'The Nurse' Episode 4 Review: Pernille gets stuck in the night shift's maze of death
Spoilers for 'The Nurse' Episode 4 ahead.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA : We follow Pernille Kurzmann Larsen (Fanny Louise Bernth), who begins as a new nurse at Nykbing Falster Hospital in Denmark, at the start of this Netflix series. Here, she meets Jennifer Park's character, Christina Aistrup Hansen. The latter is the emergency department's nursing superstar. Christina frequently intervenes to save those who experience cardiac arrest. However, Pernille swiftly surmises that the initial cardiac arrest may have been caused by Christina herself who loves attention. But why doesn't anyone else ask these questions? Is it even possible to prove it?
A genuine account of one of Scandinavia's most well-known criminal prosecutions, 'The Nurse' on Netflix is based on Kristian Corfixen's novel of the same name. The Danish nurse who was found guilty of attempting to kill four patients is the inspiration for the series. Danish police launch an investigation after hearing that a serial killer nurse is on the loose at Nykbing Falster Hospital, which rapidly results in the staff alleging that it might be one of their own.
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'The Nurse' Episode 1 Review: Two sides of the war zone called hospital
'The Nurse' Episode 3 Review: Pernille's suspicions are confirmed as Christina roams free
The night shift is a death maze
The last episode of 'The Nurse' is a tense one as Pernille decides to unravel the truth and find the evidence to prove Christina murdered all the patients. The script is written brilliantly which helps keep the viewers on edge as they see Pernille literally run from one patient to another, wondering and hoping that they're alive while she simultaneously gathers evidence against her co-worker. The stakes get even higher when Pernille fights to keep her patients alive but some die anyway because she is too late as she scrambles from bed to bed. She also feels Christina is onto her. Even though she's trying her best to hold herself together, she seems to fall apart after one of her patients passes away. In the dark hallways of the hospital, will Pernille find out the truth?
'The Nurse' has some great storytelling
The four "chapters" of the series are well done, and adhere to the beats of a conventional made-for-TV movie "based on real events." There is no plot point that catches us off guard with its originality or late-in-the-day plot twist or character that skews the story. So don't anticipate the narrative to be unusual or to have characters that are out of the norm.
The cadence and setting are very different from 'The Good Nurse' (which, let's be honest, we didn't like all that much either). 'The Nurse' is significantly more "realistic" than American medical dramas. It works as an extended, docu-style TV film, and features more likeable characters who, certainly convey a lot during their onscreen time. The only thing you are left to wonder as the credits roll is whether this "true life story" required (or had earned) an experimental style to drive home the reality of the horrifying murders.
'The Nurse' is streaming on Netflix