I will bet that when I say medical drama, one of the first shows that will pop into your head is House, as it has become hugely popular (and has now ended). On the surface, Monroe is quite similar to House in that your main character is a brilliant, but sarcastic doctor who solves the cases that most other people wouldn’t even touch. Mostly though, the difference ends there. In his professional life, Gabriel Monroe (James Nesbitt) is a neurosurgeon who really doesn’t care about any other cases. He is fascinated with the brain and considers it the best of the organs. Things like the heart are just for mechanics in his mind. Monroe is married with children, or at least he was. Unfortunately for him, his daughter died of a brain tumor at 13. The simply irony of a brain surgeon’s daughter dying of a tumor is enough to tear him apart emotionally. When his son goes off to university, his wife Anna (Susan Lynch) has had enough and leaves him as well, which really sets the stage for an emotionally scarred doctor to throw himself into his work.
Monroe has several residents and such working under him, so there is a never-ending supply of people for him to berate and take his frustrations out on. Luckily, he doesn’t attack the patients though. He shows surprising concern for the patients and goes the extra distance to try and make sure they have the best possible outcome. Of his coworkers/residents, I think that Sally Fortune (Manjinder Virk) (always called Fortune) is my favorite. She’s always prepared, always knows her stuff, but yet she’s never bitchy or snarky about it. She just does her job and helps everyone else. Fortune is really going to have a rough time of things at the end of the season, though. If they continue the show, I will be very interested to see what happens with her. Daniel Springer (Luke Allen-Gale) is Fortune’s “competitor,” so to speak, as he is another resident. Springer isn’t always on the ball and he ends up taking a lot of abuse from Monroe. I’d venture to guess that he will fail out. Kitty Wilson (Michelle Asante) is also a resident for Monroe. She seems to know her stuff, but she’s hesitant to speak up and I wonder if she has the stomach for medicine. Laurence Shepherd (Tom Riley) is Monroe’s best friend and an anesthesiologist at the hospital, which means Monroe likes to pick at him, especially when Monroe figures out that Shepherd has a secret relationship that he is hiding. Jenny Bremner (Sarah Parish) is a heart surgeon at the hospital. She and Monroe are continually bickering, which provides several humorous situations.
Overall, Monroe: Series 1 is a solid show, but it just doesn’t have enough pull to keep me addicted, yet. I’d really like to see where they go from here and what they do with the characters though. If you’re looking for a medical drama that seems a bit more realistic in medical cases than a lot of the shows on TV today, check out Monroe: Series 1.
