There is no shortage of medical dramas on television, as well as in the OTT space. There is Grey’s Anatomy, New Amsterdam, The Good Doctor, and Sky Med. There are just some examples of American and Canadian medical dramas that cover stories of doctors, patients, nurses, and other staff working at hospitals. Netflix Spain released Breathless, a medical drama just like the shows mentioned above which is the story of several doctors and residents working for a government hospital. The eight-episode show was released on 26th August 2024 and is created by Carlos Montero.
Set in the town of Valencia in Spain, Dr. Moa, Dr. Pilar, and Dr. Jessica are the doctors working for the government hospital named the Joaquim Solor Hospital. They are being assisted by resident doctors for training purposes. The resident doctors: Dr. Biel, Dr. May, Dr. Rocio, and Dr. Enrique, mostly handles the emergency cases. They also work with the above-mentioned senior doctors and assist them with all kinds of cases that come to them. One of the patients happens to be the President of the Valencian Community, Patricia Segura, who was running a full-blown political campaign in favor of privatizing government hospitals. As a result, she is not a favorite person in the hospital, but since she walked in as a patient, she had to be treated. Patricia was, however, informed about the possibility of her having breast cancer after several tests. She was keen on moving to a private hospital for detailed checkups, but she was assured Dr. Moa was the best oncologist in the country and only he could help her through the tests and the treatment part if detected, and this led to friction between two headstrong people.
Several senior doctors are also dealing with many issues on the personal front, something they have to juggle along with other patients they deal with on a daily basis. Dr. Pilar’s son Oscar ends up in the hospital after a drug overdose, and she is keen on finding out who gave him the narcotics. Dr. Leo is also helping a rape victim to form a strong case against the culprit, but things do not go the way she had planned. Did Patricia get her treatment from elsewhere? What was Patricia’s relationship dynamics with Dr. Moa? Were the residents good friends to each other? How did Dr. Pilar and Dr. Leo deal with their personal matters?
The best part about the show must be the premise. Even though most of Netflix’s audience have seen several shows over the last one or two decades set inside a hospital, Breathless is different. Here, the fight between the government hospital personnel and the government representing Valencia is explored well. This is what makes it different, and the writers and the directors have done a good job of establishing the fight. Writer and creator Carlos Montero, along with Paola Michelle, does a good job of exploring many different subjects in a subtle manner. Drug addiction, sexual assault, fights against the system, and sensitive portrayal of LGBTQ+ characters are some of the subjects tackled by the makers of Breathless, which is interesting to watch as these stories unfold. All of them have a good start and will amp up the expectations the audiences have of these subplots.
There are also supremely good-looking Spanish actors as the doctors in Breathless, which is far from reality if you ask us. No hospital will have so many good-looking doctors. People would always remain unhealthy in such cases. All the subplots do develop into something meaningful by the first half of the show. There is plenty of intense drama to witness in the first half. Be ready for a sob fest as the drama gets personal and intimate. It is the second half of the series, where the writers and the directors lost the plot, and there was no recovery to expect. The premise involving Patricia and Dr. Moa got out of hand, and so much back-and-forth rivalry between the two got exhausting. There is no clarity given on why Patricia is pursuing at the hands of Dr. Moa when all she did was complain about him and the hospital he worked for.
The makers were busy developing a love story between Patricia and Dr. Moa. The scenarios created cannot be considered as love because both are putting each other down several times in the show. The good, intense drama in the first half becomes over the top, with many unnecessary additional scenarios tacked on just to throw some obstacles in the doctors’ path that they could clear without much hassle. The affairs and on-and-off relationship are not defined in the narrative, and it seems the makers added them to titillate the audience as the plot did not require steamy scenes. There are plenty of plot holes in this medical drama, especially in the second half. The second half of the show is an uncontrollable beast, as it feels the show could be never ending. The show had a good start, and there was hope it would not turn into something like the Latin American telenovelas. Sadly, it does become a European version of the same, as the twists and turns are exaggerated with no ounce of emotion found as the stories in the show progress.
The main plot about the friction between the government hospital and Patricia’s government is hardly given any proper structure. There is no expansion on this subject; the writers give a lot of importance to the love and tension brewing between Dr. Moa and Patricia. The conclusion of this subplot is predictable to the core, and the makers could have worked on building their tension in a tight manner. Most of the episodes are wasted on their dynamics. The writers bring back subplots from the first and second episodes suddenly to give them quick closure, not doing justice to the characters or that storyline.
The direction by Marta Font Pascual and David Pinillos works well only until the screenplay becomes too long and convoluted. It seems the creator and the writers of the show wanted to add everything they could to the story instead of editing the show to make it concise. Each episode is almost fifty minutes long, which is a bit much for the amount of story Breathless is covering. Thirty to thirty-five is enough, but the makers sadly kept adding plots to stretch the show. Beyond a point, certain subplots towards the end would remind the Indian audience of the second season of the Amazon Prime Original Mumbai Diaries.
The performances in Breathless could not keep it interesting till the end. The engaging part of the series is in the first half, while the second half moves at a snail pace. The actors are excellent right from the start till the end. It is the overdramatization of their characters by the end of the show that makes Breathless a subpar watch. The ending of the show is vague and hardly has any emotional weight. Of all the actors, Manu Ríos as the resident doctor Biel is excellent. He is a stereotypical, good-looking guy who falls in love with the wrong person.
Apart from him, there are countless good-looking actors in the show. They could not shoulder it till the end. Breathless could have been a good show provided the writers had not gone on a loop with stretching several plots of the show. It is an over-the-top medical drama that remains messy throughout.
