Five Days at Memorial (TV Mini Series) Day Five (2022) User Reviews

Horrible TV Viewing

[aeslehcevoli · 9/10 · 1 September 2022]

I have to agree with the other reviewers on this, it was a horrible episode to watch. Please read their reviews after seeing this episode, I'm just the warm up guy, they'll give you a much more insightful view on this episode.

Being in the UK I'm not 100% knowledgeable on Katrina, but by God does this show slam it in my face. The snippets of real footage sliced into the show really makes it a hard watch, not just in this episode which was amazing, but 1-4 also.

Apple TV are really cranking up the volume with some of their shows, this and the unique Severance (a must see) are my two stand outs so far.

I think the next episode will be another hard watch but as I always say in my reviews, we are blessed with some amazing TV right now and this show is right up there in my opinion.

Powerful but very hard to watch!

[herminiobraz-10996 · 9/10 · 31 August 2022]

Great episode from an acting and direction perspective. Filled with powerful scenes and some really hard to watch moments.

The scene with the animals was brutal as were the two scenes with the patients being left behind (mother and obese guy).

Only complaint from me is the scene where the woman enters the boat with the dog and they say "it's OK, we have room" after all the other pets had been put down. That felt manipulative and just added frustration.

Some hopefull scenes (nurses carrying the guy to the helicopter and seing him make it out with the nurse) make up for what would otherwise be an almost impossible episode to get through... but I guess that's the point, to show how the people in that hospital suffered and how the government failed to act fast enough to avoid all that loss.

9/10.

Hard Watch, But Harder Than It Had to Be

[braves_snl · 7/10 · 30 August 2022]

I enjoy John Ridley's shows (loved his previous "American Crime" on ABC) because he shows the hardships of life as they are.

"Five Days at Memorial" is a hard show to watch, as it should be. What happened at this hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the way these people and New Orleans were let down at every level is horrific. But this is an instance of Ridley going a bit too far in showing the horror. I'm mostly referring to the pet euthanasia. We feel the horror just in the characters talking about it. We don't actually need to see a roomful of dead pets. That's overkill. It's cruel to the audience.

Absolutely Devastating Television

[dewberrydays · 10/10 · 27 August 2022]

Best episode of the series so far. It's the lowest of the low. The pets. The patients who were left behind. The nurses who refused to give up on their patients. Rarely has an episode of television made me this emotional. The performances - especially Jones and the nurses and patients in minor roles - were electric. The moment when the woman was forced to leave her mother to die at LifeCare broke me. And although the euthanizing of pets was heartwrenching, it was even more devastating when the couple who put their dog down realized that other people were being allowed to evacuate with their pets. This is harrowing, powerful, top-tier TV. Extremely hard to watch, but necessary.

Extremely difficult episode, extremely well done

[lizziemariejb · 10/10 · 27 August 2022]

I would say this is most likely the most difficult hour of television I've ever seen. Of course I've watched many documentaries and shows based on real events that are true life tragedies... wars, disasters, etc... but this one hit the emotions on so many levels and in so many ways I needed hours afterwards just to work through what I had seen, and deal with the sadness I felt being placed in the shoes of these people. The frustration on how things were handled adds to the emotions as well.

Like the hospital director said in the trailer: "the most ungodly conditions" and we were shown that for sure this episode. Please do not read on if you haven't seen it yet...

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I started ugly crying, sobbing!, when they showed the part where they had to put the pets to sleep and didn't stop the rest of the time watching. The most horrifying conditions existed by day 5, and I cannot imagine one person was thinking straight. They felt completely abandoned and the communication was horrendous where they didn't know what to expect or what to do.

The part where Mark went and got his mother, and the security guard hopped in the boat? Crying. The part where the police pulled the woman away from her mother in the evacuation? Sobbing. The pregnant lifecare nurse broken hearted to leave her patients? Sobbing. The story of getting one last man out but not Emmett? Sobbing. I cannot imagine how anyone who was there could ever get over what they went through, it's just terrible.

These things are not supposed to happen in one of the richest first world countries in the world. I watched it last night and I'm still thinking about it constantly.

Congrats to the show-runners and the cast and crew on a top notch episode. I have a hard time rating it a ten though as it's so awful what happens in it. But the production value is a ten, easily one of the best worst things I've seen. I haven't been this emotional about a show since watching "The Pacific".

