thoughts about Sah leaving yet. I have a lot of thoughts but that means organising them and typing them and I feel like I still have more thoughts that haven't fully happened in my head yet but that I will want to include. Also, I feel like making my final episode post about Sah will be the final goodbye and am holding off from doing it for as long as possible because of that. Of course I'll keep going on about them even now they've left because I love them, but the final episode post does feel like accepting that they've gone and I'm not ready for that. So, for Sah leaving: I'll get to it, eventually, but in short I think it was carried out really well!!

This is Sah leaving adjacent but I wanna defend Jan a bit. I love Stevie but it's literally Jan's job to look out for the paramedics and if she feels like another person's choices are putting her paramedics in danger (which they were) then it's in her job to call them out on that. That's what she did in this episode and I loved seeing it, actually. I saw people mad at her for it and I felt very defensive because That's Her Job.

In this storyline with the police in the hospital, I wonder if it will get as explicitly anti-police as some of these earlier episodes of Casualty I've been watching are. I don't think they'd be allowed to be as obvious as the older episodes but I also don't think this Harry guy is good news.

I enjoyed the Max and Jodie stuff in the episode and it was nice seeing his mum again but I kinda wish they'd start to get to the point a bit more with his backstory. I'm hoping this week's episode, with there being a lot of him and Dylan, will get to it. I also wish they'd used Max and Dylan's history more during Max's time on the show.

I don't care for and will never care for this Teddy and Jodie and Paige stuff. I know he's my favourite character but I don't always agree with how the writers use him. I've been against it since the October trailer but I'm tired of it already and we're only two episodes in.

I know they won't, but Natalia feels like a great character for the writers to acknowledge how terrible Faith is with. She's developing a thing for a fully grown man because she's desperate for some kind of parental support and can't tell the difference. That's really sad and I hope things end up working out for her. She has really been through it these past couple years. Also, I love her hair. 

#bbc casualty #cas ep: barriers #jan jenning #stevie nash #max cristie #jodie whyte #dylan keogh #anti faith cadogan

[medicallymercury]

Too Much, Too Young and Switzerland (16/09/23)

I feel like half my episode posts open with a “this one is so late” disclaimer but this must be nearly a month…the thing is that I don’t even think my thoughts will be any more developed than they’d be if I posted this the day the episodes aired. Also, I think I’ve gotten so used to not posting about episodes that for some reason my brain has become embarrassed about expressing my thoughts which is a weird feeling I’m trying to get rid of by acknowledging it right away in my pre-post notes.

I didn’t really like the first of the of these episodes, it felt like it was focussed mostly on dealing with storylines I don’t like or dealing with storylines I had been enjoying absolutely terribly, but Switzerland was brilliant (though I do think it should’ve come first).

Too Much, Too Young

Can Faith be gone now? Every time I feel like we’re finally about to lose her and this storyline, she manages to hold on somehow. At the very least, can she be off in rehab for a couple months? I get that a lot of people have started to not like her from all of this but I’ve been not liking her since before I even properly picked the show back up and I just want a break from her at this point. Honestly, I’m expecting her to make an annoying and immediate comeback once the hiatus is over and we get a time skip.

I didn’t think the Donna in prison thing really made sense but I didn’t entirely mind it until I realised that was supposed to be her exit from the show?? Already??? I expected that she’d be in prison but still in the show and then she’d get out somehow but no, she’s genuinely gone to prison. I’m really disappointed about this honestly - in a few months on the show, Donna became such a great part of the whole team and her storyline was interesting even before the car crash, it feels like such a waste of her character and the whole storyline and that’s all I really have to say on it.

Interesting details with Jodie and her nan but I wonder if there is more to it than what she said in the pub. For all that we’re learning about Max now, there’s still quite a lot we don’t know.

