Maternal review: 3 women doctors lead this series from the UK

Maternal, a medical series from the UK, is set not long after all the COVID lockdowns. The three women doctors who are returning to work after maternity leave are all close, loyal friends who help each other through their various struggles.

Unfortunately, Maternal has not been renewed for more seasons. Medical dramas have endless fodder for new stories, and this series has three outstanding lead characters. I think it was a mistake not to renew it.

Catherine (Lara Pulver) is a surgeon, and a very good one. She has problems finding care for her little daughter. Finally she allows the little girl’s father, Lars (Alexander Karim), to help out with the baby part time. The problem with Lars is he is married to someone else and practices medicine in Sweden.

Maryam (Parminder Nagra) and her husband Raz (Abhin Galeya) have a long history of miscarriages behind them. They currently have a young child who was adopted. The drug addict mother of their little boy is pregnant again and Raz wants that baby, too. Maryam isn’t so sure. She’s depressed by all her losses and can’t sleep. She struggles to fit back into her job with the NHS.

Helen (Lisa McGrillis) and her husband Guy (Oliver Chris) have two kids and a chaotic home life. They aren’t getting along as a couple. Both are doctors in the same hospital.

The lives of the women are well-developed in terms of character development. Their bonds of friendship are unbreakable. Professionally they are involved in new cases in every episode and we see how they are doing returning to work.

The three new moms were coming off maternity leave just after COVID – not that COVID is over or will ever be over. But after the lockdowns when we were experiencing millions of deaths in a short time. An interesting subplot that hasn’t been explored much in other medical dramas is how traumatic COVID was for medical professionals. They were to helpless to save people; they didn’t have the right equipment or information. All those deaths they couldn’t prevent took a toll on them. That dramatic motif was brought into the story in several ways by several characters.

The medical cases were interesting. The cast was excellent. I certainly would have enjoyed more seasons with this group. But we do have these 6 episodes streaming on Acorn TV to enjoy.