Apple TV Plus has added Berlin ER, an intensive medical drama following doctors in a struggling German hospital.
The hard-hitting eight-part series, which has English subtitles, centers on dedicated but troubled doctor Suzanna Parker (Haley Louise Jones), who causes a stir when she arrives to head up the ER at a busy hospital in a troubled area of the German capital. Trying to make a fresh start after her old life in Munich imploded, Suzanna faces a baptism of fire when she realizes that the department is juggling a multitude of harrowing cases without sufficient backup or resources. Despite her controversial plans for change, she starts to bond with the team.
"This is like a hospital drama on steroids. It gets your pulse going," reveals Haley Louise Jones, who appeared in the German version of Professor T. "Suzanna loves her job and has high hopes for her new position. Things don't go as planned, but she has grit, resilience and determination. She's by the book, but from this team, she learns a new way of doing things".
Her colleagues include the brilliant but hard-living Dr Ben Weber (Slavko Popadić), who clashes with Suzanna. "Ben's self-destructive and a rebel, but a brilliant surgeon. He's driven by his passion to help, but his passion also destroys him," says Popadić.
The cast trained with real-life medics
To make Berlin ER as realistic as possible the cast actually underwent training with real-life medics. "The creators want viewers to feel the pace and the chaos," explains Popadić. "So we spoke to a lot of doctors and nurses and we had a medical boot camp where we were shown the basics and also things like how you would speak to a patient."
Co-created by writer with real-life doctor experience
British writer Samuel Jefferson co-created the series, drawing on his own experience as a one-time A & E doctor in the British NHS. "Because of the trauma of the job, I'd never wanted to write a medical show. But I had all these stories," he says. "The experience I'd had in the emergency room in the UK was shared by doctors we met in Germany and I wanted to show the reality of that life. Some medical series sees doctors and nurses as superheroes, but medicine is less glamorous and shiny. It’s about human beings struggling with themselves."
Berlin ER is an eight-episode hospital drama launching on Apple TV Plus on Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
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