The F Ward review: Stan’s new medical drama is A+

The strength of the medical drama is its range. You’ve got life and death situations as a matter of course, but you can also sneak in a bunch of jokes and they won’t feel out of place. The flipside is that everyone knows a medical setting is a winner, so it’s very well-worn ground. Even Australia’s threadbare drama cupboard has consistently served up quality examples of the genre, from Offspring to RFDS.

Created by Kelsey Munro, who was responsible for Stan series Bump, there are some pretty heavy expectations around The F Ward. Bump was a huge hit that ran for five seasons and a telemovie. Can lightning strike twice? Especially with a genre that’s already seeing a resurgence, with hard-hitting drama like The Pitt as well as lighter takes like the recent reboot of Scrubs?

Let’s not prolong the suspense: yes, The F Ward is good. Very good, in fact.

A smart Australian dramedy

Together with co-creator Dan Edwards (Bump, Year Of), Munro has delivered a punchy workplace drama with plenty of comedy – or a comedy with its fair share of drama – that avoids the dramedy trap by keeping the characters consistent and shifting the situation around them. That is to say, sometimes the cases are funny, other times they’re most definitely not.

The setting is the Pines Hospital on Sydney’s northern beaches, where money is tight and quality staff even more so. Each of the young interns on the F Ward are on their last chance: they’ve stuffed it up elsewhere and failed their first-year internships. Now they’ve been washed up here, and if they mess up again they’ll be washed out for good.

Dr Gloria Wall (Anna Friel) is responsible for getting them into shape (or showing them the door), with registrar Curtis Parker (Dan Wyllie) in colourful scrubs as her warm-hearted second-in command – she’s the stern mum, he’s the fun dad. Wall runs a tight ship: when a couple of the new interns show up late, they’re instantly on thin ice.

The late arrivals are Jimmy (Ioane Sa’ula, who you’ll remember as Vince in Bump) and Ellie (Lola Bond). The ones who arrived in time to hear Wall’s inspiring speech are Lisa (Emily Barclay), Josh (Alex Fitzalan), Yosef (Rishab Kern) and Ava (Annie Boyle). They’ll need those inspiring words, because the day ahead is going to be rough.

A rough start for the hopeful interns

A storm and wild weather soon have the injured streaming in; a major car accident and a power cut make things worse. It’s a wild start, and while future episodes scale back the disaster energy a little, that’s mostly because everyone is so busy struggling with their relationships and professional dramas and medical tragedies and pet traumas that an earthquake would be lucky to get a look in.

The interns all have just enough going on in their lives to click as characters. Yosef can’t handle doing stitches, which seems a little unlikely but the series takes it just seriously enough to keep his squeamishness plausible (and funny). Josh is the son of a flashy star surgeon, which causes problems for him and the hospital. Ellie has dog issues – not that everyone thinks she has time for a dog in her life.

It might be an ensemble but Jimmy’s the star of the show, a good-hearted guy with a medical secret and a slightly shady romantic past that’s definitely going to catch up with him. Sa’ula radiates decency here – he’s got real star power – and the creative team know it, using his charm to give his character the kind of edges that might come off as abrasive with another actor in the role.

Watch the trailer

A series with heart

Being a medical drama, there are plenty of cases that run the spectrum from tragic to flat-out comedy. Injured kids, old folk scared of death, people facing life-or-death surgery who want to have sex beforehand (hey, they’re trying for a kid), a gym bro whose testicles have become infected from spending too long in a chastity cage (don’t ask) – it’s all part of the daily grind in an underfunded hospital where the medical staff are hooking up and occasionally popping pills to get through a shift.

While you’re never going to escape all the cliches with a medical series, The F Ward does a solid job of establishing its own identity across the six episodes. Despite the extremes, there’s a strong sense of tone here, no doubt honed by those five seasons of Bump. There may be surprises in the plot, and characters evolve throughout the season, but the vibe stays generally positive (mostly) even when things get dark.

These are characters who are trying to do better and help those around them. And if that occasionally involves some workplace sex, so be it.

All six episodes of The F Ward are available to stream on Stan from 17 July.

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