#anton meyer

[oxfords---notbrogues]

Anton Meyer

[shachormet]

[heinfienbrot]

Anton Meyer A/W 2025 Limited Editions.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Today marks the anniversary of the Holby episode A Life Worth Saving.

For those unfamiliar, this is the episode where the blunt, not-very-expressive, not-great-at-showing-empathy, monotropic Anton Meyer has a patient who is an autistic young man - and is able to get through to him and communicate with him on his level in ways none of the other staff quite can.

The episode is a lot like Sanctuary, the Casualty episode from 2011 where Dylan treats an autistic woman and reveals that he is autistic himself.

The difference is that in A Life Worth Saving, Meyer never confirms or denies that he's autistic. Because as far as the show is concerned (and probably as far as Meyer is concerned too - it's hardly likely he was diagnosed growing up in the fifties), it doesn't matter if Meyer is on the spectrum. What matters is that he's a good doctor.

It's a fascinating episode. Probably ahead of its time as something written and filmed in 1999. (I suppose you could argue the scene where the autistic patient Mark is saying he doesn't see the point when his autism can't be cured and Meyer's way of reassuring him is to be like "maybe there will be a cure someday" is problematic and very of its time. But I see that as Meyer just saying whatever he has to in the moment to stop Mark from giving up - he's no therapist and he knows that he's not there to give Mark the kind of psychological help he would need to accept himself. In a later episode Meyer is passionate about helping a patient with Down syndrome just like anyone else, those are hardly the actions of a man who truly believes developmentally disabled people's lives only matter if they're cured.)

It's especially interesting how it's alluded that Meyer made a lot of effort to learn to mask his autism to succeed in his career (not that he should ever have had to), long before masking was something talked about in the mainstream! And it makes sense that Meyer has shaped his life to work with his autism as much as he can, rather than against it.

But while most 'ahead of its time' things early Holby did would still work today, I'm not so sure the attitude that Meyer's autism doesn't matter would be progressive now. Just because it doesn't matter to his skills as a doctor doesn't mean it doesn't matter in other areas of his life. Autism can be a disability worthy of acknowledging without diminishing the autistic person's skills and accomplishments. I'd like to think we've reached a point where those things can coexist, and yet...

I don't think Casualty was really trying to say Dylan's autism doesn't matter at all in the scene where he gets his diagnosis - but the fact so many fans took it that way shows a failure of the writing. The storyline not only unnecessarily retconned the events of Sanctuary but it was all for a side plot that is so slapdash, so blink and you'll miss it that I'm not surprised so many fans are confused about whether we even know if Dylan is autistic.

(I don't think the retcon could have been justified at all to be honest, but there would have at least been one good thing to it had it been used to educate on the topic of adult autism diagnosis. But because the actual story happened completely offscreen it didn't even do that. Just to name one example on my mind, adult autism assessments typically expect to hear from your parents so they know what you were like as a child. How would that have worked for Dylan who is estranged from his dad?)

It's very frustrating. A Life Worth Saving had many good aspects for the turn of the millennium but there was still progress to be made, and Sanctuary showed that progress - only for Casualty to go right back to the attitudes of 1999.

[felicitykings]

Is that what's really troubling you, Alistair?

HOLBY CITY (1999-2022) ↳ 4.16 Hello Goodbye

[embarrassementofriches]

Johannes Huebl für Anton Meyer 'Johannes' Overcoat

[hcscreenshots]

meyer and nick, s02e07

n: i need to talk to you about the list... m: mr jordan, the usual greeting on seeing a colleague at the start of a new day is ‘good morning’, you’ll find it less abrasive.  n: good morning. there is an emergency on the list today m: yes, what about it? n: you need to be aware that the patient is your sister

[holbyconfessional]

Holby City S21 E01 - Everything Old Is New Again

Oh, my, what a delightful New Year episode!  Well, half of it, anyway.  I refer to the conference.  Although, seriously, who on earth would hold a conference over New Year in the real world??!!  Does this actually happen?  Because it’s insane.  And this from someone whose wild partying days are over!

The car journey was brilliant - Sacha’s delight at his own mix tape, combined with Ric and Jac’s disgust - but then not being able to help joining in occasionally had me grinning like mad.  And Jac’s facial expressions are quite literally epic - here and at several other points in the episode.  Not to mention her acting like a stroppy teenager for the first part of the conference.

It was good to see Arianne Cornell again, I liked her when she was fixing Connie, and I liked the hate/not really hate relationship she had with Jac.  Tom Campbell-Gore - well, it was interesting to see him again, I won’t go so far as good because he was never one of my favourites first time around, but old faces popping up has always got to be a positive.  And I did appreciate the mention of Zubin Khan (who was a favourite, and certainly someone I wouldn’t be sad to see popping up during this 20th year celebration!).  Also the fact they were competing for the Anton Meyer award for surgical innovation - absolutely loved Anton Meyer as a character.  Another one I wish I could see again.

I’m glad we got to the bottom of Jac’s mood, I’m glad it wasn’t just her cold - and I’m glad it was made clear that she didn’t have a problem with Jonny marrying because of him.

Tom’s wife Mica cozying up to Ric to steal his ideas, oh my god, so obvious!  But a bit perfect that Ric fell for it.  Because if anyone would let his interest in the ladies overrule any sense he had, it would be Ric!

I am really pleased that Sacha finally won something and wasn’t just the buffoon second place that he’s so often portrayed as.  However, I did find his presentation to be really uncomfortable.  I totally agree that mental health shouldn’t be a dirty secret, but I’m not convinced that it was the right forum for him to share that - and I would feel the same if he was talking about an accident he had been in, or a surgery he had needed.  I do wish he had won through his admittedly rough draft idea alone, and if the reveal was important, that it had been done at a different moment.  Maybe the acceptance speech.

I loved the three amigos shoving open the door to the celebration, all dressed up in their party gear, and the camera angle as they said ‘Let’s do this!”.  And Jac’s face as she begged to be rescued.  And most of all, at the end, when Sacha was playing the piano, and Jac was falling asleep on his shoulder, just hitting the high note when nudged.  Pure gold.

OK, now to the not so brilliant half.

Cameron is back, with a new found confidence, which is great.  Morven dumped him for a tattoo’d bar man, ok, fair enough.  He’s heading up to Darwin, yes, I’d say this is good, not sure I want him playing opposite Serena.  Especially after he told her that Bernie was missing her - and although she didn’t say it, he could tell.  And Serena’s reaction to this?  Looking away for a second, then ignoring it by deflecting onto Cam’s failed relationship with Morven.  I guess I should be grateful Bernie even got a mention, but I’d have been a lot more grateful if Serena had appeared for a second to actually care.  Although she did look rather nice, leaning forward on the desk in that shirt...

Oh, I forgot, Serena’s earlier conversation with Cam, ostensibly about his work in Jamaica. when she said “There’s more to the job than chasing excitement, you know!” felt like a dig at Bernie.  At that point, I half thought she did care.  But then later in the office wiped that.

The whole Greta accident storyline was a bit of a miss for me.  I suppose it was intended to balance out the humour of the conference storyline by being all stressful and hard hitting.  That, combined with echoes of Elinor’s death for Serena.  But the whole thing just fell a bit flat.  I didn’t feel fear or panic, or really any tension.  I fully appreciate it may just be me, I’m full of a cold at the moment, so perhaps I’m just not as drawn in as I may otherwise be, but whatever the reason, the drama of this particular situation just passed me right on by!

Overall, a fab episode though.  Just give me plenty of Jac and I’m happy!