#Max McGerry

[wipbigbang]

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[lonelier-version-of-you]

It might not be so annoying if Holby had used Max McGerry well as a character, that might make it feel like Jo Martin not getting much screentime as the Doctor was worthwhile for something, but... it didn't.

Like Abigail Tate before her, she never got to flourish professionally because the show seemed to think Henrik was the only person who had the "right" to run the hospital. And the show's treatment of any female character who "got in Henrik's way" was dreadful. Holby's narrative basically seemed to be that Henrik must be in charge at all times - unless he's running off, in which case he must be reassured "You're a great leader, Henrik!" no matter how many examples of why he is a terrible leader he himself gives - must be listened to and considered right at all times, and any woman who dares to want to be considered a superior or even an equal to him is a horrible bully and victimiser of poor little Henrik who needs to be put in her place, no matter how reasonable she's being or how much professional power she has.

And any woman who wants Henrik to not be misogynistic to her? Oh, how horrible of her to treat him in such a way, he's just so sad because of his tragic victimhood that he has to be misogynistic! /sarcasm

And then in Max's personal life... again, the double standards the show had for her vs. Henrik are just ridiculous. When Max does/says something bigoted, tons of story time is dedicated to making her suffer for it. When Henrik does/says something bigoted - as he very, very often did - the show was, much of the time, basically cheering him on. Max's transphobia was "punished" by having a "twist" where her son is trans, which is just an awful trope anyway - queer people do not exist as punishments for our parents, thank you very much. Henrik being constantly misogynistic and classist, however? Well, it was a lucky day if the show was doing something so basic as not cheering him on for being misogynistic and classist.

I'm not saying Max doing or saying bigoted things was okay or that she shouldn't have been held accountable for her transphobia. But why were months dedicated to making her face up to it, when we were lucky to get even the occasional one-off story for Henrik to face up to his bigotry?

And after all of that - okay, all of that and also the Guy Self romance storyline and a potential relationship with Ric that never went anywhere - basically nothing ever seemed to be done with Max again. She became friends with Ange which was nice, but that was about it. Every other storyline that had anything to do with her really either ended up being, or was from the start, primarily about Louis when he was not nearly as interesting as her.

I just hate that Holby basically entirely wasted a character who had so much potential and I hate the thought that if they hadn't, we might have had more of Jo Martin's Doctor - I hate it because it would have been brilliant to see more of her in DW and we didn't get to. Sigh.

Speaking of Doctor Who, it's so frustrating to think that maybe if it weren't for Holby we could have had more of Jo Martin's Doctor.

I mean, obviously I know there was other stuff like COVID that may have got in the way of possibly giving her more screentime, but still.

[great-speech-fraulein]

I absolutely love Max McGerry's character arc like she's grown so much since she arrived at Holby

[girl-in-the-suit]

Holby City | Spring Trailer 2021

[uhhholby]

hugh quarshie as ric griffin - holby city s22e26

[spoonielivingfree]

Taking Chances - Chapter One

A/N I finally got round to starting a Holby City and Greys Anatomy Crossover Fic which will feature two of my favs! Not really sure of the logistics of it yet but we shall see how this pans out.

Jac had exhausted all options in the UK. The trial wasn't going to pan out in time, and according to all UK surgeons she trusted the tumour was inoperable. Inoperable. That was it. It had already started to progress. Her headaches were worse, she was getting dizzy, light and sound sensitive, and her dexterity had reduced. She had dropped a scalpel in surgery the other day. She felt shaky, wobbly. It wasn't like her at all. She obviously went to Max, got a scan. The tumour had grown. It was now, or never she had to look elsewhere.

After meeting with Max to discuss the results, she went back to her office to lie down in a darkened room. The headache was overwhelming, and her medication didn't help anymore. She really hoped no one could bother her, and she could rest until it eased and then get into Looking at the other options. Max had prescribed her some stronger medication, but she really couldn't face going to the pharmacy now. She needed the pain to ease.

