Complications

Complications is a Euroish medical drama television series focusing on the personal and professional lives of the doctors, surgeons, nurses, attendings, interns, and related staff and patients of the General City Hospital in Belton, as well as the inner life and critical decisions made in the surgical unit, with some episodes crossing over with the accident and emergency ward, the children's unit of the hospital and the fire and police services. The series debuted on 1st January 2009 on TV3.

Since the show began it's run, the show has been focused on the character of Rosie Sandiford (maiden name Carrol) (Rachel Campbell) as she progresses as a new intern from medical school to a qualified doctor, as well as her relationships with fellow doctors, ending in her marriage to James Sandiford (Charlie McMillan). As the series has progressed over the years, it has switched more towards an ensemble format as Rosie takes up more of an administration role within the hospital.

The series is the eighth longest running medical drama series worldwide, behind ', ', ', ', ', ' and .

A more serious and procedure-driven spin-off, Critical Condition, was launched in 2012 on TV4, whilst the children's unit was spun off into Hospital Life on 3C in 2015, and In Blue, a spin-off about the police service, launched in 2018. In the United States, Complications is available on Hulu with occasional special broadcasts on ABC.

Inception
TV3 had already seen success with medical drama series acquired from other countries, broadcasting both ER & Grey's Anatomy in a successful Thursday night block since 2006, as well as screening House and the British medical drama Holby City, with sibling channel TV4 broadcasting parent show Casualty, and Grey's spin-off Private Practice.

Spurred on by the success of their acquried medical drama series, TV3 announced in August 2006 that they were on the look out to commision a new medical drama series, on the basis that it would be distinctive from ETV's long running medical drama series Lifeline, which had been running since 1988.

Alex Brenner had been working as a screenwriter for television for over ten years by this point, ironically enough starting his career on Lifeline, and whose career had just been boosted significantly as the head writer on TV3's comedy-drama mystery series Silverthorne.

His idea was to create a medical drama that shown the personal and human side of the hospital staff, with the character of Rosie Caroll based on his own sister, who became a vet after aspiring to be a surgeon. As Lifeline was aimed heavily at an older, more conservative audience, Brenner also set out to create a medical drama that would appeal to a younger (under 30) audience, with a liberal attitude towards explicit sex scenes, strong language, gender and relationship identity and diversity, as well as appeal heavily towards a younger audience, as Lifeline was more popular with an older audience. He pitched the idea to TV3 in January 2007, and a pilot script was ordered. The pilot was approved by TV3 executives, and the series was commisioned in March.

Brenner said of the programme's inception:"'Complications is the type of medical drama that didn't exist in this country beforehand. I pitched it as a show that can be high speed and high octane when it needs it but can take things slower and show not just the heroism of the surgeons, but that they have got their own lives, loves, families and friends. It was also pitched as a show where not every character is a white fifty-something like those in Lifeline, as that is what is limiting the show from reaching a younger audience, so by employing a younger and racially diverse cast and writing team, it would be given more room to breathe and appeal to those teens, twentysomethings and thirtysomethings who are crying out for a medical drama that isn't all about drugs, parties and fucking.'"Brenner also wished for the programme to be able to explore political and social issues through the lenses of the core cast members, as the show was conceived during the period when the Euroish National Health service was being significantly underfunded and it's resources limited by the National party, especially in terms of children's, psychological and surgical services. The funding issues for the hospital are very much present in earlier series of Complications, and Brenner also allowed cast members to have their characters tailored to their own political views.

Broadcast
TV3 initially considered running Complications as a half hour nightly soap in the 8pm slot running alongside  and Barcroft but later backtracked and instead chose to run the show in the 10pm slot, making way for more adult orientated content and themes which would have been disallowed at 8pm.

Complications was first broadcast on 1st January 2009, with a Thursday 10pm slot for nine weeks, following Grey's Anatomy and displacing ER during it's initial run. The second series began on 15th October 2009, with the programme moved to 8pm, backtracking on TV3's initial 10pm idea. When the third series debuted in September 2010, it returned to 10pm, swapping with Private Practice, which moved to 8pm.

For many years, Complications acted as a lead-out from Grey's Anatomy on TV3, broadcasting at 10pm on Thursdays. When Grey's Anatomy moved to Friday nights in 2021 to allow for a faster broadcast time after the US, it retained it's slot, now part of a new Thursday schedule which included an hour of new comedy at 8pm and Grey's spin-off Station 19 at 9pm.

In the United Kingdom, Complications was first broadcast on 11 May 2009, on Living. Series 1 aired on the channel in a Monday 10pm slot. Repeats of the show also aired on Living Loves. When Living was relaunched in 2011 as Sky Living, Complications was shown on Thursday nights at 10pm. It remained on the channel until 2022, when ITV outbid Sky for the rights to air future series. ITV2 debuted the series on 14th November 2022, initially airing in a Monday 9pm slot. Classic episodes air on weekdays at 3pm.

At the start of the 2023-24 television series, ABC in the US added repeats of series 13 of Complications to it's lineup to fill gaps in the schedule inflicted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. ABC ran the series in the Sunday 10pm slot, and will move to the Thursday 9pm slot in January 2024 until finishing it's run in March.

Response: praise & criticism
Complications has been generally well received by viewers and some critics, although in spite of it's high ratings and long running status, it had initially attracted much criticism and unfavourable reviews during it's first few years.

It has throughout it's history been compared to other medical dramas, almost always in a negative manner. It has perhaps been most heavily compared to Grey's Anatomy, due to the two shows' strong female leads, the surgical focus, emphasis on character development, romance and more raunchy and erotic themes being favoured over the actual medical procedures. The progression of Rosie Sandiford from junior medic to head of surgery also mirrors that of Meredith Grey. The heavy political and social undercurrents to the show's themes and writing has also been heavily compared to the earlier series of the BBC series Casualty. The former series airs on the same channel, TV3 in the Euro Republics, and the latter on TV3's sister network TV4, which airs repeats of Complications. The ties between the plots and characteristics of the two series led to a deal being signed by TV3 and Shondaland in 2015, making the latter a production company for Complications, and which saw TV3 pick up a localised Euroish version of the rejected ABC pilot Inside the Box from the company.

In November 2010, Luiz McCallum, then head of drama at ETV, accused TV3 of producing "self-affirmed parodies" of ETV drama, commenting that "Complications is when you take Lifeline and dash what they like to call some "adults only" action in it because they can say it's quirky or unique when in truth what you just end up with is Grey's Anatomy in a Euroish accent. And like that show, it's a load of soapy, frothy shit".

Paul Morgan stated that whilst he watches Grey's Anatomy, he does not watch Complications, as "the character of Rosie Sandiford is a carbon copy of Meredith Grey" and that "it is at best on par with Holby City or ETV One's UK show Doctors, but that's not saying much, even Private Practice is more watchable".

Moral guardians and parent groups have heavily condemned the show throughout it's time on air, due to it's heavy emphasis on sexual content and explicit language.

As the show continued to evolve, critical reception towards the programme became much more positive, as the focus on "sexcapades" was toned town in favour of exploring more of the political and social issues affecting medical services throughout the country.

Realism
The show has been heavily criticised for its lack of realism.