Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Surgeon’s Cut’ On Netflix, Where Surgeons Talk About Their Lives And Innovative Procedures

The Surgeon’s Cut, produced for Netflix by BBC Studios, is a docuseries where world-renowned surgeons talk about their lives, their influences, how they came to the specialties that they practice, and the groundbreaking procedures they pioneered. Through interviews and footage of those procedures, we learn about what motivates these doctors to constantly innovate.

THE SURGEON’S CUT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of a foggy forest. Dr. Kypros Nicolades says in voice over, “Forests, trees and the seasons changing, makes me think and reflect on life.”

The Gist: First up is Nicolades, a pioneer in the field of fetal medicine, working at King’s College Hospital in London. Over the past three decades, he’s utilized ultrasound, tiny cameras and fiber-optic-based lasers to treat fetuses in the womb. Since his procedures are endoscopic, the expectant mothers are awake and can watch the procedure on the screens in Nicolades’ lab.

One of the conditions he and his team identified in the early ’90s is twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, where identical twin fetuses are getting unequal amounts of blood from their shared supply; one gets too much, overwhelming its heart, and the other gets too little, threatening its life through deprivation. We see Nicolades take his camera and laser and sever the connection between the fetuses. He always manages expectations with the expectant parents, and in one of the cases, we see why: The smaller fetus doesn’t make it, but the larger one is saved. We also see him give a blood transfusion to a fetus as well as see him insert a balloon in another fetus’ throat to help its lungs grow properly.

Nicolades also talks about his influences, and how the development of ultrasound for diagnosing fetuses fascinated him; the idea of seeing a life while it was developing, and knowing he can help these fetuses before they are born is the purpose he felt he needed. He also discusses his battle with blood cancer, how it has changed his view of mortality and what a meaningful life is, and his desire to keep working through his treatment and hopefully until his last day on earth.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? There have been other doctor-focused medical docuseries, like Netflix’s Lenox Hill, but The Surgeon’s Cut is one of the first we’ve seen that dives into the life of one particular doctor per episode.

Our Take: The executive producers of The Surgeon’s Cut, Andrew Cohen and James Van der pool, plus the directors of each episode, had a delicate balance on their hands with this series. How do they show the miraculous procedures these surgeons have developed, and have the surgeons discuss those procedures, without making them sound like Alec Baldwin in Malice. For the most part they succeed, though there’s no doubt that these surgeons have a bit of the God complex Baldwin monologued about, though none of them would go as far as saying, “I am God,” thank goodness.

Luckily, the procedures take precedence. And, the shots viewers see of Nicolades’ procedures are amazing, from the camera shots of 27-week-old, developing fetuses, to the amazing procedures he does while in there (the one where he manipulates the balloon into the fetus’ throat is amazing). He displays more humility during those procedures than you’d expect, projecting calm while admitting that his heart is racing inside. One of the most interesting aspects we find out about Nicolades is that he’s still emotionally involved with every one of his patients, even 40 years after graduating med school.

There’s a bit of simplification of Nicolades’ career; for instance, you never hear about the doctor he collaborated with to develop the procedure to help stop twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, and don’t really hear from more than one colleague about him. The profile isn’t necessarily hagiographic, but there isn’t a whole lot about what criticisms these doctors got when developing the procedures or anything that goes against the narrative of the surgeon as miracle-maker.

That’s not as distracting as you might think, though, when you’re watching the procedures take place and are riveted. Even when the results aren’t optimal, the fact that, as Nicolades’ says, the patients know he did all he could to save their fetuses still makes for a satisfying narrative.

Parting Shot: Looking at the same forest, Nicolades expresses his appreciation of life, then we see another shot of a fetus during one of his procedures.

Sleeper Star: All the patients who agreed to have this most intimate of moments filmed, especially the moments where Nicolades has to tell the prospective parents that one of their fetuses didn’t make it.

Most Pilot-y Line: None that we could see.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Surgeon’s Cut tries to humanize the surgeons who have pioneered amazing procedures, and for the most part, it succeeds in its mission. Could it be a little less laudatory? Absolutely. But the laudatory nature doesn’t take away from the medical miracles they perform.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream The Surgeon's Cut On Netflix