The medical field isn’t just essential for the well-being of all people, it is also a source of inspiration for show creators and scriptwriters. The complexity and intensity that usually occur in the healthcare world are the main reasons why this topic is of so much interest to creatives, and from the challenges doctors have to face while administering treatments to the journey of the patients navigating the recovery process, there are many different plots to explore. Viewers may even see themselves represented in some of these storylines since, although they’re not real, they can nonetheless provide solace.
If you’ve been searching for movies and shows depicting the medical field to add to your watchlist, here are some titles that you may want to consider.
Bleed Out
This 2018 HBO documentary film could also be called “Medical Negligence: An In-Depth Look” because of the sobering manner in which it treats the subject. The introduction focuses on Judie Burrows, a globetrotting retired teacher who had to undergo emergency surgery in 2009 to repair a fractured hip resulting from a fall from her bike. The recovery was slow in spite of the physical therapy, and five months later, Judie fell again, and the physicians concluded that her hip had been fractured again as a result. This second surgery resulted in a coma that caused permanent brain damage. The documentary takes place over a whole decade, with each year showing how the family struggled with their situation. Steve Burrows, Judie’s son and both the director and the writer of the documentary, included real footage, spy-cam footage, and courtroom testimonies to demonstrate the institutional flaws of the healthcare system.
Contagion
The popularity of this 2011 medical disaster thriller was renewed in 2020 following the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. The plot was indeed inspired by the SARS outbreak of 2002-2004 and the 2009 flu pandemic and features an ensemble cast and a filmmaking style known as hyperlink cinema, which includes multi-linear narrative structures under a single unifying theme. The first patient is Beth Emhoff, a businesswoman who is returning from Hong Kong. She is slightly ill, but upon her return back home to Minneapolis, she suffers a seizure and passes away as a result of an unknown illness. Her widowed husband discovers his stepson to have died as a result of the virus as well, but that he is naturally immune. The emergence of the virus causes panic buying and violence while scientists attempt to contact and trace everyone who may have met Beth.
The Good Doctor
This American thriller follows Martin E. Blake, a British medical student who moves to Southern California in order to start his residency. Although he is an agreeable and pleasant person on the surface, he is truly a narcissist who believes he deserves special treatment, a belief that ends up alienating him from the nurses in the end. He ends up butting heads with his superiors as well, then sees an opportunity when an 18-year-old girl arrives at the hospital, and Martin treats her kidney infection. Her family regards him as a hero, which plays into the special treatment he wants to receive, and he ends up tampering with the girl’s medication in order to keep her ill while appearing that he’s doing everything in his power to help her recover.
Awakenings
This movie takes place in 1969 and follows Malcolm Sayer, a doctor working in a hospital in the Bronx. In the past, he had worked with patients affected by the encephalitis lethargica epidemic of 1919-1930, discovering that some stimuli could reach past their catatonic states. He attends a lecture concerning the discovery of a new drug that could help patients with Parkinson’s disease, which leads him to believe that this medicine may help his patients. Administering the medicine to a man named Leonard Lowe has immediate results, as the man seems to wake up from catatonia right away. But the effects of the drug turn out to be temporary.
And the Band Played On
This story depicting the discovery of the AIDS epidemic starts with a prologue of American epidemiologist Don Francis arriving in Zaire on the banks of the Ebola River in the midst of the Ebola virus outbreak of that year. His exposure to an epidemic of this scale continues to haunt him when he later becomes involved in HIV/AIDs research. The film focuses on the infighting of the scientific community, as well as the social issues resulting from discovering the ways in which the virus is transmitted and its impact on the gay community while the death toll continues climbing.
House
House, also referred to as House, M.D., has eight seasons and almost 180 episodes, so if you’re a fan of longer narratives and find movies unsatisfying as a result, this is the film for you. It was among the top ten shows in the US from the second to the fourth seasons and has recently surged to popularity once again, almost thirteen years after its final season. The show’s main character is the eponymous Gregory House, an unconventional and cynical medical genius who is the head of a team of diagnosticians at a fictional hospital in New Jersey. His approach, methods, and behaviour cause him to clash with his team. Far from being repetitive, every episode seems fresh, especially since House’s medical team changes over the course of the show.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Based on the novel of the same name written by Ken Kesey, this 1975 comedy-drama is considered one of the greatest films ever made, being selected for preservation by the US Library of Congress after being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”. The plot unfolds in Oregon in 1963 and has Randle McMurphy as its protagonist. He is an Irish American brawler and Korean War veteran who was a prisoner of war but was dishonourably discharged as a result of his insubordination. He feigns insanity to avoid prison after being found guilty of several crimes and is brought to a mental institution run by the dictatorial Nurse Ratched. He rebels against her and tries to rally the other patients and get them to stand up to her.
The medical field will always be an interesting topic to explore, so it’s no wonder there are so many popular productions that take place in this environment. If you’ve been searching for titles to add to your watchlist, the list above will provide you with some suggestions.