Mercy Street - PBS Drama

[Gene C]

http://mercystreetpbs.com/

The first episode aired last night.
Any one watch it?
http://www.pbs.org/show/mercy-street/

I was a bit disappointed. To much of a TV drama.
The characters and story just didn't seem realistic to me. Especially the two female leads, Mary Phinney and Emma Green. Who is going to appoint someone with limited nursing experience and that has never worked in a hospital, head nurse?
BettyO sure had this right, who in their right mind would wear a white flowing hoop skirt dress into a civil war hospital?

It did have some good moments. Like when......
you need to watch it for yourself.

[BettyO]

I thought it was alright - but the southern characters seemed to be shown as the stereotypically bad drawling "air-heads"....overdressed and overblown. The hospital sequences were pretty graphic but well done. I, too thought it odd that a woman with limited nursing experience was appointed head of a hospital - particularly over another who supposedly worked with Nightingale in the Crimea. Predictable and far-fetched.....

By the way - anyone recognize the "Southern mother?" She is played by the same actress who portrayed Mary Todd Lincoln in Turner's Day Lincoln was Shot in 1997. The home of the southern characters was also shot at Center Hill Mansion in Petersburg, VA. Same site used as the interior of the White House in the same movie....

[L Verge]

I watched the first twenty or so minutes until the bumbling Miss Green stumbled into the bed holding a soldier in traction. I spent two weeks in traction as a child, and I could feel the pain even though I knew it was just a movie. I also think they overkilled the blood and gore of the wounded. Not saying that it didn't happen, but most people who were tuned in probably already knew what the medical field was dealing with during the Civil War.

It's good and hopefully will get better. Especially good as a plug for learning about the Civil War - and a way to spend cold Sunday nights for the next few months.

[Gencor]

I am disappointed. I am watching it but being from the very deep south, I just don't like the storyline because it isn't as close to history as I would have expected from Public Broadcasting. They have created some great productions and I just expected more from this one. I think that all of us have seen our fair share of these Civil War productions, they get tiresome because the drama is usually so overdone and the text is always lacking in real substance. I would be interested to hear what everyone thinks. Usually, by now, I have already picked my favorite character but I am not there yet either and I am three episodes in.

[Gene C]

I'm with you. A little to much "made for TV drama". More like a civil war soap opera.