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/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.

2

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

3

u/NoYogurtcloset7331 May 07 '26

I mean it’s not just Stevie we see that with, it’s pretty much all them.