As the first episode of Maternal begins, Dr. Maryam Afridi (Parminder Nagra) has a dream about returning to the hospital. When her son gets up, she asks him to go back to bed because it is still nighttime. When she gets up in the morning, she complains to Raz for letting her sleep late. They rush to get to work and the kids out of the house. Dr. Helen Cavendish (Lisa McGrillis) yells for Maggie to hurry up so she won’t be late for work. Catherine MacDiarmid (Lara Pulver) talks to her baby as she drives. Helen and Maryam drop their kids off and hear them scream as they leave.

Once Catherine does the same, the women go to the hospital for their return to work induction. After that, Helen tells Catherine that Louise is on her team. She doesn’t know that Helen knows though. Catherine’s ex, Jack Oliviera (Raza Jaffrey), walks over to get a drink and they talk about his morning. Jack reveals Becky might be leaving and that would create an exciting opportunity for them. Susan Fisher (Julie Graham) joins Maryam in the bathroom to say the on call rota is a reg and an SHO down. She wants Maryam to take over even though she isn’t supposed to do it.

While the induction continues, Helen looks up the cost of divorce. Catherine approaches Becky to say she wants to become a consultant this year. Becky has been an inspiration to her since she handled her family with a brilliant career. Becky begins crying and flees into a side room. Catherine follows her and learns Becky’s husband is sleeping with the nanny. They’re also in debt up to their eyeballs. Now, her mother is ill so they have to move to Norfolk. Catherine recommends training to do something else while she is still young enough to do so. When Catherine says she always wanted to be a surgeon, Becky asks why she became a mother.

Maryam tells Helen that she has been put on call covering the labor ward. She thinks she should’ve taken more time off even though she has been on maternity leave for two years. Catherine gives her advice and urges her to get on with it. Maryam suggests the pager won’t even go off now, but it does a few seconds later. She manages to help a baby breathe. When she gets home, she learns that Raza is running late. Her mom reminds her she told her a doctor should be at the hospital treating patients. Helen takes care of her kids while Catherine tries to find out when her mother can help. Since her mom can’t help, Catherine tries to find a babysitter and negotiate a cheaper price.

Later, Helen sees her husband Guy (Oliver Chris) outside on the phone. Lars texts Catherine to see if she is available to meet when he flies in. Raz comes home smelling like beer and finds Maryam in bed reading. She tells him about being on call covering the labor ward. Raz doesn’t like that and reminds her one good day doesn’t mean everything is fixed. Maryam says they need her, but Raz says they do too and they agreed to some boundaries. He complains about her working all hours. Maryam says he is teaching through the holidays and she is a doctor. She reveals that they need her on call rota for the rest of the week.

The following day, Helen and Guy go to counseling to talk about their lack of sex life. They’re asked how much they talked about their experience of working through COVID. Guy says they’re still working through it and will be for the rest of the decade. He is adamant that the lack of physical intimacy is the sole cause of the breakdown. He says Helen refuses to participate in any physical relationship with him and that is the problem. Helen eventually brings up that he has been sleeping with the 24-year-old house officer. As they leave, Guy tells Helen he would feel more comfortable talking to a man.

At the hospital, Maryam is introduced to Dr. Simon Segman (Dean Ridge) who asks her to take a look at a 4-year-old with a temperature of 39.5. He won’t let Simon anywhere near him. The boy is currently under consultant care for various congenital conditions including congenital heart disease. He also has a history of serious reactions to antibiotics. Catherine learns she’ll be on call for A&E today. Jack tells her that Becky handed in her notice this morning. They’ll have an ad out for the job next week. Maryam introduces herself to Edward and his parents who say he isn’t himself and has had a temperature for 48 hours.

Simon watches as Maryam manages to check Edward’s mouth and eyes. She tells the parents that his heart rate and temperature are higher than they’d like. She suggests it is something viral. They’ll encourage some fluids and paracetamol. Simon will keep an eye on his urine output and blood gases. Catherine meets with Lars outside because he wants to apologize for his behavior. Catherine says she found out she was pregnant after they had sex a few times. She thought telling him was the right thing to do. He asks if she has people she can talk to. Catherine admits she isn’t there to say she has a termination.