"Are you okay walking?" Max asked gently, noticing she seemed to be in a lot of pain and disoriented. "I'll be fine." She said. Taking the walk slowly, glad to be curled up on her office sofa. Her head was pounding, and she felt like she was about to vomit. She had sick bags beside her for good measure. The tumour had started causing nausea and vomiting, and she knew there might be a time where she wouldn't make it to the toilets. Why the fuck was this thing in her brain debilitating her like this. She knew it would eventually, but she hoped it wouldn't be so soon. She closed her eyes for a while, trying to will the symptoms away. She really shouldn't be trying to sleep during work hours, but the symptoms were too much. The light made the pain 10x worse, let alone a screen.

Eli walked into her office around an hour later, seeing her on the sofa in a darkened room. "You should go home."

"No, I have work I should be doing. I'll be fine. I just need to feel up to going to the pharmacy to get my new prescriptions. I'm sure they'll work, and then I'll be able to move."

"Okay. How about I go and get your meds then. You need something to ease the pain." He responded, pausing. "Have you been sick today?" He asked, noticing the bags.

"Yeah. I was sick this morning." She replied, passing him the prescriptions that Max wrote out earlier. "Have you eaten since?" "Who are you, my mother? Yes, I've eaten since!" She yelled, wincing, realising it hurt her head more.

"Good. I'm going to get your meds, and I'll bring them back up." Eli said, walking out of the office, knowing Jac just needed to be left alone to rest off the head pain.

After taking her medication and letting it kick in she felt a bit better. So went back out on the ward to do some necessary consults before having to face looking at a screen to reply to her emails and look for a neurosurgeon. She decided to keep the fact that she was looking for one quiet for now. Everyone at Holby would discourage her. They'd say inoperable means inoperable, and she just wasn't accepting that.

She was glad to be sitting back down in her office after doing some consults as she was feeling increasingly dizzy standing up. She replied to the emails she needed to before looking for a suitable neurosurgeon for her tumour. She spent hours searching through the web, in between work emails, calls and projects. There wasn't even anyone she wanted to enquire to. Why would any rational person take the risk of operating on her inoperable tumour? Then she found someone she thought would be up for the challenge.

Amelia Shepherd. She'd operated on many inoperable tumours in the past and done so successfully. This was it. Jac's one shot at life. She sent off an Email with her latest scans and blood test results, before replying to a final few emails and calling it a day.

Chloe knocked on her office door just as she shut her computer down. She groaned, really hoping it wasn't to do with a patient. Her head was killing her. "Come in." She called.

"I'm going for a drink with Eli, Dom and some others from the hospital. Do you want to come?" She asked. The red-headed surgeon looked tired.

"No. I have a headache. I'm going to go home." She barely felt up for after-work drinks anymore. Sometimes she pushed herself to, but today was not one of those days. She needed her bed. She wasn't 100% sure she could even drive home without risking an accident.

"Okay, well, get some rest." Chloe replied.

"Yeah. I'll try to." Rest didn't feel that restful anymore. The symptoms of the tumour affected her no matter what, like an ever present being trying to take over her body and her life.

Once Chloe left the Office Jac ordered an Uber before gathering her things. She could leave the car at the hospital overnight. Once she got in she thanked Emma's nanny for taking care of her and giving her dinner. She took her medication to dull the heavily returning pain and nausea before reading with her daughter.

She was glad Emma was old enough to read herself as the words had started swimming on the page. The deterioration was scary. Emma knew she was sick. The blinding headaches, co-ordination issues, nausea and dizziness couldn't be hidden from the observant child so Jac had told Emma quiet early on but she worried about the day she couldn't care for her child anymore, or even worse, the day she died and was left without a mother.

Once putting Emma to bed she tried to eat something. She had leftover Pizza and hoped her stomach wouldn't revolt. Whilst she was eating she checked her emails for the last time that day. She'd had an email back from the American surgeon, Amelia Shepherd, who was happy to take on her case and set up a video call to discuss a timeline and surgical plan. It was really happening, she might get her second chance.

