Developed from the best-selling book ‘Five Days At Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by the author Sheri Fink, the show is a bleak reminder of the disastrous Hurricane Katrina that wiped out the gulf coast of America in 2005. It portrays the real-life pains and struggles taken by the care workers in saving the injured at the Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans.
This American drama showcases the ugly situation when the floodwaters rose, supplies got over and the electricity failed. The drained caregivers were compelled to make life-altering decisions whose outcomes would terrify them lifelong.
Written, co-showrunner and executive produced by Emmy Award winner Carlton Cuse and Academy Award winner John Ridley, the series is directed by Cuse, Ridley, and Wendey Stanzler (For All Mankind, Dispatches From Elsewhere).
With the help of real news footage, the makers of the show carefully convey moments from the deathly natural calamity that took away more than 1800 lives. It’s a classic real-world demonstration of sociological experiments that have urged how ordinary people at any moment of crisis can find themselves engaging in behavior that would alternatively be unthinkable.
As such, “Five Days” reaches beyond being a disaster movie stretched into a series and instead explores the cascading “What would you do?” and “How far would you go?” questions under dire circumstances. The show “Five Days at Memorial” is far from a feel-good story; rather, it illustrates how the line between principle and inhuman pragmatism, between saving every life and letting people reckon the dispensable, lies somewhere along that dangerous edge.
Five Days at Memorial Release Date
On Friday, August 12, 2022, the series premiered the first three episodes of ‘Five Days At Memorial’, an eight-part drama. The remaining episodes are released weekly every Friday from thereon until September 166, 2022.
Five Days at Memorial Cast
The cast of Five Days at Memorial includes Vera Farmiga as Dr. Anna Pou and Robert Pine as Dr. Horace Baltz. While Cornelius Smith Jr. portrays Dr. Bryant King, Cherry Jones takes on the role of Susan Mulderick, and Sharron Matthews plays Cheri Landry. Other actors seen in the show include Adepero Oduye, Julie Ann Emery, Molly Hager, Michael Gaston, and Joe Carroll.
Five Days at Memorial Storyline
A heartbreaking exploration of the hardships Memorial Medical Center employees encounter following Hurricane Katrina, Five Days at Memorial explores how difficult choices must be made and what unimaginable lengths must be gone through. It depicts the exhausted medical staff as thousands of people seek shelter at a hospital. During this time, critically ill patients are also flooding the hospital’s rooms, and it has been alleged that some of them were euthanized before the evacuation.
A hospital without power and rising floodwaters force Dr. Anna Pou (Farmiga) and her colleagues to make heartbreaking decisions concerning patient care when backup generators fail. There were 45 deaths over those five days, and the series unravels the mystery of what happened and how rationing led to unthinkable decisions by the staff. In addition to euthanasia and its role in disaster preparedness, the show also sparks a discussion surrounding Medicaid and euthanasia.
Five Days at Memorial Episode Guide
Here is a brief of all the episodes of the show:
Episode 1, ‘Day 1’ (August 12, 2022) The first episode starts with the sudden landfall of the Katrina Hurricane in New Orleans. We then see all the doctors, nurses, and staff of the Memorial Hospital looking after the patients while bracing for the storm.
Episode 2, ‘Day 2’ (August 12, 2022) The non-receiving waters make the staff and nurses realize that they haven’t gone through the worst-case scenario. At the same time, reports of a virus start to spread.
Episode 3, ‘Day 3’ (August 12, 2022) The rising of floods results in the hospital losing electricity. Mulderick and the staff prepare for an evacuation while attempting to cope with the horrible conditions.
Episode 4, ‘Day 4’ (August 19, 2022) As the conditions start to get worse, Pou, Mulderick, and the rest of the staff prioritize helping their patients in the most effective way.
Episode 5, ‘Day 5’ (August 26, 2022) The staff are compelled to make difficult decisions as pressure to abandon the hospital keeps building up.
Episode 6, ’45 Dead’ (September 2, 2022) 45 people are found dead in the aftermath of the disaster. State investigators arrive to find out the truth.
Episode 7, ‘Nobody knows the Trouble I’ve Seen’ (September 9, 2022) After Schafer and Rider dig deeper into their investigation of the deaths at Memorial, there is a revelation of new evidence.
Episode 8, ‘The Reckoning’ (September 16, 2022) Just as Pou fights to defend herself. Schafer and Rider push their case forward.
Five Days at Memorial Trailer
Apple TV dropped the teaser for ‘Five Days at Memorial’ on its Youtube channel on June 22. 2022. Soon after, the official trailer was released on July 13, 2022, where we visualized the horrible impact Hurricane Katrina had on the city of New Orleans in 2005 and how 45 patients at the hospital died in frightful conditions by way of.
The video opens with what looks like no ordinary storm. Hurling winds, cracked glass, and buildings ravaged. And to make it worse, Hurricane Katrina shows no leniency to the people of New Orleans. Ocean waves rise to shocking lengths and absorb anything it comes to contact with.
The preview then displays the Memorial Medical Center, a ghastly view from the harsh environments of Hurricane Katrina. There is water hurrying through the hallways, doctors, and nurses functioning without power, and most importantly, the distressing number of patients that require critical medical service despite inadequate resources.
Under these implacable conditions, the employees at the medical center are abandoned to their own maneuvers and must make questionable judgments about the storm’s occurrence.
Where to watch Five Days at Memorial?
Apple TV+ is exclusively streaming all the episodes of Five Days at Memorial. One must purchase the subscription in order to avail of its services.
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