Something I’ve actually really been wanting to point out in this episode that I’m surprised no one else seems to have mentioned or noticed: Sah saying that Teddy “says it’s fine”. That means that they’ve spoke and while Sah thinks that Teddy isn’t past how he feels about it and while Sah doesn’t seem to be past their guilt, he has ~kind of- forgiven them?? It’s not the “let’s get back together and I’m sorry for pushing you away” forgiveness that Paige got (and which is definitely not actually healthy for their relationship), but he has at least tried to pretend “it’s fine” which is interesting to me.

Switzerland

I have less to say about this episode on a general level because I don’t think anything I could say would really be worth saying. It’s obviously great and incredibly sad, I don’t need to say that, it’s obvious.

I also don’t need to say that Di Botcher and Robert Pugh were amazing in this, because that’s been said a million times.

I don’t know what else to say, even three weeks out I still feel like all my thoughts on this episode are a bit useless. I think my favourite scene was the one where Jan starts asking about everything she’s got to do after he dies when Gethin has had the first drink. I just really liked how it was written and performed.

I don’t wanna make this post about Teddy because this episode very much wasn’t about him as much as it involved him but a girl has to hold off her inevitable start-of-uni induced autistic burnout somehow so here’s just the broad strokes of my Teddy thoughts, please ignore: It’s kind of always been obvious to me that he became a paramedic to be like Jan but now that’s explicit canon. This episode really leant into something I think I kind of alluded to me picking up on in my early posts about Aftermath, Teddy as Son 2.0. Specifically, “he’s a good lad, he’ll look after you” and Jan asking what she should tell Teddy after she asks what she should tell Ross and the ways that the answers to those questions are different. Lots of thoughts and I really don’t wanna go on breaking down every line (and all the ways I’m absolutely projecting) but yeah, it really added to how that argument felt for me. Equally too many thoughts about how this episode and that argument between Teddy and Jan fits into how Teddy’s like maturity level (I guess) has been dealt with in recent episodes but I equally don’t want to break the scenes down too much in that area.

#this post: i’ve got thoughts but i don’t know what they are and you can’t know them #cas ep: too much too young #cas ep: switzerland #bbc casualty #shoelace fandom #casualty #donna jackson #jodie whyte #max cristie #sah brockner #teddy gowan #paige allcott #jan jenning #anti faith cadogan

[medicallymercury]

Hey what is your opinion on the new casualty trailer

Hi, thanks for the ask! I was feeling very mixed about it when I saw it and I’m still feeling very mixed about it now. 

My ‘storylines of greatest concern’, the ones involving Teddy, came to a point I was happy with in the final episodes of Driving Force. At least, happy in the sense that I thought they mostly worked for the characters and felt like strong end-points for me to go off thinking about my own ideas from, so I’ve not exactly been excitedly waiting for the continuation there anyway. There are some singular scenes in the trailer I’m quite excited to see happen (Jan and Teddy scene, explosion scene) but it’s all being overshadowed by Teddy cheating on Paige which the writers are gonna really struggle to make me believe would actually happen.

Other than that, I’m not feeling super about the continuation of the Faith Stuff™ but I’m looking forward to the Stevie storyline and there were other things in there that piqued my interest (new characters, Rash and Rida stuff). It really is a 50/50 split of a trailer for me. 

I guess I’m glad to have it back on TV but that’s less to do with the trailer and more to do with it being how I was measuring time before the hiatus began (my weeks were just days until and since Casualty). Thanks again for the ask <3

#i think i accidentally forgot to answer a bunch of asks a while ago but i do try to when i remember my inbox exists so please send them #teddy gowan #anti faith cadogan #stevie nash #bbc casualty #answered asks

[medicallymercury]

I am completely exhausted from doing a presentation today but Casualty have confirmed it's coming back on the 30th, which isn't that exciting, but they've also said we're getting a trailer tomorrow, and revealed the next episode and chapter title earlier than I expected. I've been missing doing my little spoiler post even if I don't have anything fun to say so I thought I'd do one. I'll try to do a trailer review tomorrow but I'm quite busy for the next couple days so I might not get around to it until Friday.

