'The Nurse' Episode 1 Review: Two sides of the war zone called hospital

The series is based on the true account of a Danish nurse who was found guilty of attempting to kill four patients
UPDATED APR 27, 2023
Fanny Louise Bernth, Peter Zandersen, and Josephine Park in 'The Nurse' (Netflix)
Fanny Louise Bernth, Peter Zandersen, and Josephine Park in 'The Nurse' (Netflix)

Spoliers for 'The Nurse' Season 1 Episode 1 on Netflix ahead.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA : Netflix recently released the show called 'The Nurse'. It is based on Kristian Corfixen's book of the same name, which tells the true story of one of Scandinavia's most famous criminal trials. The series is based on the true account of a Danish nurse who was found guilty of attempting to kill four patients. The Danish police first initiated an investigation after receiving reports of a murderous nurse on the loose at Nykbing Falster Hospital. Soon after, staff members speculate that one of their own might actually be poisoning people.

Josephine Park plays the Danish nurse Aistrup Hansen in the Danish television series, and Fanny Louise Bernth portrays her brand-new coworker Pernille Kurzmann. Kasper Barfoed is the series' director, and he and Dorte W Hogh wrote the screenplay.

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The two sides of a hospital 

The Netflix show 'The Nurse' opens on a happy note, showing the positive sides of Pernille moving into a different town with her daughter so that her kid can spend more time with her ex-husband. Another thing Pernille is looking forward to is starting up a new job as a nurse at Nykbing Falster Hospital and from the looks of it, her first day goes better than expected. She starts working at the emergency ward under the traineeship of nurse Aistrup Hansen who she instantly thinks is super cool! The episode then follows to portray the other side of the hospital, something that us, as patients, would not see. The episode focuses on showing the rather fun side of working in a hospital where people who work to save lives, find a few moments for just themselves. The episode was quickly able to show the warmth of human connections in a place that feels like a war zone.

We've already seen a lot of shows, like 'The Good Doctor' or the infamous 'Grey's Anatomy' which showcase nurses and doctors as regular people and 'The Nurse' attempts to do the same. The episode shows the normal lives of the nurses where they indulge in hook-up culture, just like any other young person. But the episode does seem to be lead in another, more serious direction as we see a patient mysteriously dying while in the hospital.

'The Nurse' is good but not extraordinary 

As mentioned, the show gives off a vibe similar to previous shows like 'The Good Doctor', which is understandable since documentaries, even though have different stories to tell, often fall into genre tropes — in this case, medical drama tropes. 'The Nurse' lacks realism just like other fictional shows that depict the other side of what goes down in medical institutions. Josephine Park, however delivers a great performance, looking perfectly cool and shady at the same time. Fanny Louise Bernth, on the other hand, seems a little low on energy in the first episode but in the coming episodes, her character, Nurse Pernille, will see a dramatic character arc unfold. So keep watching!

'The Nurse' is streaming on Netflix

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