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Let’s get one thing out of the way - Monroe owes a hell of a lot to House. Nesbitt’s Gabriel Monroe is an egomaniac, a gambler, brilliant (as a brain surgeon rather than diagnostician), sarcastic and witty, and has a troubled personal life: “a medical degree and a borderline personality disorder”.
Monroe however is much nicer to his patients than House, despite his amusing maltreatment of students and rudeness towards colleagues. For some reason, although he is well-crafted and interesting, this makes me less inclined to be fond of him. Perhaps that says something about me rather than him. I felt little sympathy when his wife left him, possibly because we hadn’t had time to get to know him. Having said this, I was more inclined towards compassion upon learning of his daughter’s death. Monroe opens with a blithely successful risky brain procedure on a young girl, but the end shows us that he is not as liberal with his patients’ lives as House is, or as Monroe himself appears.
Monroe has plenty to offer in its own right. He has his own quirks - playlists with songs specific to each stage of the operation, for example. The atmospheric white lights and blurry-to-sharp edges of the clean and emotionless operating theatre contrasted sharply with Monroe's messy personal life. The witty writing and oft-used storyline were useful in introducing the characters, and the lonely, sad ending set up a plot that has the potential to never end. All this was accompanied by a nicely chosen soundtrack which combined eerie violins and piano with child-like, sing-song melodies that seemed apt for the complex and unnatural subject of brain surgery combined with the childish persona of Monroe. In short, there was plenty to keep us watching. We wanted the woman to be all right, the husband to stay strong, Monroe to keep spinning jokes and directing mild abuse towards employees – an example being: “the only difference between you and a psychopath is good A-levels”. Monroe is a sharp character and expertly acted - just another troubled smart-arse to add to Nesbitt’s repertoire.
There were of course flaws. I found the plot far too fast-paced; it needed to be at least twenty minutes longer to deal with everything sufficiently. As with Monroe himself, it was difficult to get enough of a grip on the characters involved in the medical story to really care, although there were affecting moments. The supporting characters also felt pretty one-dimensional, and were completely outshone by Monroe. Furthermore, even his close friend was as unsympathetic about his collapsed marriage as I was, which seemed unrealistic. Perhaps this would work in a comedy, but Monroe is presented as a drama with funny bits, and the every character needs to follow this mode of representation.
Monroe has plenty of potential. Yes, it is basically a rip-off of another program, but given the amount of individuality that exists, the questions it raises, and its stylishness, Monroe deserves to be given a chance. With a little fine-tuning and a more individual voice, Monroe could well be the British answer to House.
Catch up with the first episode of Monroe on ITV Player here. Monroe continues Thursday at 9pm on ITV1.
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