Recap and Review: Trust Me, episode one, starring Jodie Whittaker
This past weekend, I watched Trust Me, BBC’s new miniseries starring Jodie Whittaker as she played a nurse claiming to be a doctor.
This is where you can make any jokes about it.
Okay, now let’s move on.
BBC
Recap
In Trust Me, Jodie Whittaker’s character Cath Hardacre loses her job nursing after complaints were made about her. She takes her best friend’s identity to become a doctor in Edinburgh. Even though she has the skills to be an A&E doctor, her old life keeps knocking on the door. She’s left Cath Hardacre for Allison Sutton, nothing can ever be truly left behind.
In the first episode, while caring for her daughter, Molly (not me), and making sure her secret stays safe, she uses the change in her identity as a game with the little girl. The first episode stays pretty safe as the exposition for the miniseries. It definitely fell on the side of a boring episode, but there’s a heart in it. As Ally (Cath) gets closer to her colleagues, it’s going to be impossible to keep up the charade, which is where the drama will begin.
First episode hiccups
The first episode was more of a “what will happen” than an action packed episode, like Grey’s Anatomy, or any other kind of medical show. There were a couple of places where Ally’s lack of experience came through to remind us she’s a nurse, like when she was trying to put in a chest tube. However, it mostly focused on her relationships with colleagues.
For me, it’s always interesting to see television shows from the nurse’s point of view. So often we’re full of doctors having sex in on-call closets with the nurses’ coming in and out. Trust Me definitely will take on a new perspective in how nursing works, and can nurses use their knowledge to be Doctors?
Since the release of the show, Telegraph has come out and said that ‘Fake’ doctors are more common than you’d like to admit. Apparently, the writer of the show, Dan Sefton was working in a London A&E when a fellow Doctor was outed as a fraud.
BBC
Review
So, how did Jodie Whittaker fair? I’ll give her an A for her performance in this episode. Once again, I feel like I haven’t seen much of what she can actually do yet since the show only just began. Since the show on its own was boring, it felt like she was carrying most of the show with her personality. She actually got rave reviews for her warm personality from critics. While I’ve only seen her in Broadchurch and in The Assets, it was great to see her in a new environment. Not quite so serious, despite the hospital setting.
She was able to switch quickly from being a warm nurse/doctor to playing perfectly a scene where she has to do a procedure she’s never done before. Jodie was able to bring the viewers into an episode that above all, was pretty boring. You genuinely root for her, and you genuinely want her to succeed. Even if what she’s doing is completely illegal.
It reminds me of Michelle Gomez, who we all love as the Master. We want to hate the Master, but we can’t because they’re so watchable and you trust them (no pun intended). While Michelle scored fans with her humor, Jodie scored critics (and fans) with her warm personality. Also, her chemistry with Andrew Brenner, played by Eman Elliot helped bring the episode as long as well. I don’t think I’ve ever formed an attachment to two characters so quickly.
Next: Missy needs her own spin-off
How does this fair for Doctor Who?
Besides the fact that I’m a huge fan of medical dramas and probably would have watched this anyway, I’m writing to get used to Jodie. She might not be many people’s pick of the lot when it comes to Doctors. But she’s our Doctor. And there’s nothing as intense as a medical show, so hopefully, this gives us a hint about how she’ll be able to perform for Doctor Who.