Now feels like a good time to acknowledge that the 12 episode miniseries have fully replaced the longer series, which makes sense I guess but is annoying for referring to episodes when I can't be bothered with the title. Like, Too Much, Too Young used to be 38x05 now what? I'm just going with DFx10.

The new chapter is called The Ties That Bind Us which immediately set off my 'pre-existing episode with that title' alarms and there have been Casualty and Holby episodes with that title/a similar title respectively but I'm surprised my brain would be aware of them. EDIT: the new chapter was called The Ties That Bind Us, last night when I first checked the episode, this morning the new chapter is now called A History of Violence. No clue why that change happened, this is how it looked last night:

This is how it does now:

The first episode when we come back... I think a lot of people are probably thinking what I'm thinking: We will never be free from Faith. I was optimistic enough to think we might not have to have her as this central focus of half the show for a couple months but I now recognise that I was stupid for thinking that; the writers will never let go of this. To default to the Classic Mercury Response To Faith Stuff™: no comment.

But I love Stevie, and I'm glad to see them immediately picking up Jodie and Max's stuff when we come back because that reassures me about them dealing with everything before he leaves so that looks good.

My response to seeing that Casualty is properly coming back and we're getting a trailer was not what I expected, I thought I wanted it back but I guess I'm more worried about what they'll do with the polyfailure (and more specifically Teddy) after this than I even thought I was because I just kind of quite loudly said "not already" the moment I saw it. I guess I am happy to have new stuff to talk about but also the hiatus gave me an excuse to go on unprompted series 36 rants. Maybe the trailer will be incredible and it will make me feel better about it, and I'm hoping the trailer gives everyone else nice and reassuring shots of their faves doing plot-related things that don't make them feel ill as well, but I'm half-expecting a trailer that has me doing overtime in the Teddy's Unwilling PR Agent job.

#however i might actually end up writing a fic i’ve been thinking about for a while now the non-deadline of the 30th has been imposed #i keep saying bros because i’m stressed but bros how much time do you think i have to emotionally prepare for teddy and jodie to kiss? #casualty spoilers #bbc casualty #cas ep: tinderbox #oh i have missed making new 'cas ep:' tags #anti faith cadogan #stevie nash #max cristie #jodie whyte

[medicallymercury]

Pull Together, Push Apart (12/08/23) and Too Young, Too Soon (19/08/23)

I’ve just realised I never actually posted about these episodes, I watched them both pretty late because my mum always wants me to save watching the whole episode until she can and my dad’s been off work for the past couple weeks so we haven’t had a chance to sit down and watch them together until Monday so I just decided to post about them both at the same time. Because these episodes are mushed together in my brain from watching them one after the other, I’ll probably forget stuff but this is what is still sticking out to me:

Pull Together, Push Apart

I expected that the excessive Faith stuff would ruin this one for me, the thing about Faith is that it’s not even like I love to hate her, I just hate her. I really don’t care about this storyline but the fact that she’s dragged Stevie into it as well now is really shitty. Can’t wait until this stuff is done.

The Jacob and Iain stuff actually made this episode for me, it was all so good that it actually made up for everything else. I really enjoy the paramedics as a whole group and the dynamics that are there and Jacob really feels like he’s become a part of all of that now and I really loved their scenes together in today’s episode.

I feel like appreciate Donna in Casualty more than I did in Holby? I liked her over there but I’ve been loving her since she joined Casualty and I thought she was great in both of these episodes!

Too Young, Too Soon

I guess I expected that with Ffion and Gethin hiding what they were from Jan, she wouldn’t get to retire but it ended up being so painful, that moment of realisation! I think it’s even worse because Jan’s just had the kind of day that makes you decide you still want to be a paramedic and she’s come out of it, yeah, questioning her decision but still wanting to retire and her having that moment where she’s like “it’s all a lie”, just </3

I didn’t expect to be so on board with Rash and Rida and I think it could be this week’s spoilers influencing my thoughts and I kind of would still appreciate Rida as Rash’s permanent wingwoman but I’m on board with them as a couple just because I think they’re both so sweet!

