As the second episode of This Is Going To Hurt begins, Adam Kay (Ben Whishaw) waits to see if they can find a cotton swab. He threatens to cut the woman open again suspecting they’ve left it inside her stomach. Tracy (Michele Austin) tries to calm everyone down. Adam explains this to the patient while saying it would dissolve, but it’d take thousands of years. Before long, Tracy returns with the baby and the missing swab. Once he finishes, Adam goes to check on the baby from before. He talks to Ben (Michael Workeye) who reminds him he misdiagnosed the baby’s mother so he was born about 15 weeks too early. He doesn’t want to tell Adam anything else. Instead, he says Adam has done his bit and they’re doing theirs now. Tracy finds him later. She says they all make mistakes and it doesn’t mean they’re bad at their jobs.

They have to use their mistakes to improve. When Adam returns home, he finds a drunk Harry (Rory Fleck Byrne) laying outside by the door. Harry claims the door is broken, but that likely isn’t the case. Adam helps Harry up and tries to get him inside. Before they make it, Harry makes out with him. Once they step inside, Harry jumps on him again forcing Adam to try to stop him. Harry ends up passing out on the bed before anything happens though. Kay sets his alarm clock and jumps into bed with him. Adam gets out of bed to grab something to eat. While looking through the refrigerator, he imagines a little baby is in there. A distraught Adam quickly shuts the fridge door to make it go away. Harry gets up and finds him knitting on the couch a bit later. Before Adam leaves, Harry tells him that Greg (Tom Durant Pritchard) and Emma (Alice Orr-Ewing) are coming so he should try to get back by seven.

Adam ridicules Emma. Greg tells him he should stop telling Emma how much he hates her since they’re getting married and she is having his baby. Again, that causes Adam to think about the premature baby. Tracy runs into Shruti (Ambika Mod) who says she has cut sleeping out because they’re a distraction from her exams. They’re a few weeks away, she hasn’t made much progress, and she is on call with Adam in 10 minutes. Tracy suggests letting Adam handle it on his own for the day. When Adam arrives, Tracy changes the subject by saying she will have a few days off soon and won’t know what to do with herself. Adam tells Shruti to put her books down and come on, but Tracy suggests otherwise. He relents and gives her two more hours although he is going to test her afterward. Then, Adam visits his next patient who doesn’t want any medical care or medicine. Her mom complains she won’t even take an Aspirin.

When Adam touches the woman’s stomach, Ruth (Chanel Waddock) screams and moves back causing him to suspect something is wrong. He warns her that the ovary might’ve gotten twisted around on itself. When questioned, he admits nothing in medicine is 100% although going home could make this a lot worse. He asks if her friend, Corry (Georgia Frost), would like to go get her an overnight back. The patient admits they’re partners and that nearly leads to an argument with Adam being a homophobe. After that, Adam goes to the operating room where Mr. Lockhart (Alex Jennings) is working alongside Julian (Kadiff Kirwan). He begins telling them about the 26-year-old patient who has abdominal pain and a negative pregnancy test. Julian suggests it is just period pains and Adam is being overly cautious because of what happened, but Adam doesn’t think so. Lockhart agrees that surgeries should be a last resort.

Adam asks if they CT the patient, but they’re not eager to do that either. They force Adam to send the patient home. When Adam returns to the patient, he goes against their wishes and says they’re going to keep her in the hospital. He apologizes for sounding insensitive before and admits he is gay too. She responds by saying it sounds like he has never said that before. Adam returns to the desk where he asks Shruti if he can see Mrs. Winnicka’s bloods. He learns they’ve replaced all the computers with computers on wheels so it takes some time for Shruti to get the computer turned on. They check the results and confirm everything is normal.

