When the new Apple TV+ series Five Days at Memorial makes its anticipated premiere this Friday with a three-episode drop, audiences will no doubt feel the pinch of our pandemic reality through the lens of Hurricane Katrina. Seventeen years ago this August, the Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, which hit the city of New Orleans and its surrounding areas, was marked as one of the largest, most destructive storms to hit the contiguous United States. Chronicling the impact of Katrina on one local hospital that endured a number of horrifying events, including the alleged euthanasia of several patients by one doctor and two nurses, Five Days at Memorial has evident “parallels” that series star and legendary actor Robert Pine admits to PopCulture.com exclusively will resonate with audiences today.
Through his portrayal of the real-life Dr. Horace Baltz, an internist and one of Memorial Hospital’s longest-serving doctors, Pine shares that understanding human nature through his experience and relating it to modern times will be an interesting journey for the audience. “Life is made up of choices. We all have to make choices and we’ve seen in COVID what these doctors have to deal with very up close and personal,” Pine told PopCulture. “Say you have three respirators and eight people need them — how do you make that choice? And to watch people die and without their family there, so there are great parallels about this, and I hope people take away that these caregivers, we’ve seen up close and personal in COVID how this happens.”
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The series through first-hand accounts and stories, adapted from the best-selling book by acclaimed journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Sheri Fink, illustrates five of the most chaotic days for the New Orleans hospital that left doctors and nurses at a crossroads with decision-making as the floodwaters rose, the power failed and the heat soared. “[This all] was happening in Memorial as I understand it, ours was just a story of the events. It’s not a documentary or anything like that,” he said of the show while revealing how he and his castmates helped bring “humanity” to the individuals involved. “I hope [audiences] take away a further appreciation for what these people do and the pressure they are under.”
Pine — best known for CHiPS and the father of actor Chris Pine — reveals he always wanted to be a doctor, and taking on this role was a special one for him despite the circumstances his unwavering, on-screen counterpart had to endure and witness. “Taking on any role that you are characterizing real people, you feel a responsibility there. But other than that, this show is very well cast. Everybody is spot on and this character — I wanted to be a doctor, and I actually wanted to be a doctor just like what I understood Horace Baltz to be,” he said of Baltz, who believed in an oath to do no harm up until his death in 2017. “I liked the character. It’s so well written, and I liked his arc… it was a wonderful production to work on, probably the best professional experience I’ve ever had in 57 years and that’s saying a lot. So, it was a wonderful project.”
The first three episodes of Five Days at Memorial will debut on Friday, Aug. 12, followed by one new episode weekly, every Friday through Sept. 16. For more on Five Days at Memorial, its cast, and all your Apple TV+ programming, keep it locked to PopCulture.com for the latest.
