For better or for worse

Production and Year: Premiere date: November 7, 1999, Poland Genre: Drama, Medical Cast: Jakub Żmijewski, Małgorzata Foremniak, Edyta Jungowska, Marian Opania Description: A Polish medical drama series, broadcast on TVP 2, which has been airing since 1999. Over the course of its 11-year run, it has explored many medical themes. From the adventures of medical students, interns, and residents to experienced surgeons and internists, and finally the promotion of preventive care and healthy lifestyles in Poland. The series has a rather interesting format. Setting aside episodes that focus solely on the characters’ personal lives, each of the remaining episodes centers on a single patient—around whom the entire plot revolves. Typically, the patient is in a private room and is visited by at least a few doctors who attempt to make the correct diagnosis. Test results are revealed gradually, and initial hypotheses usually turn out to be wrong. There is no rush, no drama, no fight for the patient’s life, e.g., through defibrillation in the case of asystole ;-) Despite this, the resemblance to a certain American series is clear... In terms of the medical team’s focus on a single patient, the diagnostic process lasting several days, and so on. The series portrays medicine from a perspective we might encounter in everyday life. Of course, setting aside all the “stretches” characteristic of other series on this topic as well. Flaws intended to make subsequent episodes more appealing to viewers. And to minimize the cast of this series, which already has over 400 episodes. And there are over 30 actors playing the roles of doctors of various specialties in "Na dobre i na złe."