SNAPSHOT
Five Days at Memorial chronicles the impact of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath on a local hospital. When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make decisions that would follow them for years to come.The stacked ensemble cast is led by Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring), Cornelius Smith Jr. (Scandal), and Cherry Jones (The Eyes of Tammy Faye). The cast also includes Robert Pine (CHiPs), Julie Ann Emery (Better Call Saul), Adepero Oduye (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Molly Hager (Happyish), Michael Gaston (The Leftovers), and W. Earl Brown (Preacher). Wendey Stanzler (For All Mankind, Dispatches From Elsewhere) also directs the show alongside Ridley and Cuse. (synopsis courtesy Slash Film)
Natural disasters are horrific in every possible way.
And it’s not simply the event itself with the aftermath producing all kinds of terrible challenges and nightmarish outcomes as Slash Film observes.
“Flooding, lack of power, staff, and resources cause another perfect storm inside those walls and, as a very high body count is uncovered, a harrowing mystery begins to unfold. It appears as though the staff on hand had to make some terrible choices. The trailer doesn’t outright say what happened but it strongly hints that some medical professionals had to make a choice between letting people suffer slowly or putting them out of their misery.”
The trailer suggests this journey through the five days at Memorial Hospital, based on the 2013 book of the same name by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheri Fink, is going to be hell and eminently, searingly watchable.
Five Days at Memorial premieres its first three episodes on Apple TV+ on 12 August with the remaining episodes released weekly until 16 September.