Maternal; The Last of Us

“Jacqui Honess-Martin’s script is sharp and well observed. Yes, sometimes things are politically “speechy” but it makes some excellent, nuanced points about working in the NHS, especially post-pandemic, which I haven’t seen a drama do quite like this (it’s ITV’s first medical drama in years). It’s not quite This Is Going to Hurt but it is similarly instructive about the heroic people working in a service we all use. It addresses the marriages put under strain, especially when doctors were separated from their families in lockdown, and the grinding toll that understaffing and underfunding takes on the workforce.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“There were a few naff scenes designed to demonstrate that these three really were friends (how likely it is that three doctors in different departments would find time for a shared ciggie and whinge in today’s NHS?) but Maternal was a lively, affecting look at both the pressures of medicine and family life and the seemingly impossible juggle. It’s no accident that the main characters are women. The men seemed notably more confident about their roles, likely because they hadn’t had to take time out to look after little people. This was not a drama afraid to show the real ramifications of working in medicine. Staff shortages, cancelled operations and fully sketched human beings with skill, experience and the best of intentions nonetheless bringing issues from home to the workplace. With the NHS in crisis it is a timely reminder that everyone and everything crumples under too much pressure, and that this is an institution worth saving.”
Francesca Steele, The i

“Despite its stridency, Maternal is fast-paced, with plenty of emotional punch and far more watchable than BBC1’s self-pity saga, This Is Going To Hurt, last year. There’s real sharpness in the script. When one medic volunteers for extra duty, a consultant drawls: ‘My hero! We’ll organise a clap.’”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“The show is formulaic to a degree, but has grit in the storytelling oyster that produces something rather wonderful. The three women demonstrate how the systems are set up, who they’re designed to benefit, the injustices they result in – the sexism, classism, ageism – and a mirror is held up to a world full of biases so consistent they have come to seem natural. This is a drama to make us question how much forced sacrifice is to be endured before things change.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“If you’re a man of a sensitive disposition then you may want to give Maternal a miss, because every male character here is a smug, entitled a–e. As a signifier, Helen’s husband is played by the same actor (Oliver Chris) who plays Anna Maxwell Martin’s uninvolved husband in the similarly themed Motherland. Occasionally it gets overly soapy – Catherine telling a colleague that he’s the father of the baby she had nine months ago – but it’s mostly smart and funny, and the medical drama moments can be surprisingly hard-hitting.”
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“The Last of Us is violent and maudlin. It depicts a world in which people are doing what they can to survive, with varying degrees of horror; at times, encountering the quick-moving, fungus-dangling infected doesn’t even seem like the worst thing that could happen. Later in the series, in one terrifying episode, men, not monsters, prove themselves capable of inflicting cruelties that go far beyond the distressing onslaught of zombie attacks. Yet it manages to find humanity in the ruins – and that makes it worth the hardship.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“At nine episodes, it feels a little long, even if it is truncated compared to its source material. But in its scale, depiction of dread and its believable vision of friendship in disaster, The Last of Us is a rare piece of television: an adaptation that makes you want to rush out and play the game.”
Ed Cumming, Telegraph