Netflix Review
Sure, in the wizarding world Daniel Radcliffe can save Rubert Grint’s life by shoving a bezoar down his throat. But how does he help patients without magic?
Panic – and then smoke a cigarette.
A Young Doctor’s Notebook and Other Stories features Daniel Radcliffe (Horns) as a newly graduated medical student who finished top in his class. He gets a job as the one and only doctor in a small town in Russia during the revolution – and the outbreak of syphilis.
As Radcliffe’s character puts it, “not even letters want to be sent to this town.”
The small town, found via train in the middle of nowhere, has two types of weather: snow and blizzard. Radcliffe finds himself trapped inside the hospital, where he also lives, for weeks on end and begins to go stir crazy. After all, the only human contact he has is his coworkers and patients.
In the beginning, Radcliffe’s coworkers are completely unimpressed with him. He looks too young, doesn’t have any experience and isn’t Leopold Leopoldovich, the former doctor who ran the hospital. To try to impress them, Radcliffe grows a scraggly beard, constantly reminds them of his grades, and always tries to take control of the situation.
While Radcliffe plays “young doctor”, Jon Hamm (Million Dollar Arm) plays “older doctor”. I’m sure the writers had to sit and think for a while to come up with those names.
The show mainly tells the story of Young Doctor with only the opening and closing scenes being of Older Doctor, but the audience knows that Older Doctor’s life has clearly fallen apart.
Young Doctor and Older Doctor often share scenes, but Older Doctor is just a figment of Young Doctor’s imagination. It’s not clear if Young Doctor knows who Older Doctor is, but he would be quite lost without him. Older Doctor walks Young Doctor through every operation, advises him against using morphine on himself, and warns him of his future.
Daniel Radcliffe mentioned A Young Doctor’s Notebook wasn’t for the faint-hearted in an interview but I brushed it off because I love him and if he’s in it, I want to watch it.
Well, turns out I should’ve taken his warning since I had to watch some of the scenes with my hands over my eyes.
The thing is, for Russia in 1917, the hospital is a log cabin. Just in the first season, which is only four episodes, I think I saw more blood than… I don’t know, but there was a lot of blood. People gave birth, people had amputations, and people had to get metal pipes in their throats.
And then they always flash to Radcliffe smoking a cigarette with bloodstained hands. Why.
But I persevered, pushed through my nausea, and was even able to laugh at some of the jokes. Despite all of the gore, the show really is very funny. Radcliffe and Hamm work well together in both physical and verbal comedy.
One of my favorite scenes, because Radcliffe always talks about how short he is, is when Hamm is holding up a book so that Radcliffe can’t reach it even if he jumps.
I give this show 4/5 stars because, honestly, nobody needs to see that much blood. Nobody. But it was a good story with good characters and it really did make me laugh when I wasn’t covering my eyes.
A Young Doctor’s Notebook is a four-part mini-series. The first two seasons have aired, but only the first season is currently available on Netflix.