She shows him a picture of his daughter named Elis who is nine months old. Catherine says he can go back to his wife and family so they can forget this conversation ever happened. Before she has to go, Lars asks her to send him the picture. Helen and Tessa speak in acute before Guy enters and asks Louise to tell everyone about Mrs. Osei. Once Helen learns more about the patient, she recommends getting her to eat and drink something. Helen and Louise briefly argue about it before Guy steps in. In private, Guy asks Helen not to undermine him in front of the other juniors.

She responds by telling him not to be crap. When Maryam returns to Edward, she realizes there are obs missing. Although Simon says they have agency nurses today, she reminds him she told him to do it. His mom says they haven’t been able to get much down him since his UTI which was a month ago. Maryam wants to do some more tests to ensure his UTI has cleared up properly. They haven’t found an antibiotic that he doesn’t react to. Maryam says they’ll call microbiology to see what they can give him. As they leave, Maryam tells Simon it is always wise to ask about UTIs because a previous infection should raise concern.

Simon didn’t think it was relevant since it had supposedly cleared up a month ago. She wants to know everything. Maryam asks him to mark the bloods urgent and call her when they get back before she gets paged and has to leave. Catherine gets a page and tells her patient that someone has been stabbed. She checks on the patient and recommends a chest drain. Prof Thomas comes in to observe the procedure. Catherine tells him she led the crash call and save the patient’s life. As he walks away, Catherine tells him that her father always said he was a fine teacher.

Lars vouches for Catherine to assist him so he can make his earlier flight. Helen and the new girl, Tessa, work with a young guy who has an earache and needs someone to look at his bollocks. Tessa believes he has mumps. Helen says half of those with orchitis will be left with minor atrophy. She checks them and says it can be a lasting impact of the virus in some cases. Once she has finished, she tells Tessa (Jennifer Macbeth) that she’ll have to lead or the patient will defer to the more senior colleague. Lars tells Helen why he did that for her. He asks if she is really okay raising Elis on her own.

Catherine insists they’re fine. Then, she gets ready and prepares to join Prof Thomas for the operation. Maryam gets the blood test results. She runs in to check on Edward before calling for help. Once help arrives, she struggles to find a vein. She asks for a consultant. Maryam asks Simon about calling microbiology, but he reminds her she never told him to do it. She calls to find out. Tessa tells Helen she was right about Osei who is looking much brighter now. Louise claims someone called her children and they’re coming later this week. Guy asks who reviewed bed 16’s ECG. He wants to know if they see any ECG that they don’t like. Guy tells Helen to supervise her F1s properly.

Catherine catches up with Jack and kisses him. They go into the storeroom to have sex. She tells him to get outside of her and explains it is the first time since Elis. She learns that he thought the baby might’ve been his. Edward’s condition worsens. Catherine finds her mother at home because the girl found her number on the fridge. Her mom tells her she isn’t interested in her God complex. She reminds Catherine that she wanted to be a mother and it demands sacrifice. Once her mom leaves, Catherine looks in on the baby before receiving a call from Lars who wants to be a father to Elis.

Helen calls Guy to see if he’d like to be able to have sex with other people. She says he can have sex with whoever he likes for a month. If it helps them, he can carry on. She confesses that it is humiliating for her to be back at work when everyone knows. Guy says everyone at work thinks she is brilliant because she is. He denies wanting to have sex with anyone else. Once Maryam makes it home, she checks on the kids and can’t stop thinking about Edward who passed away.

 

Maternal Review

Maternal follows in the footsteps of the recently popular This Is Going To Hurt, but with the twist that the main characters are also dealing with maternity. With the likes of Parminder Nagra, Lara Pulver, and Lisa McGrillis, the performances from the leads should be okay throughout the series.

Unfortunately, Maternal isn’t nearly as effective as This Is Going To Hurt right out of the gate because it is plagued by several noticeable issues. The soundtrack could better considering the pop songs are going to take viewers out of those intensely emotional moments and some of the songs are just annoying.

While the core story could be very interesting and insightful, many of the side stories are puerile and unbelievable. The series really doesn’t bring anything new to the table other than adding three cliché characters with problems that have been beaten like a dead horse.

With the cast and premise, Maternal had the potential to be an emotional roller coaster on par with This Is Going To Hurt, but the first episode doesn’t give much hope that it’ll reach the same level. Sadly, viewers will likely be underwhelmed by the opening episode of Maternal due to its lack of seriousness, bloated cast, and rehashed stories. The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of Maternal are available on Reel Mockery here.

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