A Tale of Two Genre Shows

I've been watching BBC1's new law drama SILK - and you should be too. All the things I hope for when a new series hits the air are here. Excellent writing, great cast, looks terrific.
Silk is the brainchild of writer Peter Moffat (Criminal Justice) and stars , Maxine Peake, Rupert Penry-Jones, Natalie Dormer, Tom Hughes, and Neil Stuke. We're four episodes in with two to go so there's still chance to catch up - and these days there's always the iPlayer. It is confident and stylish with characters who hit the ground running. There's intrigue, duplicity, sex and confrontation - and that's just in Chambers. The court cases are tense and believable,  Moffat has experience of the law and the ear to reproduce crackling discourse. 

But the test of any good drama is whether you care enough about the characters to make you want to spend time with them next week. Moffat has spent time working out who these people are; the plots are their characters, their characters are the plots. We have the good - Maxine Peake's Martha Costello who believes in justice not just the law - the duplicitous Clive Reader played by Rupert Penry-Jones, he's the charming cad we all love to hate, and Billy, the Machiavellian chief clerk at chambers played by Neil Stuke. It really is an object lesson in television writing. Stories that pay off each week but have resonance over later episodes, well thought out character arcs that make the piece richer and deeper and dialogue that pushes the story forward whilst appearing conversational. Superior stuff.

Compare and contrast with a another newcomer to British screens, Monroe.  

The ubiquitous James Nesbit plays a brilliant and unusual neurosurgeon. A flawed, quipping,  genius who never lets anyone forget his flaws or his genius. Each episode features a story of the week about life or death situations. Sound familiar House fans?
There is more than a pinch of Hugh Laurie's maverick medic about this show (it starts with the graphics in the opening titles). Apart from Monroe there's Dr Jenny Bremner (Sarah Parish), a glacial cardiac surgeon, who has little time for him and his emotional approach to his patients. Bremner is a closed book, but with the help of his best friend and anaesthetist Laurence Shepherd (Tom Riley), Monroe is determined to unearth her sense of humour.
Hmm. Early House, Cuddy and Wilson anybody? (There's also a dash of Nurse Jackie in one of his young trainees).
It's not a copy and you can't disapprove entirely of a show that uses one of TV's best - and most idiosyncratic - medical drama as it's springboard. But in doing so it feels cliched. Instead of a new take we have another take on a take that's already out there. I found the dialogue clunky and it has saddled itself with a directing style that just loves drawing attention to itself. 

I couldn't  write either of these pieces, to do true justice to barristers or medics I believe you need first hand experience. Silk comes first hand, Monroe feels distinctly second hand.