The F Ward review – Anna Friel medical drama doesn’t quite scrub up

The six-part Australian series about intern doctors at an underfunded hospital is missing an essential ingredient

Among the many virtues of The Pitt is the way it demonstrates the power of hospitals as dramatic settings: inherently interesting, pressure-cooker environments bringing together people from all walks of life, in various states of distress. It’s such a great series, and has resonated so strongly with audiences, that every new hospital-set drama for the foreseeable future will be judged in its shadow.

This isn’t good news for shows like Stan’s six-part series The F Ward, which looks like amateur hour by comparison, with an airy, over-lit aesthetic and a pulse that never really comes alive. Plenty of tense scenarios play out in the central setting, with some flickers of intrigue here and there, though it feels very much like a “TV hospital” – familiar looking and broadly plausible but infused with an air of unreality.
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