When a striking number of patients die, new nurse Pernille suspects her colleague of this. Is she right and how can she prove this at all? In 2016, Denmark is in turmoil because of a case involving a nurse. She is convicted that year for the murders of several patients. What drove her to do this and how were her crimes discovered? In the Danish Netflix series Sygeplejersken, also known as The Nurse, we get to see the story of this case. Through the four-episode miniseries, we get to know the main characters and we also see how the killer worked.
Christina's (night) shifts are often intense and bizarre and because of this she has quite a reputation within the hospital.
The viewer follows Pernille Kurzmann Larsen (Fanny Louise Bernth, Herrens veje) who starts her new job in the emergency room. Still a bit unsure about her abilities, she is paired with mentor Christina Aistrup Hansen (Josephine Park, Skruk) who has already earned her stripes as a nurse. It is the beginning of a friendship and the 'Dream Team' as they call themselves. Yet not everyone seems to be a fan of Christina. Christina's (night) shifts are often intense and bizarre and because of this she has quite a reputation within the hospital.
Sygeplejersken switches between two timelines during the episodes. Pernille starts in the hospital in 2014, but images from 2012 can also be seen in between. In the beginning that is a bit unclear, but gradually the stories appear to have something in common and come together. The makers seem to want to tell a small part of the victims' side with this storyline. Personally, however, I found this background information to be of little added value.
Despite warnings from colleagues, Pernille falls for a doctor she works with. She and Niels Lundén (Peter Zandersen, Hånd i hånd) keep their relationship a secret, but find themselves in trouble when Pernille suspects that Christina may be responsible for the deaths of patients. While she tries to find evidence and support for these suspicions, no one seems to want to believe her. After all, it is her word against that of a nurse who has been employed for years.
The background information about Pernille, her family circumstances and private relationships reveal the resistance she encountered when she tried to express her concerns. However, I do not always find this information relevant. For example, the bond with her daughter and ex does not add anything. At the same time, I again miss more background information from some of the other characters. Who is the doctor Pernille falls for, for example, and how does she know if he can be trusted in all this? And although we do learn something about Christina, her personal story is only told very briefly.
The story is boring, rippling along and there are hardly any really exciting moments.
It was amazing to find out that less than a decade ago the security systems in European hospitals could be this bad. For example, there was no control whatsoever on the medication quantities in the hospital where all this takes place. The use of beepers also surprised me, because I thought they hadn't been used for a long time. Sygeplejersken shows in a painful way how wrong things can go in the medical world. Trust is so important but if there is no further control on this, terrible things can happen.
Although I didn't think Sygeplejersken was that bad, I can't say it's a great series. I can, therefore, not really recommend the series. The story is boring, rippling along and there are hardly any really exciting moments. The background information that I would like to see is missing and no character is portrayed sympathetically enough to be likable. The acting, on the other hand, is fine. It is also nice that the series tells at the end how it ended with all the main characters in real life. But for me, Sygeplejersken was too simple to keep me interested. That's why my final grade is a 6.0.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
