Shortland Street

Featuring old familiar faces, fresh drama and a rare Chris Warner shower scene.

Shortland Street staff have been transferred to both hospitals, and while Central is a stressful cesspit of misery and disease, the private St Cath’s is run by none other than…Brooke Freeman? Rebecca likes spreadsheets as much as she likes evangelism, and suggested she and Chris could make Shortland Street rise again. Shortland Street has jazzed itself up over the summer and now looks sharper than Leanne wearing a poncho. Chris Warner spent a lot of time looking at Shortland Street’s burnt-out shell and sighing. First there was the welcome return of Warner triplet Sass, whose sarky friendship with Monique was like sunshine on a cloudy day: It seemed like this might be the end of Shortland Street as we knew it, so the first episode for 2023 had plenty of questions to answer. Last night we went where no Shortland Street episode has gone before: into Central and St Catherine’s hospitals. It’s determined to stay relevant and fresh without taking itself too seriously, evolving while remaining loyal to its past. A terrible fire swept through Ferndale that burnt Shortland Street hospital to a crisp, and lives were in danger, marriages were falling apart, and Chris Warner’s hair had never looked so dishevelled. Last night’s episode opened five weeks after the events of the cliffhanger, and while there’s a lot we don’t yet know, it seems everyone is missing the hospital. “You just have to trust me,” she told him, in a voice that plainly said “I killed a man with a fire extinguisher and framed an innocent woman for the crime”. Not even Rachel McKenna getting struck by lightning made Shortland Street have a time jump like this.