User reviews

An Irish series that originally ran from 2003 to 2009, this is a solid drama elevated by outstanding performances by the two leads, Dominic Mafham and Aisling O'Sullivan. Gary Lydon should also be called out for his portrayal of sad sack resident counselor, Patrick.

The Clinic is the Clarence Street Clinic in Dublin, a multi-disciplinary medical practice, with everything from physiotherapy to homeopathy. Owner general practitioners Cathy and Ed Costello struggle to keep the practice and their marriage afloat. Plots focus on patients and clinic employees in a semi-serialized manner.

O'Sullivan is Cathy, the co-founder and driving force behind the business. She must deal with the conflicts between being a good doctor, a successful business owner, and a good wife. Will something have to give? Meanwhile, her husband Ed would rather just focus on the good doctoring. It doesn't help that Cathy's domineering father, who disdains Ed, owns one-third of the clinic.

Into their lives comes Mafham as Dan Woodhouse, the character you love to hate who never met a consonant he couldn't overpronounce. Dan is an English plastic surgeon taking up an office in the clinic. While his tummy tucks and Botox injections are good for the bottom line, the rest of the staff tend to dismiss his work as frivolous and not real doctoring. His arrogant nature doesn't help.

Most of the characters are likable and evolve over the course of the entire series. As with any long-running show, some characters disappear or are written off, which can be jarring. The plots are mostly ones we've seen before, including many romantic liaisons, but are usually executed well enough to keep your interest. The show is also an interesting look into the Celtic Tiger years in Ireland, prior to the 2008 recession (the last series broadcast in 2009 reflects on this).

I found this show extremely addictive; most series end with a major cliffhanger. Luckily, as of this writing, all seven series are available in the US via AcornTV's streaming service (www.acorn.tv), so you can go immediately from the cliffhangers to the next episode.

An eight for the show's addictive nature, and for the performances of Mafham, O'Sullivan, and Lydon.

OK, I will admit I am biased. I have been friends with the actor who plays Alex Walsh on the series for many years and therefore ordered the DVD's to view them in the states. However, now having seen all of season 1 and 2 (Season 3 is not yet out on DVD) I can say that the character development and plot lines are really good. Although originally I just ordered this to just see Sammy's performance, I was pleasantly surprised with the acting and writing on the series as a whole. The writers have done a good job developing each of the characters as individuals who have their own problems and issues outside the clinic and yet the series never looses its main focus of all the characters working together to make the clinic run smoothly. A used likened this series to the American TV series "ER". I would disagree. Being from the US and having watched ER for most of its run, I can say that ER is focused much more on the medical drama whereas "The CLinic" focuses much more on the interpersonal relationships and characters. Even without the medical drama, the show is highly enjoyable and I would recommend it

This has been such a really good series. Considering it was made many years ago it's kept me entertained for hours on end and the acting has been exceptional and the storylines have been really good too.

I've watched all 7 of the series it's so good and it's such a shame the plug was pulled on it when it was. I'm sure alot of people out here really need closure on this. Please can the writers not just write 1 more episode or 2 just to give closure to the many questions that have been raised in the final episode alone. We really need answers to them.please,please,please, please consider this review.

I discovered The Clinic online and watched the first two seasons. Season 2 ends with a major emotional cliff-hanger. I'd really like to see the other 5 seasons and wish they would make them available in some form or other. As another reviewer noted this show is about the personal relationships of the workers within a clinic in Ireland. The clinic is in a large old home that has been purchased by a fairly young couple who are doctors (Ed and Cathy). Dr. Ed was an assistant to an older doctor who ran the practice previously and he and his wife bought out the business and the old house when the older doctor passed away. However, the original doctor's widow still lives in the basement while the new couple lives in the upstairs flat, which is only one source of tension within the clinic. The other staff vary's a little from season to season, but there is another GP, a physical therapist, a counselor (who at some point or other gets to hear the problems of all his co- workers whether he likes it or not), a gay male nurse, a plastic surgeon, a financial controller (played by Chris O'Dowd who I had previously seen in the comedy series, The IT Crowd), and several female office workers. The clinic staff often socializes in the local pub which also helps to create some occasions for office romances and inappropriate relationships springing up which sets up some very dramatic and occasionally comedic situations.

The first several seasons of this show really reeled me in but I really wish there had been a warning that the series ends abruptly in season 7 with TONS of loose ends that need tying up, including 2 main characters who might or might not be dead!! I should've guessed it would end this way when so many other characters starting leaving after a couple of seasons, with weak excuses or zero explanations. I wish I hadn't gotten so wrapped-up in staying with this one after the first few seasons. LET THIS BE YOUR WARNING!!