I’m starting to see how the Donna and Max stuff will end up happening, like it’s started to make sense now. I’m so glad Donna has told the truth just for a lot of reasons, I’m very happy with the direction this storyline’s going in.

Guitar man, my favourite character.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot this. I get that for writing reasons Sah couldn’t be at Jan’s not-quite-happening-anymore retirement party BUT I AM SO SAD ABOUT THAT. I know the two of them have had their ups and downs and whatever but did “it would be lovely if you could realise how many people care about you, we’re family” mean nothing???? They should’ve been there, there should’ve at least been some vague justification.

#cas ep: pull together push apart #cas ep: too young too soon #bbc casualty #casualty #shoelace fandom #jacob masters #iain dean #donna jackson #jan jenning #rida amaan #rash masum #max cristie #anti faith cadogan

[medicallymercury]

Aftershock (06/01/24)

I submitted my final essay for last semester a couple days ago and I finally feel free. If anyone has been paying attention to my real life notes at the start of posts, you’ll have noticed that I’ve been stressing about but not writing my essays for over a month now. Things are suddenly so peaceful. I have learnt nothing about not procrastinating. 

This was supposed to be a normal episode review for last week but devolved into all my Casualty thoughts from the past couple days so like, spoilers for this week and next week at the end and a bit of rambling in the middle. I’m at a weird place with Casualty right now because we’re inching towards me just ignoring canon and pretending that what should’ve happened is happening instead. 

Part 1 - Episode Thoughts:

Goodbye Ryan. Who can say why they gave you and told us your backstory? As he’s leaving he tells them not to forget him and it’s like……..this is Casualty?? The moment you walk out that door, you were never here in the first place. I don’t feel incredibly caught up about him leaving, he was problematic but he was free and I suppose I have to give him that. 

Hello Ngozi. Basically all opposites here: I can’t wait to learn more about her, I will never forget her, I love her, she is perfect and can do no wrong. No thoughts, head empty, just Ngozi. She’s so !!!!! <3 She seems lovely, I’ve been missing ‘lovely from their intro’ characters. I think she has more experience than the others which is interesting too. 

Charlie is a lot more interesting right now than he has been in the whole time I’ve ever watched Casualty. I thought it was because I’ve been watching series 1 (special interest fuel but not as distracting as rewatching recent episodes so I can do other stuff while it’s on) and he’s more interesting in that because they had to actually write a character and couldn’t get away with just dragging him on screen and going “it’s Charlie bros, like if you agree”. But his scene with Ryan was as boring as ever so I think it’s just the influence of Stevie. 

[On the largely unrelated note of old Casualty: it’s super interesting how many of the current plot points and stuff that’s happening in A History of Violence also happened in series 1. Early Casualty has the issue of staff being attacked but no one wants the police around and I’m wondering if this current storyline will be as overtly anti-police as series 1 was. Also, spoilers for this week but the paramedics feel like the new measures haven’t considered them at all, and series 1 Casualty has an episode where the paramedics aren’t included in a meeting and one of them (PLAYED BY ROBERT PUGH AKA GETHIN) feels like the paramedics aren’t being treated like the rest of the staff.]

Faith Stuff™. I am still not interested, please end this Mr BBC. 

Part 2 - Mostly Episode Relevant Teddy Thoughts:

Objectively: It was an episode. He got with Jodie, which probably isn’t that out there. It sure happened.

