Lenox Hill (2020)

Written by SierraKiloBravo on July 11, 2020

Review of Season 1

Click here for a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/h7f6dJIRB1s

I've always been a fan of medical related documentary series, so Lenox Hill on Netflix caught my eye. Here's the official description:

Two neurosurgeons, an ER doctor, and an OB-GYN fight to give their patients quality healthcare despite professional and personal challenges.

Lenox Hill is a hospital based in New York City, and as such is a very busy spot. This series follows the main characters as they go about their days. Throughout we follow a few main cases that they are dealing with and ride with them on the highs and lows. And boy are there some highs and lows. It's difficult to watch in parts where people are given terrible, life changing news, and at other times its very uplifting as these doctors use their expertise to pull people back from the brink. What the series does well, is show how when the doctors leave a consulting room or operating theatre, these people and cases stay with them. Their passion and commitment is clearly evident.

There's no narration so this makes it feel even more raw. All you get is the doctors talking to the camera and the conversations that take place between them, their colleagues, and their patients. It's really interesting stuff.

On a side note, I thought it was kinda funny how in amongst all the open brains and broken spines, the one thing that made me cringe was a scene where they were trying to put back in place a guys dislocated jaw. But anyway...

In addition to the main series a 30min bonus episode was added later called Pandemic and follows the same format as the rest of the series, but this time with a focus on the outbreak of COVID-19. This was a great addition and I wish it was longer. It gave a good sense of the chaos in the emergency rooms when it all started, how desperately they tried to help people, and the effect it had on them when their own colleagues were going down with it, either getting sick or dying.

So overall, a very engaging series, and very much worth your time.