Five Days at Memorial

Premise

The series depicts the difficulties at a New Orleans hospital after Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on the city.

Cast and characters

Main

Vera Farmiga as Dr. Anna Pou

Cherry Jones as Susan Mulderick

Cornelius Smith Jr. as Dr. Bryant King

Robert Pine as Dr. Horace Baltz

Adepero Oduye as Karen Wynn

Julie Ann Emery as Diane Robichaux

Michael Gaston as Arthur "Butch" Schafer

Molly Hager as Virginia Rider

Guest

John Diehl as Frank Minyard

Tom Irwin as Walker Shaw

Ervin Ross as Rodney Scott

Natasha Mumba as Tiana Colburn

Philip Craig as Attorney General Charles Foti, Jr.

Ean Castellanos as Michael Morales

Production

Development

In 2013, shortly after its release, Scott Rudin acquired the rights to adapt Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital as a film to be produced with Eli Bush under Scott Rudin Productions. By 2017, the film rights had reportedly lapsed, prompting Ryan Murphy to approach Rudin about adapting Five Days at Memorial for television as the third season of the FX true crime anthology series American Crime Story, with Sarah Paulson set to star as Dr. Anna Pou. The adaptation, however, never came to fruition, and in 2019, Rudin started shopping the project elsewhere. As part of his overall deal with ABC Signature, Carlton Cuse acquired the television rights, and then contacted John Ridley to collaborate. In September 2020, Apple ordered Five Days at Memorial as a limited series to be produced for Apple TV+. Both Cuse and Ridley serve as writers, directors, executive producers, and co-showrunners of the series.

Casting

Vera Farmiga was cast in March 2021, with Adepero Oduye, Cornelius Smith Jr. and Julie Ann Emery joining in April 2021, Cherry Jones and Molly Hager in May 2021, Michael Gaston in June 2021, and Joe Carroll in August 2021.

Filming

Production took place from May 25 to November 10, 2021, in Toronto and New Orleans.

Release

The series premiered on Apple TV+ on August 12, 2022, with its first three episodes. Each following episode was released weekly on Fridays.

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 7.9/10, based on 35 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Five Days at Memorial is unflinching to the point of punishing, thoroughly recounting an absolute calamity while giving due to those who tried their best to stanch the tragic fallout." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 74 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

The episode "Day Two" won the award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode at the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The show also won Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode at the 21st Visual Effects Society Awards.