Name: Emergency: NYC
Director: Adi Barash, Ruthie Shatz
Released: 2023-03-29T12:30:00

Emergency: NYC documents the lives of New York’s frontline medical professionals as they deal with various kinds of patients while also navigating their personal lives. The docuseries is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

In the NYC area, approximately 2.7 million emergency medical calls are made per year, which means 300 calls every hour. Emergency: NYC dives into the lives of the medical professionals who take care of these patients on the other side of the call.

It takes place after COVID-19 and follows the doctors, EMT officers, nurses, Sky Health, and every other team dealing with how the world has changed.

According to Dr. David Langer, COVID-19 became more or less like a wake-up call, and the world hasn’t fully recovered from it. There were so many deaths because hospitals were overwhelmed, but at the same time, people didn’t come to hospitals until they were really sick.

Emergency: NYC aims to highlight the work of these frontline heroes, who have continued to aid people, while also taking an in-depth look into how they balance their personal lives along with their professional lives.

Positives

Emergency: NYC provides an intimate look into how medical professionals work. It starts right from answering the calls or meeting the patients and only ends after the treatment is complete.

The process these patients go through and all the conversations they have with various professionals they meet along the way is documented well. Furthermore, the doctors take their time to explain the surgeries and medical terms in the most basic form.

The medical procedures and the practical part aside, the documentary also shows how the doctors have to handle the relatives of a patient, who are going through a range of emotions. They are required to keep them calm and give them hope.

Emergency: NYC sticks firmly to the reality aspect, and there is hardly any extra push given to the emotions portrayed in the show. The documentary is hardly a docu-series and more of a walk into these various hospitals, where patients are fighting for their lives.

The background music is used occasionally and there are no in-depth interviews that give a glimpse into the lives of the patients; the focus strictly remains on their treatment and how the doctors deal with them

Negatives

The show doesn’t aim to engross viewers into the stories it is telling. This lack of story-telling and less emphasis on emotion will fail to capture a majority of the audience.

A proper narration of the events in simpler terms may have done the job, but even that is missing, making the show a dull watch. Furthermore, the show abruptly jumps from one case to another and breaks its own momentum and flow, shutting down the interest created before.

Verdict

Emergency: NYC is a bland docu-series that may appeal to a select few audiences. It is realistic in nature, but it struggles to create the interest that the viewers need to connect with the patients and the cases discussed.