If you blinked you might have missed it. “Getting On,” a six-episode series on HBO, just ended its short run. The show was created by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, the duo behind “Big Love,” although it couldn’t be further away from the polygamist drama. Based on the BBC series of the same name, “Getting On” stars a bunch of character actors you might recognize but probably don’t know very well, and is set in the extended care unit of a neglected California hospital. It’s very funny in its own quiet way, and, even though it was one of the best shows to come across our screens last year, has been unfairly neglected.
I had heard rumblings about the show, a few words of praise from colleagues and friends, but didn’t have a chance to sit down with it until the holiday break. The ensemble comedy focuses on three women: Dawn (Alex Borstein), the longstanding nurse of the extend care unit; DiDi (Niecy Nash), a brand new nurse; and Dr. Jenna James (Laurie Metcalf), the high-strung and possibly insane boss who loathes the staff and, it seems, the patients as well. Metcalf, most famous for her role on “Roseanne,” is the show’s standout actor. Her performance is one of great comic precision, balancing on the awkward and the absurd; she’s as good as Ricky Gervais or Steve Carrell are at making you cringe on both versions of “The Office.” Borstein and Nash, most familiar from their roles on “Mad TV” and “Reno 911” respectively, get the most laughs out of their awkward interactions, Nash playing the straight man to Borstein’s eccentric, but lovable, loser.
The jokes are painful, but never at the expense of the elderly patients who fill out the show. Many of the episodes include some of the finest older actors working, including June Squibb, who has made a career of playing foul mouthed grandmas (see Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska”), and Harry Dean Stanton, who plays the boyfriend of one of the patients who can’t seem to stop, shall we say, getting on with his partner all over the hospital.
Because the material is treated in such a low key way, it allows space for serious moments to flourish. These scenes, quiet interactions between nurses and patients, feel as natural as the comedy because they are presented in the same way. When Molly Shannon, who was last seen in HBO’s much-missed “Enlightened,” makes an appearance toward the end of the series as the daughter of one of the patients, the tone of the show is most fully realized. The world of the hospital is a sad and beautiful place, full of life and death. But it’s also a world filled with flawed people, bureaucratic nightmares, and ridiculous moments. “Getting On” is about people being people, and in allowing the full range of human experience to emerge, is painful and joyous to watch.
