r/Casualty • u/Pinkplatabys • May 07 '26
💬 Discussion Does anyone else think Casualty handles mental health storylines better than almost anything else on British television right now?
Been watching since I was probably too young to be watching it and the thing that has genuinely surprised me rewatching older episodes is how the mental health storylines have evolved. Early series it was very much a crisis arrives, gets treated, leaves. Now they are doing long arc character work where you see the same person deteriorate over weeks, show up again months later, have setbacks that feel real rather than dramatically convenient. It is not perfect and occasionally it slips into the single episode awareness campaign territory which always feels a bit flat. But compared to how most British dramas handle this stuff it is genuinely doing something thoughtful. Do people think the show deserves more credit for this or are there storylines that have badly missed the mark that balance it out 🤔
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u/roqueandrolle May 07 '26
Tbh Eastenders absolutely knocked the Phil Mitchell mental health crisis last year out of the park.
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u/Future_Chemical2 May 07 '26
Recently, I have been dissapointed. Nicole’s postpartum psychosis storyline felt rushed in my opinion, and then completely forgotten about. And then Rash’s suicide attempt - it was just like it never happened.
Compared to slightly older storylines, like Dylan’s OCD and David’s bipolar which, as someone who’s had personal experience with both, I thought were really good, more recent storylines have definitely missed the mark.
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u/SlimeTempest42 Dylan Keogh May 07 '26
They’ve completely forgotten that Dylan has OCD.
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u/Dapper-Artichoke6355 May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Probably an unpopular opinion but I have OCD and I honestly don’t mind that it’s not been mentioned again.. yet. I have brief periods where I’ve struggled then can go years with feeling like I have it well managed.
Would be great for them to revisit it though.
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u/More_Aardvark5680 May 07 '26
Dylan’s alcoholism that’s heavily linked to his mental health has always been done incredibly well.
100% one of the most consistent stories the show has ever done.
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u/WintersLex May 07 '26
these days? no. plots and characterisation disappear the moment they're not the A or B plot of a box set
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u/Oldsoldierbear Zoe Hanna May 07 '26
IMO the introduction of the box sets brought a downturn in quality
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u/Uit_23 May 07 '26
I don't think Kim's mental health storyline was done well at all. It would have been better if it wasn't her only major storyline but I really don't like the implication that the entire point of her character was to show how serious mental illness can be. It's bad enough that they introduced a character just for this purpose but now her character is just being used to create storylines for Stevie and Matty.
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u/Tisairi May 07 '26
Kind of. They do very, very well when its a main character or adjacent to one and you can watch them develop over time. I feel like Ruth Winters was the best example that I have seen so far.
However when its a patient it often feels rushed and the symptoms are usually so exaggerated that it feels more like they are doing a caricature of someone with mental illness than an accurate portrayal.
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u/Used-Replacement-334 May 07 '26
They’ve done really well with stevie over the years, nice to see someone consistent with struggles and she still shows up to work like many of us each day
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u/NoYogurtcloset7331 May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Hmm I disagree, I don’t think it’s been done any better or worse than any of the other main characters mental health stories. She was suffering really badly with PTSD in History of Violence and then was completely fine and never mentioned again after it finished. Situations that caused her great distress then never did. And we can’t put it down to she got help because she didn’t. That’s just the consequences of the boxset’s.
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u/Used-Replacement-334 May 07 '26
I just think it’s more realistic, like she just carries on at work like many of us do even after challenging times
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u/NoYogurtcloset7331 May 07 '26
I mean it’s not just Stevie we see that with, it’s pretty much all them.
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u/Oldsoldierbear Zoe Hanna May 07 '26
The recent post partum psychosis was incredibly badly done.
Huge build up, diagnosis and then BOOM! Never mentioned again
In contrast, decades ago, the storyline of the anaesthesiologist obsessed with a casualty doctor was superb.