Campbell's line, "Everything here is worse than you thought" seems to be a running theme.
Oh look; A scary patient◊ who would be better off at Broadmoor....Oh, wait! HE'S AN ORDERLY!
The place doesn't look like Bedlam House and the patients seem relatively "normal" and enjoy relaxing in the lounge to watch TV◊....Then this one woman (Francine) has a freakout and there's this weird babbling old woman called "Nana"....and "Hang out and watch TV" is the only thing the patients can do to pass the time because there's literally nothing else to do! There's also other wards that are even worse, like one where it's just an empty room where patients wander aimlessly◊.
On top of that, later episodes show that the hospital isn't merely mediocre and underfunded but is actually an inhuman place where some of the nurses (like Stuart and another thuggish nurse who shows up in a latter episode) are not above committing BRUTAL assault (with full-approval of the folks in charge....or at least Evelyn).
Oh! Hello, there, nice, chipper, perfectly normal-looking young man◊ showing Eddie around, chatting about the patients and their TV and who shows Eddie the radio station....Hi, Head Nurse!....Holy crap! That kid's a patient....and he'll soon have Eddie exasperated with his hypomaniac ways and weird, oft-half-baked ideas to the point of making Eddie look like the "Straight Man" in a comedy duo!
Oh look; A cleaning lady!◊....No; It's a patient with OCD (Rosalie).
That Administrator Lady◊ seems nice and sweet in a befuddled, giggling, matronly sort of way....except she's a horrible snooty elitist, ableist type who's basically The Big Bad and is behind getting the radio station shut down and refuses to let Fergus prove himself by repairing the mixer desk.
Hello, Fergus' Psychiatrist!◊ You seem like a somewhat attractive, nice lady....AUGH! Nope! You're a horrible Psycho Psychologist who cruelly crushes Fergus' hopes and dreams For the Evulz in the most bitchy, Smug Snake way possible! I hope the sight of Fergus' brains likely splattering on the pavement haunts your nightmares for life!
Almost everyone of the principal Loonies (The ensemble of Campbell, Fergus, Rosalie & Francine) get introduced in a manner that reflects their illness or idiosyncrasy.
Campbell's first scene is an exception since he seems to be a perfectly normal, emotionally-together kid (apart from Nurse Isabel reminding him to take his meds, whereby Eddie realizes the young man is a patient). His second scene, however....
This can be seen as "Played Straight", too since Campbell has a form of Bi-Polar. Thus we see him in "Regular" mode and "Manic" mode. Campbell has Hypomania, where there's an emphasis on the "Mania and Cheerfulness" aspect and he seems to switch between "Regular and Manic" rather than "Depressed and Manic".
The Administrators wanting to shut down the Station even if there was funding and a new mixing desk may NOT be JUST For the Evulz but may be due to the fact that there was actually a Real Life sweeping program of gradually shutting down all the Mental Asylums in the United Kingdom during The '80s and The '90s. This involved slowly cutting all funding for upkeep, maintenance, therapies, etc. in an effort to make these places unlivable and thus worthy of being shut down. The fictional St. Jude's was doomed from the start. The patients likely will end up either put in other programs, go home or end up homeless.
◊ who would be better off at Broadmoor....Oh, wait! HE'S AN ORDERLY!