[hcscreenshots]

holby city || s22e26

[daisydoctor13]

"Right now I need to do my job, having my breasts cut off can wait" - max is growing on me tbh

[thedragonoftelevision]

Between Max McGerry and Guy Self I totally get why Dylan goes to the effort of dragging Zsa Zsa in from America whenever someone important needs brain surgery, ya know?

[romelzacarnes]

Captain Jack saluting his Doctor (even in an alternate universe)

Doctor Who s3.e13 | Holby City s22.e23

[wilkiebarkid]

So shitty that Max is having to explain to Ric that she’s brilliant at her job. It really annoys me that he’s so dismissive of her because she showed emotion. 

[doctorwhoarchiveofrandomness]

“Yeah, just ‘Doctor’ is fine.”

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Okay, so, I thought Casualty was quite strong - but not without its flaws. I shall try to discuss it coherently, but I'm very tired, so that may not go so well.

So, starting with some unconditional praise: it was visually beautiful. The best looking ep of Casualty I've seen in a long while, maybe ever. I don't think I could criticise a single thing about it. Those behind the scenes who played a role in making this ep so gorgeous should be very proud of themselves.

The writing, I had more mixed feelings about. Some of it was great. Some of it I didn't like. Some of it was very middle-of-the-road - ironically, the scenes in the middle of the road were not, those were great.

Zoe is back!! For this week and the next. But it's something. Look, it's been 6 years, I'll take what I can get. Last time we saw Zoe, Holby was still on air and good. Time flies. Sunetra Sarker in the role is always a joy to see.

It was also wonderful to see Zoe and Dylan reunite. They're one of my favourite Holbyverse friendships ever.

But something I picked up on... Zoe said she doesn't have kids. But in Jade's centric ep way back when, there was a line from Robyn saying Zoe and Max (Walker, not Cristie or McGerry lol) had adopted a kid. I think it was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it line, granted, but it's something the show should have remembered when bringing Zoe back. I suppose the Holbyverse does have history with "this character's kid was never seen onscreen, only mentioned, so if they're lucky we'll forget things about them and if they're not we'll forget their entire existence". As it is, either there's been a retcon, Zoe was lying for some reason, or there's a tragedy that's happened offscreen and only has one ep to be explained and wrapped up. None of those are options I like.

The Teddy and Jan stuff, I thought was great. Milo Clarke and Di Botcher are such great actors, Teddy and Jan's dynamic is so believeable. I just hope Teddy gets some aftermath and counselling for all of this. It's a lot to go through.

The Stevie storyline continues to be much better than it was for a while, I'm glad to say. I just hated Faith's patronising "comfort". But Stevie herself was great.

I just hope she doesn't leave. I could also see a scenario where she stays, but steps down as Clinical Lead - since there's definitely a new one coming in. Though her replacement is a bloke again - what I mean is a woman hasn't been clinical lead longterm since Connie, right? We've got used to having men in charge, it would be nice to have a woman longterm again - but then, Max (Cristie, not Walker or McGerry) essentially stepped down to look out for his health, so I suppose it's fair enough if Stevie does the same. It's not like the Holby situation where Henrik was a man who was blatantly incompetent at running the hospital but kept getting to run it basically forever, while perfectly competent women only got to do so for like a year at most. This situation seems fairly gender-equal.

Why is Jodie getting no aftermath to her friend (Paige) and dad (Max Cristie) both suddenly leaving?? Sigh.

It also frustrates me how the Mel storyline is basically all about Charlie, but I suppose I couldn't expect anything else when he's leaving.

The Charlie stuff itself was mostly buildup, so I don't have all that much to say about it.

Next week... more Zoe, and we're in the homestretch for Charlie. That's all I can say before I read any spoilers.

[jodiewhittel]

max: an icon

nicky: alive

what a beautiful end to an excellent episode

[annabanana2401]

Ok i am not here for any relationship between max and guy especially not a romantic one 🤮

[uhhholby]

holby city s22e26