The Crimson Field

This soapy melodrama about nurses in a military hospital premiered on the BBC in 2014 as part of its grand WWI centenary programming initiative before later arriving in the U.S. on PBS. Plans for additional episodes were scrapped, but The Crimson Field still offers plenty of costume drama for fans of Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife. Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses Kitty (Oona Chaplin), Flora (Alice St. Clair), and Rosalie (Marianne Oldham) are fresh-faced and eager when they arrive at a British field hospital on the coast of France soon after the start of the war. The women are joined by the more experienced Sister Joan (Suranne Jones), who carries the most wrenching backstory, although each of them work through personal issues while growing emotionally. The episodes mostly center on the interactions with the parade of young soldiers whose broken bodies and battered minds provide gritty life lessons for the inexperienced nurses. But there's also plenty of theatrics involving handsome doctors, officers, and nurse matrons with whom they butt heads or make woo. As a mid-budget ensemble period drama, The Crimson Field is a worthy effort. Recommended. (T. Fry)