Subjectively, the good: “Cutting me out of it like that, it shows what she thinks of me” is a great line for exactly what I think is the real issue Teddy has with Jan right now. The wedding is off and Paige acknowledged the issues in their relationship, which is about time. Teddy and Paige were cute in that episode where Teddy is stressing about asking her out but probably doomed from the start. The problems I think they both bring to a relationship aren’t incredibly compatible problems, it was only a matter of time before things started to implode (IF SAH WAS THERE, THOUGH…). I really, really liked how surprised Teddy seems to be that Paige isn’t happy that he only asked her to marry him because Gethin told him to. Yeah, he would be surprised. So many things in his life, if you really think about it, come back to his family (“it’s why I became a paramedic”) to the point that I do think he wouldn't get why it would weird someone out. I also liked that Paige and Sah really don't get how he’s feeling at all, I think what he’s feeling is very specific and different than typical grief and it’s not their fault they can’t really figure out what’s up there because I don’t think he knows either.

Subjectively, the bad: but I didn’t like that ~Jodie understands it~ or whatever. Why? Because her mum died? Well Casualty, I regret to inform you of your own writing, but so did Paige’s mum. Not even as a backstory thing, as a plot thing. I won’t ever be happy about this because I’m ride or die for Sah/Teddy/Paige now, they’re the only thing that could make me happy. Even with just Sah/Teddy it’s like, I wouldn’t actually want them together despite how much I talk about them. They’re my two bros chilling in an ambulance, five feet apart because they have unresolved issues. The Sah and Teddy scene was a let down but whatever (thinly veiled annoyance). Generally, as I said before, it feels like this episode brushed past some interesting ideas but just failed to go there and didn’t let any of the ideas it established sit before having Teddy cheat on Paige (I’m counting it as cheating cause I can). 

Subjectively, the overanalysis: firstly, there’s pacing problems. I think the fact that they didn’t spend enough time developing Teddy’s feelings really didn’t help his part of this episode. One episode exploring Teddy’s feelings about it all, developing that a little, looking into what’s going on underneath and how no one really understands it. Let it rest a bit. Another one for the impact on his relationships, he (ugh) gets with Jodie. I still wouldn’t love it but I think it would feel better developed. Secondly, I just think they underuse the best parts of Teddy to focus on the dramatic parts. They have him do things that aren’t theoretically OOC but are just the most extreme thing he could do and it’s a waste. And they focus on this romance storyline (which they already ruined the moment they decided not to make it a polyamory storyline) that just isn’t that interesting as much as it is dramatic. The most interesting thing about Teddy right now is Jan. With most characters, to say that the most interesting thing about them is a different character would be insulting, but I mean it as a massive compliment to how well written their relationship is and how well they integrated Teddy into Jan’s character, considering he definitely wasn’t part of their original plan for her. I’m sure they will do an episode about Teddy and Jan, because if they don’t that is terrible writing, but I wish this one had given us more on his feelings towards her and about his family than it did. That’s what’s interesting. There’s so many angles to come at this from, there’s so many potential layers to their relationship. But no, they have to have uninteresting romance. If an autistic person with a special interest on a character is bored by the portrayal of that character, that isn’t a great sign. He is very interesting to me but not for reasons canon cares to consider. 

Part 3 - Spoiler Thoughts:

I want to be excited about this week's episode but I’m not sure after last week. I am excited for a Sah and Teddy interaction of actual substance, though. Very excited. That will make or break the episode for me. Will skip straight to it when I watch.

TEDDY INSISTS THAT HE DOESN’T WANT SAH TO LEAVE. MY BELOVEDS.

Lots of paramedic stuff which is good, Jan’s back which is good. Always questioned the use of Sah’s top surgery as a plot device, especially when they used it to create tension between them and Paige (??????), but I am kinda like noooooo about them having Teddy be dismissive about it. Yes, it is just my take on his character that this is an important thing about him, and Yes, he is gonna apologise. But they can’t blame me for caring about Teddy consistently being there for Sah on this when they’ve made so many other characters be vaguely or explicitly transphobic to them and only had Teddy be consistently on their side. YOU CAN’T BLAME ME FOR CARING ABOUT THAT. Teddy in my head would never and he’s the real one now. 

