Lenox Hill captures the hustle and constant high-stakes environment in which the doctors work in Lenox Hill Hospital in the Upper East Side of New York. It’s like Grey’s Anatomy but with real patients, real drama, and real life-or-death situations that these four doctors encounter every day.
It offers an intimate and humanizing look into their personal lives as well as the many patients and complicated cases they deal with every day.
1. Quick Review
This fly on the wall series set in Lenox Hill Hospital takes you inside the American Healthcare System. Balancing their personal lives with the various needs and complexities of their versatile patients, this show will leave you with profound respect for healthcare workers.
Planted inside the walls of the hospital, the series also devotes time to the personal lives of the four doctors. The nature and weight of their work are not lost on the viewers, and it leaves you feeling in awe of these almost superhuman beings. At the same time, it also humanizes their struggles and presents a fuller account of their everyday lives.
2. Is It Worth Watching?
If you’re a fan of medical dramas and have devoured every episode of Grey’s Anatomy, Lenox Hill is the next logical step for you. And if you don’t enjoy medical shows and gross you out, don’t worry because Lenox Hill focuses more on the caring and the human side of the job.
I. Plot
The series takes inside the Lenox Hill Hospital and showcases the emotional and physical toll that comes with working in American Healthcare.
Through the eyes of four professionals Dr. David Langer the head of neurosurgery, and Dr. Boockvaar, the department’s vice head, the intense and precise world of neurosurgery is examined. Dr. Amanda Little-Richardson is the chief obstetrics, and Dr. Mirtha Macri specializes in emergency medicine.
The show chronicles the ups and downs in the lives of the doctors. The reports, scans, procedures, and the delivery of both good and bad news, which are all a part of their daily life are shown. The plethora of tasks that they do to ensure that a patient gets the best care possible, which often goes unnoticed by us are captured in this series.
II. Detailed Review
Lenox Hill manages to showcase many different parts of the healthcare industry during its 8-episode run. There is a vast variety of patients, many coming from other states for a specific procedure and some who need urgent care from the surrounding areas. They range from teenagers to old retired people, each with different needs which the doctors and nurses tackle with a smile on their faces.
Without an artificial tour guide explaining things, Lenox Hill relies on the doctors to fill in the gaps in hospital practices. They are comfortable enough to explain the procedures, even under great psychological duress. Shot in real-time, there is not always an opportunity to set up and discuss a patient before going into the operating theatre. This only highlights how swamped these doctors are and the relentless nature of their job.
The cases range from painful ingrown hair removal and childbirth to complicated brain surgeries and cancer treatments. Every time Boockvaar or Langer steps into an OT, there is always a sense of tension and drama. This is balanced when the show cuts across to the maternity ward, with mothers holding their children for the first time.
Directors Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz let the person in the center control and guide the room’s atmosphere. Unlike the frenzied rush of fictional operation theaters in medical dramas, there is a sense of calm that prevails while performing complicated real-life procedures.
Lenox Hall brilliantly manages to capture the anxious feeling of waiting around in a hospital. Whether its loved ones waiting for some news in the lobby or doctors and patients waiting for test results, the series highlights that some things are just beyond the control of the doctors.
Both Amanda and Mirtha were pregnant at the time of the shooting, and their respective conversations with their families and doctors also shape the narrative.
John and David also take time out to reminisce on Parenthood and how their fathers got them into this profession. It is easy to think of doctors as desensitized robots, but this series offers an intimate look into their personal lives.
While wiping down blood from his shoes and preparing to deliver some bad news, Dr. Langer says, “the family doesn’t like seeing blood on us.” These are the moments that highlight the heavy toll that comes with working in the healthcare industry. The cases and patients that they handle do leave a mark on their mental health.
3. Final Thoughts
Lenox Hill is a fuller account of the daily life of these physicians and humanizes them, highlighting their hard work. There are moments of cherished joy replaced in a moment by unthinkable tragedies in other departments. The hospital stands resolute, and the doctors grind on relentlessly as patients fettle in and out.
This series will leave you in awe of the medical profession. Notably, this was shot before the Coronavirus Pandemic broke, so one can only imagine what the situation would be like now. Lenox Hill gives doctors all over the world some well-deserved credit and respect.
4. Grade
Story: A
Cinematography/Animation: A
Direction: A
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