‘Five Days at Memorial’ series review: A heart-wrenching story undone by ineffective storytelling

Though the medical drama has a engrossing story that informs audiences about the state’s apathy towards the victims of Katrina, the episodes feel too stretched with dialogues that are flat and ineffective

“Wade in the water, wade in the water children

Wade in the water

God’s gonna trouble the water”

...is how we’re tactfully lured into watching Five Days At Memorial. But as we wade through the eight episodes, the intro seems to be the only part of the show that succinctly manages to convey the intention and message of the show. 

Five Days at Memorial is a medical drama-cum-philosophical investigative thriller based on the 2013 book of the same name. The eight-episode limited series takes the form of a docu-drama while relaying the events in the Memorial hospital, New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The first five episodes depict the preparation by the hospital staff and common citizens to brave the hurricane, and the devastation and rescue operations that follow in its aftermath.

In the first episode, we see local residents join patients and staff in the hospital to seek shelter — something they have done during hurricanes before. Katrina hits and passes without much devastation, and the audience is allowed a sigh of relief, but soon the levees break and let water into the city, flooding it and leaving it fully inundated. The power is out, people are stuck, and there’s no rescue in sight; the second episode is where we sense signs of impending doom.