Adam says they should go and see her. He tells Shruti to bring her new toy, but she forgets to unplug it and it crashes to the ground. Adam says a hospital can be a lonely place when you don’t have friends or family visiting. He greets Mrs. Winnicka (Sara Kestelman) who admits she’d rather see Julian. Adam corrects himself and says the hospital can be a lonely place when you’re a total bitch. He asks her whether she has experienced any more pain in the check. She says no, but he wants to get the cardiology doctors to review her anyway just in case. Shruti questions whether that is a good idea, but eventually she doesn’t question Adam’s request. Adam sits on the bed with Winnicka and asks about the guys in the picture. She says her husband is dead, one son is busy working, and one son hasn’t thought up an excuse not to come see her yet.

Adam hopes she’ll be out of here before too long, but she says it has already been too long. Back at the desk, Shruti worries they’re going to stop accepting tests if she keeps crying wolf and sending them unnecessary ones. Adam says it is necessary because he said it. He gives her money and asks her to buy a bottle of whiskey for Mrs. Winnicka. Benilda (Yasmin Wilde) asks Adam whether Winnicka can go home, but he says no. As for Ruth, they’re going to monitor her overnight with the possibility of surgery in the morning. He lies and says this has been discussed with his consultant. Next, Adam calls his mother to ask if he can call on her tomorrow since he is having dinner with Greg and Emma tonight. He insists it will only be the three of them. As Shruti gets off the elevator, she runs into Benilda who sees the alcohol. She tries to explain that it is for a patient. Her pager goes off all the while. Adam sits with Erika’s baby and talks to it. He promises he tried his best and wants him to believe that.

When Adam returns home, he sits in his car and continues knitting. He begins thinking about Erika and the baby before he hits the steering wheel causing the vehicle’s alarm to go off. Greg joins him and waits like he locks up the vehicle. At work, Shruti is scolded for wasting the cardiology doctor’s time. She apologizes and promises she didn’t mean to waste her time. Shruti is told that Winnicka’s pain was obviously not cardiac and she should’ve known that. She is asked about her registrar, but Shruti tries to avoid giving her name. Emma complains she needs a holiday before Harry changes the subject so Adam can tell them about his degloving story. He tells them about a young man who slid down a light pole and got his penis degloved. Adam describes it as looking like spaghetti. Then, Emma and Greg begin talking about their renovations. Greg tells Adam he saw his mother while Harry isn’t sure he’d recognize her. Adam says he would because the room gets ten degrees cold around her.

Emma reveals she is 21 weeks now and can’t have any champagne. Harry suspects they’re halfway there before they learn the couple decided not to find out the gender of their baby. Adam doesn’t like it when Emma says they’re going to play it safe and go with a private practice. When Adam is allowed to look at the pictures, he says she looks perfect. That angers Emma who didn’t want to know the baby’s sex. Once they’re gone, Harry asks Adam what got into him since he really upset them. Adam complains they were rubbing his face in their fancy house, wedding, and car that works. He goes on to say they are just so normal. Harry asks why he’d ruin one of their few nights together if he wants normal. The questions continue until Adam has had enough and decides to go to bed. In the morning, Adam tells Harry he’ll be back around seven. Harry responds by saying he is going out tonight. Adam goes to work and sits with Ericka’s baby again.

He pleads with the baby to hurry up and get better since it’d be good for the both of them. Ericka (Hannah Onslow) and Paula (Rosie Akerman) enter to check on the baby. Adam tells her that it seems like the antibiotics are starting to work so that is good news. He gives her the little socks he knitted for the baby. Next, Adam has to deal with Teri (Bronwyn James) who has gotten something stuck up there. He eventually pulls out a Kinder egg. He tries to throw it away, but Teri stops him and asks Carl (Andrew Ellis) to open it. He does and finds a ring. Teri proposes to him at this point, Carl says yes, and Adam agrees to take picture of them together. Adam returns to Shruti and asks whether cardiology saw Mrs. Winnicka. Shruti confirms they did and they were satisfied that nothing was wrong. He forces Shruti to carry the folder to Winnicka’s room to ask if she has had any more chest pain.