Do I think Sah is gonna leave? Maybe. I’ve been expecting them to leave during this miniseries for a couple reasons, even though that means we have a lot of characters leaving in a few months, but I thought it would happen later on. And two exits in two weeks is a lot. If they leave it’s like, I will absolutely miss them but it feels kinda like the writers don’t know what to do with them anymore anyway. Sah in my head lives on with Teddy in my head. 

Next week’s episode will have Max and Dylan stuff AND an acknowledgement of Donna?? I am kinda excited to see that, even if it will bring back my annoyance at how they wrote Donna’s exit.

Anyway, I’m back to being able to think about Casualty all the time without it having a direct effect on my real life obligations so expect more posts and faster replies for at least a month.

Can you tell I’ve been watching Succession?

#why is this 1600 words in an hour when it took centuries to write that much about early modern political powers?? #bbc casualty #casualty spoilers #cas ep: aftershock #ryan firth #ngozi okoye #charlie fairhead #anti faith cadogan #teddy gowan #jodie whyte #paige allcott #sah brockner #jan jenning #other characters mentioned but tagging seems excessive: stevie nash max cristie dylan keogh donna jackson

[medicallymercury]

The Ostrich Effect and One Hundred Years (02/09/23)

Double episode day was a great one for me to be honest - Barbie movie and then Chinese takeaway and then DOUBLE CASUALTY. But I’ve only just gotten to sit down and fully take in the episodes.

The stuff to do with Teddy, Paige and Sah is gonna probably be it’s own post when I’m feeling up to it or at least a post about Teddy because I am definitely feeling excessively sympathetic towards him right now - he’s so stupid but he’s also so me. Basically, I disagree with the proposal as a writing decision but will still defend how Teddy got there as a character. I don’t know, I feel weird about it all and I can just feel Sah and Teddy’s ability to go back to the way they used to be slipping away and it makes me so sad because they’re why I got back into Casualty in the first place (the episode that drew me back in was With a Bullet).

Like last time I had to make a post about two episodes at once, it might be a little mushed in my brain so I might miss things or not mention stuff but like I swear I technically know it happened.

The Ostrich Effect

I felt so bad for Dylan in this episode :( With his new aftershave. I respect the love triangle and whatever but for all that I think Max is really interesting as a character and think his relationship with Jodie is super interesting, Dylan is the clear choice on a romantic level for me.

I enjoyed all of Dylan and Max’s scenes in this one, I’m wanting a One Man and His God style episode for them more than ever right now. It would make for such a brilliant special episode between this chapter and the next.

I think Stevie is so great lately and hate how she’s been dragged into all this stuff with Faith. Got nothing else to say cause all I ever have to say about Faith is that she is there.

I know we didn’t get much of this, BUT I LOVED RASH AND RIDA’S SCENE.

I did enjoy the scenes we got with Teddy and Jan and Gethin - but that’s the part of the that loves family stuff for every character I care about. Spoilers but I’m excited for how Teddy will be involved in next episode’s stuff.

One Hundred Years

Storm episode, love that. No other thoughts just think it’s cool.

FINALLY, Iain has told Max about Faith and Stevie was going to. But I still can’t see this properly getting rid of this stuff, the writers seem so attached to this storyline. Really enjoyed Iain and Stevie’s moments. That moment with the reveal that Iain has already told Max!!

Surprised at the lack of Donna in both of these episodes actually.

This is a relatively minor moment. When Dylan tells Max and Jodie they can’t his mum/her nan, they pull like the same face and I just appreciated that. I love all their family stuff, and Max stressing about now wanting to hurt her when he hasn’t given her anything is so sad. Really loved their family stuff in this one.

Again, not gonna touch the proposal and stuff in full here but Jan and Sah’s reaction!! I choose to believe that post-proposal they went back to the ambulance station and had some overly-sugary tea and got the emergency pink wafers together because this is very much an emergency.

Looking forward to this week’s episode (and tomorrow’s spoilers for next week) moving on from here.

