Slip on the rubber gloves and scrub up for a confronting new medical series that streaming columnist NICK OVERALL reckons will confront its audience with the messy reality of its subject matter!

A SHOW about health workers exhausted to breaking point could perhaps not have come at a more relevant time.

Binge’s newest medical drama “This Is Going to Hurt”, based on its identically titled non-fiction book inspiration, is the gory story of obstetrician and gynaecologist Adam Kay.

Kay, while a medical trainee for six years, was recommended by a senior doctor to write a diary as a “reflective practice” in which he could log any “interesting clinical experiences” he should encounter. 

“Interesting” is putting things lightly. Kay’s book, subtitled “Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor”, was compiled with these diary entries which recounted confronting, brutal and at times scary moments in the British National Health Service.

It became a number-one best seller, and now, Bond star Ben Whishaw plays Kay in what could be a younger and more British version of Hugh Laurie’s “House”. 

He’s a doctor with a brilliant, yet bitter medical eye, one whose skill is a resource desperately needed, but who’s ever on the brink of passing out on his feet.

Weariness is omnipresent. Whishaw exudes exhaustion as he delivers wall-breaking lines to the camera with private thoughts unfiltered by the Hippocratic Oath.

These monologues are stitched together with a droll and cynical sense of humour, a respite that seems to be the only thing holding Kay, and the audience, upright through his gruelling day-to-day.

Any show depicting the goings on of an obstetrics and gynaecology ward is bound to bring with it a string of heated takes.

Some critics have slapped the show down as misogynistic, one exploiting important women’s issues for laughs, whereas others have praised its realistic depiction of childbirth as something unseen before.

From the get-go, “This Is Going To Hurt” looks to confront its audience with the messy reality of its subject matter in a way that lives up to its title.

That approach can make things hard to stomach, but the very ethos of the series is to illustrate the extreme pressure put on medical staff and that pressure hits home even more when considered next to the health crisis the world has lived through for the last two years.

That’s especially the case in light of the nurse strikes we’ve seen unfold in Australia in the last few months. It makes “This Is Going to Hurt” even more illuminating in its depiction of a health system on the edge. 

OVER on Disney Plus is “The Dropout”, another drama series based on the true story of biotech fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.

In 2015, “Forbes” magazine had named Holmes the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in America. Her company Theranos got international attention when it had apparently revolutionised blood-testing technology.

Holmes’ idea to extract huge amounts of data from samples of blood as small as a finger prick had investors pile in. If it worked, it would change the world of medicine.

But early on in her entrepreneurship Holmes was told by a professor that such ambitions were impossible. Turns out they were. 

In reality, she manipulated the government and investors alike out of hundreds of millions of dollars to build her empire based on false promises. This eight-hour miniseries details how she did it and, to some extent, why.

Amanda Seyfried brings a brilliant performance to a script that eagerly demands it of her. She holds together this gripping, if straightforward recount that’s hard to swallow as true.

Like “This Is Going To Hurt”, “The Dropout” is also dashed with some surprisingly funny moments amidst its otherwise dark subject matter. 

The humour is well timed though and helps cast a spotlight on the utter absurdity of just how far Holmes was able to run away with her ploy before being caught.

While they may cast a rather bleak outlook on the medical world, both “This Is Going To Hurt” and “The Dropout” are sure to stand out among the best shows 2022 year will have to offer. We’ve certainly come a long way since “ER”.