I was surprised to see Jon and Dan doing a tv mini-series together about the experiences of a young doctor. We all know Daniel Radcliffe from the Harry Potter movies, I haven't really seen his other works though so I thought it might be worth a watch. I also know Jon Hamm via Mad Men but I really didn't follow the series. For me, Jon Hamm's memorable performances in Saturday Night Live [especially his "Sergio!" skit] was absolutely fantastic.
...and who could resist the possibility of seeing this?
Anyway, moving on...
*cough*
The story revolves around a certain Mikhail Bulgakov during his early days of being a doctor. Daniel Radcliffe plays a young Mikhail while Jon plays the older one.
The first episode starts with the Older Mikhail [Jon] in an office while two [what seems like Russian?] officers are either looking for something or currently confiscating everything in the room. Older Mikhail then chances upon an old black notebook which he reads and it goes into a flashback of his younger self [ Daniel] being taken to a remote hospital in the Smolensk province.
During the time, the Young Mikhail is fresh out of med school and as he mentioned got the highest of marks from his class. However as the episode progresses, he finds out that the actual real thing is way more nerve-wracking than what med school had offered.
Aside from that, he also has to surpass the certain stigma that his predecessor has left behind. It seems as if the previous doctor did things the right way every time and the staff never lets him forget it. And also trying to convince the medical staff that he really was a doctor [the staff mentioned he was either too young..or too small] and a good one at that.
A nice thing they did was that the Older Mikhail shows up in the flashback as some sort of spirit guide for his younger self. He can only be seen by his younger self and converses and interacts with him.
Overall, it was a very fun first serving of this mini-series. Daniel Radcliffe looks more rugged than usual but during some of the more goofy and awkward moments, you can't help but see a little HP sometimes. Either that of HP really has been imprinted on me that much. It's nice to see Jon in a more relaxed and comedic role [at least not too comedic like in SNL].
It's a bit sad that there will only be 4 episodes and [if we use the first episode as basis] that each will only last 30 minutes. Still if it's going to be as interesting as the first episode than it'll be worth it.
Besides, who cannot resist watching these two together on the TV screen?
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