Childrens Hospital - Seasons One and Two

Childrens Hospital (no apostrophe, because although it is a hospital for children, it's also named after a man named Arthur Childrens) began as a short web series but moved to television on Adult Swim for season two and expanded its episode length from 5 minutes to 11. I'm glad they've released the first two seasons on the same DVD set, because it would have been kind of a rip-off to have a dinky little set of 5-minute episodes by itself.

Anyway, this show is, to put it simply, extremely silly and extremely fun. At various points it parodies all of the famous doctor shows plaguing our TV networks, using such devices as the female doctors doing voiceovers every episode that pretend to be whimsical by tossing out metaphors about life and love (Grey's Anatomy); investigating a patient's house to help diagnose their condition (House); a doctor who heals using only the power of laughter (Patch Adams); that same doctor getting his own spin-off series (Private Practice); and the doctors constantly sleeping with each other and exchanging lovers (general soap opera crap from all of them). The story continuity is somewhat loose between episodes (especially with the relationships, as I mentioned. Nobody is a solid couple.), and this is reflected by the "previously on..." gags at the start of every episode, which consist of mostly unseen footage and sometimes a little bit of actual recap. Even the first episode has one. All of these things create the wonderful, wacky atmosphere of this show, which never gets serious unless its part of a joke. Speaking of the jokes, your sense of humour needs to be a little dark and twisted to enjoy some of the laughs, and mine is so I loved every minute of it. I also have to credit this show's unique ability to break the fourth wall by installing a fifth one. A fictional back story has been created for the series, stating that it has been on the air for 16 seasons, and all of the actors on the show are played by fictional actor alter egos, some of whom have accents or don't even speak English. Part of Childrens Hospital's whole gimmick is that it knows it's a show, and that's part of the show, because medical dramas tend to be revered and when satirizing them I think some self commentary on its own status is a necessary element.

Best Episode: A tie between two of the more self-referential episodes from season two: "End of the Middle", executed like an episode of a news show that takes a fictional behind the scenes look at Childrens Hospital after the show is canceled (also fictional); and "The Sultan's Finger: Live", which pretends to be a live episode and is full of fake mishaps and actors "breaking character". Brilliant.