I have never been a fan of scripted medical dramas. I never watched "Grey's Anatomy" (well, 1 episode maybe 2 and some bits and pieces) nor "ER" because the stories were melodramas more about the staff than the patients. I did watch "House" for several seasons but mostly because of Hugh Laurie. I found the stories fairly entertaining because the who-done-it "feel" that the medical cases had (past tense because I have moved on).
Then along comes "Boston Med". The drama is absolutely REAL life and death. When the time is "called" on a patient it is because a real human has died. It is not about the tests or the technology or the medical "sleuthing". Boston Med IS real life, real death and real emotions.
I once asked a guy why he was a skydiver and he told me, "Because I experience an otherwise unobtainable feeling of the closeness of death; the experience of not being sure that I'll survive." I thought he was crazy and maybe he was . . . just a bit. Boston Med has allowed me to vicariously experience what that must feel like.
The closeness to the patients and doctors gives me a feeling of the pain and elation that must be experienced by both the patients and doctors. I see the doctors and nurses exhibiting what I epitomize as true motivation that drives someone to dedicate an entire lifetime to helping all of the rest of us live our lives.
I can feel the true depth of the Human condition and the fragility of life. I see people fight against all odds to survive by bravely stepping across the line that marks the beginning of a trip that could mean extended life or end in sudden death.
Thank you to all of the families that allow us to experience their lives as they face uncertainty. I can only imagine how tough it must be to openly deal with the emotions of their personal tragedies while cameras watch (a situation that is totally foreign to the majority of the Planet's humans).
I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have a beating heart in the palm of one's hand; to have the burden of carrying another human to the edge of eternity and back. But now, I can get a small sense of what it must be like.
I'll never stop watching Boston Med.