I think I need to go watch Ted Lasso for awhile!

Have to make the patients "comfortable"

[michiganave_p · 10/10 · 26 August 2022]

This is the best episode so far in the series and probably the most important part of the story where the lines between homicide (murder vs. Euthanasia) and mercy tend to get blurred.

The story is pretty accurate compared to the Fink chronicles in terms of what happened on the fifth day at the hospital and the State Police-created (via testimony and Fink's book/articles) deadline to evacuate the hospital before sundown to avoid outside violence that may or may have not have existed.

Putting down the pets was definitely the hardest part to watch of the episode, but they did not show ending the life of the patients yet, as it appears that might be in E106 early or be a part of the "flashback" scenes where the LA State investigators are interviewing all the hospital staff. Feels like there will be more to this in the upcoming episodes, as the conversations between Cook and Pou weren't really covered here, which is where mercy killings were discussed and Anna Pou's legal problems started.

Even though the disaster part of the series is now over, the continuation of the story should make a good final three episodes, as this was the hardest one to watch most likely, unless the first part of E106 covers the nitty gritty part of leaving the black band/L3 patients behind.

Riveting. Hardcore, but necessary watch

[mpboylanjr-54038 · 10/10 · 3 September 2022]

5 days at memorial is as good a show as there's been since Chernobyl in my opinion. It's raw and brutal to watch, but very necessary in my opinion. We are sheltered as a society to the horrible aftermaths of these natural disasters. We are always shown the best and heroic actions, but it is necessary to not forget the horrors and learn from the mistakes of our governments and it's citizens. This episode dives into the aftermath of the "killing" of the 45 patients and the actions a desperate few nurses and doctors put into incredible circumstances to make life making decisions in a hospital lost to a devastating storm and insurmountable odds. This is not to show wrong or right, but to hopefully learn from these tragedies and hopefully correct the wrongs from happening again. Very powerful episode and series. Must see tv.

This episode is hardcore

[moviesfilmsreviewsinc · 10/10 · 23 September 2022]

The 5th episode of Five Days at Memorial is the most emotional, heart breaking, and makes you want cry your eyes out because it shows what they went through, who they had to leave behind, and what they had to put down. Episode 5 of Five Days at Memorial starts with one word that's going to define this entire breathtaking chapter - desperate. It's desperate inside the hospital. There's a desperate lack of food and drink. Desperation outside. And those involved in the rescue operation are operating with a desperate lack of time. With no boats or helicopters, the rescue operation has ground to a halt. Susan is livid while the staff are seriously debating "doing the humane thing" regarding their pets. Susan also points out the patients that can't be rescued should similarly receive "the humane thing." Susan is quick to point out this isn't just a case of keeping these guys and gals safe but genuinely ending lives to stop suffering. While Memorial discuss this, LifeCare lose several more patients. Susan speaks to Diane and tells her they're doing as much as they can and won't be leaving anyone behind. What an emotional episode. It's hard not to get choked up at the rescue efforts of these brave nurses and doctors, who are essentially looking down the barrel of a gun at this point. It's hard to get a grasp of exactly how difficult this choice must be and when it's patients they've all been taking care of, knowing there's nothing they can do to help them, it must be heartbreaking for all involved. Episode 5 does a fantastic job depicting that struggle with the final 10 minutes or so juxtaposing the two extreme cases of emotion in the event of impossible odds. Some people face this head-on and fight back, desperate to try and find something positive to hang onto. For others - like Diane - they've almost given up, seeing the situation as bleak and hopeless. AppleTV have been producing some absolute bangers this year and Five Days at Memorial is another to add to that list. There's an excellent amount of characterization and the story has been told with care and an excellent pacing. If the rest of the season keeps up, we could be looking at one of the best Apple productions this year.

Ignored for days, then rushed out...

[msellis5 · 10/10 · 29 October 2022]

Preface: I was a nurse in San Antonio during Katrina and we expected patients from, if not New Orleans at least from Houston so they could free up bed space for patients from NO. When the hospitals weren't evacuated we were confused and really afraid.

So onto this episode: after 5 days of BEGGING to be evaluated, the NOPD sets an unrealistic and arbitrary evacuation timeframe, guaranteeing that frail helpless people would be left behind. What compassionate person could just leave them to die alone and afraid? Obviously the cop who said that whoever was left was on their own. And THEN those that created the situation blamed those thrust into it.