(My apologies to my friend who recommended this and liked the series.) It's hard to believe that the BBC (who has set the bar for writing superb historical TV series) had anything to do with this series. The premise of a drama centred around an important, civil war, military hospital in Virginia certainly has potential for great themes: North/South tensions, 1860s medical science, changing race relationships, political intrigue and the beautiful location shots from Virginia. This series runner may have pitched these concepts but forgot to hire script writers that were steeped in their historical subject. The style of conversation was decidedly modern. The characters were shallow, often silly. The drama was more akin to soap operas than life and death matters. No such hospital would have time for the medical staff to sit around having extended personal conversations while the patients under their died horribly. Totally unbelievable. The women were poorly written and the men only fared marginally better. I give this series a 4 (poor) out of 10 and I felt no sympathy or interest when it was cancelled after the second season. I had only continued watching in hope to see what my friend (and those who rated it 7 or 10) had seen. [Period Drama]