Home

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures: Code Clock

 Print E-mail
Written by April Yorke   
Monday, 25 January 2010 11:44

Code ClockIt seems that last week's episode was not, in fact, the pilot but episode two. Which makes last night's episode number three. It's odd because "Code Clock" feels like the show is finally getting off the ground, introducing a villain (I'd like to tell you either the actor or the character's name, but there is very little in the way of complete information about the series on the internet. I think the character is Dr. Yi) and something of a mentor in Stephen McHattie (character name? No idea).

I'm still not sold on the show's complicated narrative structure. We started out in the present, where a drunken Chen finds and reads Fitz's old love letters to Ming. Later, Fitz shows up to talk to Chen, and they get into a fight. We flashback to an M&M from their first year residency about a code that Fitz ran when the senior failed to show up. During the M&M, we flashback not only to the code but also to the code from multiple points of view: Fitz, Chen, a nurse named Sharon. So we have present day, flashback, flashback within the flashback, and -- wait for it -- fantasy sequences. Not in a Ming-rides-a-unicorn way, but within each story there are fake outs where people say something, and we cut to discover that the line is what they wanted to say rather than what is actually said. Add in Fitz's conversations with dead people (for real), and you've got a whole lot going on at once.

So you can imagine how strange it is that the show still feels slow and lyrical. It's maybe building to something, but I can't tell what yet. The code itself, fractured as it was, was a great sequence. Rather than the heart-pounding-what-will-happen jolt ER specialized in back in the day, we felt the painful, exhausting work the staff put into trying to revive the patient over the course of 14 minutes. For now, that's something.    

Comments (0)Add Comment
feedSubscribe to this comment's feed
Write comment
 
 
smaller | bigger
 

security image
Write the displayed characters

busy
Last Updated on Monday, 25 January 2010 03:31
 

April Yorke is a (Cult)ure Magazine contributor since Wednesday, 07 January 2009.

Other articles by this writer

© 2009 - 2013 Culture Magazine. Design by Web Design Ottawa