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.

Screenwriter Alex Brenner announced to the media trade magazine Media Eye in May 2007 that he was developing a "big medical drama" for TV3. Bowker had worked on medical dramas early in his career, including Lifeline for the EBC. TV3's director of drama Lauren Piper told the television, film and entertainment culture trade newspaper The Stage that the series would be "provocative, spicy and progressive" and would be based an ensemble drama but with a single lead character, like Grey's Anatomy.

Brenner wanted the series to show the personal and human side of medics, with the character of Rosie Caroll imagined as a "sex-hungry young twentysomething who desperately wants to make a positive change towards the world, but who struggles to juggle her responsibilities and romantic life." Brenner decided to make the character autistic and potentially explore the topic of autism and it's related effects in the series. Caroll would also develop a severe case of anxiety in the series and this would carry throughout the show as her condition would worsen.

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 take things slower and show that they have got their own lives, loves, families and friends. Aiming it at a younger audience allows the programme to freely tackle issues regarding and concerning the target demographic.'"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.

Casting
Casting for Complications was done to prioritise new, young actors with little to no television experience. It was also racially colourblind, allowing for the cast team to be as diverse as possible. A then 22-year-old Rachel Campbell was cast as Rosie Caroll in November 2007, having previously appeared in Barcroft from 1999 to 2006 as Katherine Knight and a handful of film roles. Brenner said of her appointment that "'[Campbell] had the exact type of energy, enthusiasm, feistiness and attitude that we had envisioned Rosie to convey. She knew her character would act like a bitch, but a complex bitch who only acted like one because she was a determined girl from a rough background who badly struggled to find her true place in a complicated world, hence the name of the show.'"

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.

Ian Knetter for the Euro Independent noted in 2015 that "Complications has powered through it's early Grey's-lite days into a respectable and unique take on the medical drama format, taking itself and it's characters more seriously and allowing the programme to truly tackle proper issues that affect the medical industry rather than the soft porno it was back in 2009."

The tenth series - specifically the storyline regarding Carrol's PTSD and anxiety diagnosis and cardiac arrest - was widely acclaimed.

Realism
The show had been heavily criticised upon it's 2009 debut for its lack of realism.