Hey, everyone! How’s it going? Today I’m here to review the drama This Is Going to Hurt, which delivers one of the most brutally honest portrayals of working in healthcare that television has ever dared to show.
This Is Going to Hurt premiered on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on February 8, 2022, delivering seven episodes with an average runtime of 45 minutes each. The series later began airing on AMC+ in the United States on June 2, 2022. Based on Adam Kay’s bestselling memoir of the same name, the show stars Ben Whishaw as Adam, a junior doctor working in the obstetrics and gynecology ward of an NHS hospital in London during 2006. The series provides an unflinchingly honest look at the realities of working within Britain’s healthcare system.
Set against the backdrop of a busy maternity ward, This Is Going to Hurt balances dark comedy with heartbreaking drama, showing both the miraculous highs and devastating lows of medical practice. The series doesn’t romanticize hospital life, instead presenting the exhaustion, bureaucracy, and emotional toll that comes with trying to save lives in an underfunded system.
Adam’s Breaking Point: The Cost of Caring
Ben Whishaw delivers a powerhouse performance as Adam, a junior doctor whose dedication to his patients slowly consumes every aspect of his life. The series follows Adam as he navigates impossible working hours, life-or-death decisions, and the crushing weight of responsibility that comes with holding people’s lives in your hands. His journey showcases how the healthcare system not only fails patients but also destroys the very people trying to help them.
Throughout the seven episodes, we watch Adam’s mental health deteriorate under the pressure of constant criticism from senior staff, administrative incompetence, and the emotional trauma of losing patients. His character arc serves as a stark reminder that doctors are human beings with breaking points, not superhuman beings immune to stress and grief.
Shruti’s Journey: The Next Generation of Doctors
Ambika Mod shines as Shruti, a medical student who idolizes Adam and dreams of becoming a doctor like him. Her storyline provides a fresh perspective on medical training, showing the enthusiasm and idealism that initially draws people to medicine. Shruti’s interactions with Adam create some of the series’ most poignant moments, as she witnesses firsthand the reality behind her romanticized view of medical practice.
The relationship between Adam and Shruti becomes central to the series’ exploration of mentorship, disillusionment, and the cyclical nature of medical training. Her character serves as both Adam’s conscience and a reminder of why he entered medicine in the first place.
The System’s Final Verdict: When Medicine Breaks Its Own
The series builds to its devastating climax when a tragic patient outcome leads to a malpractice tribunal that threatens to end Adam’s career. This pivotal storyline exposes the brutal reality of how the medical system treats its own when things go wrong, often scapegoating individual doctors for systemic failures. The tribunal scenes are among the most powerful in the series, showing how legal proceedings can further traumatize already struggling healthcare workers.
The show doesn’t offer easy villains or simple solutions, instead presenting a complex web of institutional failures, human error, and impossible circumstances that create perfect storms of tragedy. It’s in these moments that This Is Going to Hurt transcends medical drama to become a powerful indictment of how society treats its healthcare workers.
The Supporting Ward: Realistic Hospital Hierarchy
The series excels in its portrayal of hospital hierarchy and workplace dynamics, featuring standout performances from Michele Austin as the ward sister and various consultants who embody different approaches to medical practice. These characters provide context for Adam’s struggles while showing how different people cope with the same impossible system.
The supporting cast creates an authentic hospital environment where gallows humor coexists with genuine compassion, and where personal rivalries and professional pressures create constant tension. Their performances ground the series in reality, avoiding the glossy unreality of many medical dramas.
Success on BBC and AMC+
This Is Going to Hurt earned an impressive 8.4 rating on IMDb and received critical acclaim for its authentic portrayal of healthcare challenges. The seven-episode format allowed for deep character development while maintaining narrative intensity, with each installment focusing on different aspects of medical practice and its personal costs. The series resonated particularly strongly with healthcare workers who finally saw their experiences accurately represented on screen, while also educating general audiences about the realities behind their healthcare system.
Essential Viewing for Understanding Healthcare Reality
If you love medical dramas with substance, dark comedy, and unflinching honesty about systemic failures, This Is Going to Hurt is the perfect series to binge on BBC iPlayer or AMC+. The show proves that sometimes the most important stories are the ones that make us uncomfortable while opening our eyes to harsh truths.
Why This Is Going to Hurt Demands Your Attention
This Is Going to Hurt stands as essential television that goes beyond entertainment to provide genuine insight into one of society’s most crucial institutions. With Ben Whishaw’s exceptional performance and Adam Kay’s brutally honest writing, the series offers both a gripping drama and an urgent wake-up call about the human cost of healthcare.
Series Details
Number of Episodes: 7 (completed limited series)
Platform: BBC One/BBC iPlayer, AMC+
Release/End Year: 2022
Current IMDb Rating: 8.4
Genre: Medical Drama, Dark Comedy, Biography
Status: Completed limited series
Protagonists: Ben Whishaw (Adam Kay), Ambika Mod (Shruti Acharya)
Key Supporting Cast: Michele Austin (Sister), Rory Fleck Byrne (Harry), Ashley McGuire (Consultant)