Comparison of Two Hospital Dramas: Casualty and ER

Comparison of Two Hospital Dramas: Casualty and ER

This essay will compare the two hospital dramas, Casualty and ER.

Casualty is a British hospital drama. It is shown on BBC1 at 8:05 on a

Saturday evening .It has been one of the biggest and most popular

hospital dramas ever made in Britain. The fact that it's lasted over

ten series, has been sold to many countries around the world, and it

still manages to pull in big audiences speaks for itself. The series

is set in the fictional town of Holby, and is set in the hospital,

Holby A+E.

ER, on the other hand, is an American based hospital drama. It is

shown in America on NBC, at 10:00 on a Thursday night and also in

Britain on E4, at 9:30 on a Thursday night. ER has been one of the

most successful dramas in America, during the 90's. The show is so

popular and is regarded, in America, so good that it is paid a

staggering £10 million an episode by the American broadcasting

company, NBC. This amount shows how highly the American people regard

the show.

There are many similarities and differences between the two. I think

that ER was so popular with a British audience because of the fact

that it is American, and is regarded as very glamorous to the British

people. On the other hand I think that ER lacks reality. For example,

Casualty has a lack of nurses and doctors, stress, realistic patients

with realistic injuries. ER, on the other hand, has patient's with,

for example gun shot wounds. Now in real life patients wouldn't be

rushed in every day with gun shot wounds. This, in my mind, is one of

ER's only weaknesses'.

The two programmes both deal with the same conventions. These...

... middle of paper ...

...ot

racist or sexist, they are child- safe also. These points mean that

both programmes can aim for a big target audience. As the storylines

and characters of both shows appeal to a lot of ages, the audience

ages have a wide range, stretching from, most probably, eighteen to

forty nine.

ER uses a lot of music during the high tensely moments. This music

emphasises the scenes seriousness and importance. However, Casualty

uses no music apart from the starting and finishing credits. This, I

feel, is one of Casualty's weakness'.

Overall, I think that I have dealt with and discussed the points in

this essay reasonably well. I personally think that ER is the better

of the two. But then, it would have to be. The amount of money

involved with ER is massive. This is one of the main reason's why the

program is so good.