However, if that's not a problem for you, there are some really good performances from some known (as well as some unknown to American audiences) Irish actors/actresses. I was delighted see a very young Chris O'Dowd and, later on a very young Aidan Turner who both showed great promise in their early acting roles which we've seen grow to fruition through the years. The series is more of a soap-opera-type drama than strictly a medical drama so it attracts viewers of both types of shows.

When I first read in a local Irish paper that we were to get an Irish Medical drama my thoughts instantly went to those terrible medical dramas that were in the form of aussie soap operas. However I was pleasantly surprised by the high entertainment in it. Up until then the Irish networks had tried their best to give us some high quality entertainment but kept on falling sort of their target.

The first night I sat down with a couple of beers and began to watch it I was curious as to who the cast were. I looked up the Internet Movie Database Base that night and discovered that I had seen most of them before in terrible shows but this was their best effort. The standard of acting throughout was of a very high quality. Each actor slipped into their roles very comfortably indeed and this was the making of it really.

From the first show to the last one each actor/character developed individually each having a crisis in most episodes but it was a recurring theme in each episode that was the development of the character/overall story you see. But to be totally honest with you the script was pretty weak. The script had all the usual medical drama's going on in it and their was nothing new but it was that the acting and the emotions displayed on screen to us that made the show worthwhile.

It has taken the Irish network bosses nearly 50 years to provide us with a great drama and they have finally succeeded in doing so. It will be interesting to see if there is a series two and where it will take us.

It seems that my parents love this show and every time I visit them they put this melodramatic garbage on.

It's horrible. The swelling music to denote when I'm supposed to be emotionally invested. The just plain banal writing. The tired plots that seem to be made by a 15 year old girl who watches too much reality TV. It's all just trite.

With the glut of absolutely great shows being produced on Amazon and Netflix I can't see why anyone with any modicum of taste would bother to watch more than five minutes of this offal. It's been made for the lowest common denominator of the mouth-breathers among us.

Some of the actors in it have been good in other things. I guess that's about the best I can say about it.

Stay away unless you want to watch people being incredibly serious in a show that tries too hard to be something that it's not.

The concept is fine, the acting is pretty solid, and the writing is good. However, The Clinic is nothing more than a nighttime soap opera, filled with characters with myriad foibles. (As an aside, if this is an example of socialized medicine I want no part of it.) We have two doctors married to each other who "run" the clinic, but it is actually managed by the reception desk. The main objective for watching each episode is to guess who is cheating on whom with whoever. Who is secretly lusting after whom? Will the accountant ever win over the receptionist? Will the fired receptionist ever kill herself, or will she return to the clinic as a patient and continue her pursuit of the doctor? Pretty boring stuff.

This isn't for everybody. Too many viewers (drowning in American slick slop) will need a cheaper fix. But for those who understand how a quality soap is made, it is close to heaven.

The acting is universally good, even great at times. The direction shows competence even when the script occasionally slows. But the scriptwriters do a superb job: never preaching, always entertaining.

Ireland thank you. It's not Wilde, but it's not supposed to be. And I have fallen in love with almost every character - beautiful, sad and wicked - just because they are so believable.

I have never before watched a medical soap which practically makes you feel like a voyeur in a real life clinic. Of course, reality would be unwatchable. The Clinic is sometimes mesmerising.

I guess I didn't realize I would be watching what is and has been described as an Irish soap opera when I first clicked on the title on Acorn.com. Besides being addictive, it is totally nauseating and guilt producing. I could watch (NOT ENJOY) five series, where one character after another first gives hope that they can be normal and likable, only to fall by the wayside and become villainous or unredeemable. Perhaps in later series, there are some who do not fit that description, but that seems to be the case early on.

I began to skip past any segment with Dan, and then those with Clodagh, and then the awful character of Liam's son, Ian. Then it just became intolerable, and as much as I wanted and waited for the writers to do in Dan and that pipsqueak Ian -- and to get rid of Clodagh and even Cara, I could not take one more minute!

The Clinic has 65 episodes, and aired from 2003-2008. Typically I binge watch new programs when they are this good, however, 65 episodes is a tough binge watch so I spread it over 8 day's. It was difficult to stop watching each day because the series has an interesting and diverse story to tell. You get to know clinic employees from the cleaning lady to the doctor's that run the practice. Each character has a unique personality and the writer's create stories that bring out their characters personality. Some characters you will love, one, in particular, you will hate. An attractive, womanizer who lies and manipulates almost every one in his path. The wring is strong as well as the acting. I throughly love British TV and film. Watched Downton Abbey, loved it and was sorry to see it end. The Clinic is an Irish production and it holds its own against British productions. After researching other Irish programs I could watch I found some great ones and I'm looking forward to watching them. You can't go wrong watching The Clinic.