She says no. Adam asks if she’d like a nightcap, but she doesn’t like Jack Daniel’s. Once Adam finishes with her, he is confronted by Julian who asks about the patient with period pains. Adam doesn’t think they should’ve ignored her symptoms, but Julian insists he shouldn’t have ignored him and Lockhart. Julian already sent her home. He reminds Adam he only discharged one patient too early and shouldn’t try to keep all the other patients for too long. Julian tells Shruti she is lucky to have Adam to learn from and not to do what he does. Adam goes outside where he bums a cigarette from a patient of the hospital. While trying to smoke it, he sees Ruth and Corry arguing by their vehicle. He suspects something is wrong and calls in an ovarian torsion. He says he is 100% sure when he is really only 50% sure. Shruti talks to someone on the phone and reports Adam. Adam finds out that everything is normal for Ruth.

Julian and Lockhart enter the room and Lockhart tells Adam to get out. However, he changes his mind when he sees some free fluid in the abdomen. Adam thanks the god he didn’t believe it and apologizes for the blasphemy right before. Lockhart finds that the ovary has likely been twisting backward and forward on itself. He tells Adam good job for spotting them before asking if he has done the operation before. Julian offers to walk Adam through it, but Lockhart believes they’ll be okay. Once they finish, Lockhart tells Adam to come by his office a bit later because he has something he’d like to talk about. Adam approaches Shruti and accuses her of ratting him out because she thought he was wrong. She says he got one thing right today and she got a mark because of his crazy referrals. He apologizes and admits he forgets there was a time when he didn’t know all this stuff either like when he was seven.

He has to go talk to Lockhart who likely wants to pat him on the back and they can have a drink after that. Lockhart tells him he is a good, little doctor before learning Adam studied in London. Adam says he doesn’t have kids or marriage although he is in a long-term relationship. He says his girlfriend is in graphic design. Lockhart shows Adam the pictures of the babies on his walls. He asks every mother to give him a picture of the baby he delivers. He shows him a picture of the Van Hegen baby and reveals the mother has filed a complaint. Lockhart just wanted to give him a heads up. He encourages Adam to cheer up because he won’t lose his job. It might make it harder for him to get another one though. As Adam leaves, he throws away the knitting stuff and kicks the trashcan. As he arrives home, he immediately starts drinking. Shruti gets home and finds a message from Adam saying they can do it another time.

Adam tries to play the piano, but he can’t stop thinking about Ericka and everything else that has happened. Harry enters and says he didn’t want to go out after all. Harry asks how work was. Adam only says it was fine. Harry reminds him they’ve been going out for two years. Adam jokes it feels like ten and could be in straight years, but Harry believes he knows when something is up. Adam won’t say what is going on. Instead, he asks Harry to marry him. A confused Harry says no before the episode ends.

 

This Is Going To Hurt Review

Since this is only the second episode of This Is Going To Hurt, it is far too early to say whether it’ll be great or just mediocre. Sometimes, the series looks like it is going to break out of its shallow shell and transform into an emotional roller coaster, but it hasn’t managed to do that yet. It has a few key problems holding it back with the biggest being the unsympathetic protagonist. The series hasn’t done enough to make viewers feel sorry for Adam Kay and I think that is very important here.

None of the characters are particularly sympathetic. The dialogue isn’t exceptional either because we’ve heard these things before. The only difference is that the alienating jokes have entered the NHS. Besides maybe going even further to the extreme, This Is Going To Hurt isn’t offering anything out of the norm. Alex Jennings’s Mr. Lockhart is a beacon of light in the series since he seems to be the only competent, confident professional of the bunch.

Despite cringing during the episode numerous times, This Is Going To Hurt has plenty of time to develop into a worthwhile, emotional drama. I like the feel of this series more than other hospital dramas and always enjoy watching Ben Whishaw. It is likely just going to take some time to start caring about Adam, Shruti, and the other main character. The second episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of This Is Going To Hurt can be found here. Learn how to support the Reel Mockery project by following this link.