#cas ep: the ostrich effect #cas ep: one hundred years #bbc casualty #casualty #shoelace fandom #teddy gowan #sah brockner #paige allcott #dylan keogh #max cristie #jodie whyte #stevie nash #anti faith cadogan #rash masum #rida amaan #jan jenning #iain dean #donna jackson

[lonelier-version-of-you]

I'm both exhausted and very busy at the moment, plus I've been working on some Johnrik stuff for tomorrow, so I'm afraid I probably won't be able to answer all of the various messages I've had in the past day or so. But I will say that, as is usual for me, I'll agree with almost anything out there that's pro-Donna Jackson and/or anti-Faith Cadogan.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

so I've been watching casualty since season 36 and have only seen clips of earlier seasons, and im considering watching some of holby City but the thought of watching from the start is honestly kind of daunting, so is there a season you'd recommend starting from? i didn't struggle with missing people's previous storylines on casualty because i just looked at the wiki if i really wanted to know so that isn't an issue. thanks!

Hi!

First off, I will say that my opinions on this are going to be kind of biased, because I haven't seen the whole show. The vast majority of Holby I've seen is from series 13 onwards, I've seen some from series 11 and 12, and a few episodes from series 8, 9, and 10. My opinions are also going to be biased in that I tend to recommend seasons/episodes to people based on what I think of how Henrik Hanssen is portrayed in them, because he's my favourite character by far. So, yeah.

I generally tell people to start with series 15! It's my favourite season, and I think it would be a strong starting point. Plus, the Drama channel will probably start airing it in a couple weeks - because they're nearly done re-running series 14 now - at which point series 15 will likely all be easily accessible on UKTV Play (again, going by what they did with series 14). So if you ask me, for anyone wanting to get into Holby, right about now is a great time! 🙂

Also, series 15 is where I think Henrik's character is at its best. At that point, he's grown from the more antagonistic character of his first 2 seasons into more of an anti-hero, and that's the type of character I think he works best as. Plus, there's the beautiful episode ("Hanssen/Hemingway") about his past - for which they actually filmed in Sweden!! It's a good season for pretty much everyone though, other characters I love get great storylines too (such as Antoine Malick, Gemma Wilde, and Sacha Levy - and that's only a few!), so it's not just because of Henrik that I recommend it.

However, series 14 itself is one I'd consider suggesting as a starting point as well, especially now because I think it's important to see the original storyline between Henrik and his former mentee Sahira Shah - particularly if you plan on watching through to the final 2 seasons (basically, the show tried to retcon their history later in a way that strongly villainised Sahira which I really didn't like because in the original story it was Henrik that was very controlling and bullying to her). In theory I think starting with series 13 could also work for many of the same reasons as series 14, but practically speaking, S14 would be easier because of the aforementioned Drama reruns.

Also, if you start with series 14, you'd get to see a while of the show before Jonny Maconie arrives and starts his relationship with Jac - whereas he's there throughout series 15. Jonny as a character was basically the prototype for Faith Cadogan IMO, in the sense of being a character the show seems to love, who yet constantly does awful things and is horrible to people and just... gets away with it and is still framed as a nice person everyone would want to be friends with. 🙃 (To some extent similar things happen with Henrik in later seasons, but this isn't the case with S14 or S15.)

As a Henrik fan I almost want to say "stop after series 20 episode 47", because that's where his character arc ends for all intents and purposes IMHO. (...It's also where his romantic storyline with John Gaskell ends. Again, I'm a biased Johnrik fan.) But there's definitely stuff after that that's worth seeing, namely the series 21 ep "The Perfect Storm" (Henrik isn't in it, it's just a brilliant episode for Jac), and depending on which characters you find yourself liking, you might want to see things through to the end anyway. (I personally hate the second half of series 22, and basically all of series 23, but others' opinions may vary!)

So, yeah, I'd say start with either series 14 or series 15 for now (plenty of the older stuff is worth seeing too, but S14 and S15 are both good and easy starting points), and stop whenever you like. :)

#Holby City #asks #anons