Another Ryan Murphy series comes along...I almost remember when that was an event, but nowadays we get another American Horror Story each year, another American Crime Story along with it, on top of gems like Feud and flops like Hollywood. Murphy is certainly an undisputed figure in television at current and I do believe in ten years or so, we will look back at this period and see that he more or less owned and took complete advantage of the television golden era that we are all currently inhabiting. The man can simply do anything and he can fill it with incredible stars and get marvellous actors in to play even the smallest of roles. The man can do anything. He has now chosen to take one of our finest cinematic villains, Nurse Mildred Ratched, and tell us where she came from.

And, well, it’s really not that great, but as with all of Murphy’s products, it’s very watchable.

credit

LET’S JUST GET ONE THING OUT OF THE WAY IMMEDIATELY: this is not a show about Nurse Ratched. It of course is exactly that, but it certainly isn’t the Ratched brought to us by Louise Fletcher in the classic 1973 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, or even the Ratched of Ken Kessey’s original novel. The biggest flaw of the show is the fact that it has branded itself as such. I want to get it out of the way and never talk about it again, because I do believe that any fan of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest will despise the show if they hold onto any fashion of love for the film or book past the first ten minutes. I am an immense fan of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in all its forms - it’s even my third favourite film of all time! This show is embarrassing if you hold it up as a prequel to the film's nurse. Watching the two pieces back to back is a truly jarring and whiplash experience, with them both utilising wholly different styles and tones. With the film striving in its borderline documentary style, paring absolutely everything back, in its dialogue, performances and camera work, and with this show being simply the complete opposite, relishing in every moment of great flamboyance in its writing, performance and extended scenes of dynamic filmmaking. There is a review of this show where I stick with this point and return to it at every opportunity I get, leaving the show with an absolutely blisteringly bad review. However, I do feel that this is wholly redundant, for outside of its namesake, the show is quite enjoyable. I feel I have made my point and now we can get to the nitty gritty of the show, that should have been called “Crazy Nurse” or something to that effect. It’s not like, as aforementioned, Murphy cannot have whatever show he wants made. It is clear that he wants to do service to the character, but this is certainly not it.

credit

Murphy’s system is simple, elevated trash viewing with big names in front and behind the camera. But this sort of comment does reduce the quality of Murphy’s products, such as the impeccable Feud: Bette and Joan or the brilliant The People Vs. O.J. Simpson; both very well mannered series that never sensationalised the topics that they were exploring. However, Murphy has made his name in series of great elevated trash, with pulpy plots and over-the-top performances, bringing excellent actors to material that certainly could be seen as beneath them. Yet, there is often an abundance of great character work within each episode giving actors the opportunities to play the big scenes that they so relish. I’m an actor and I can assure you that I’d love some of these scenes and speeches. After all, who wouldn’t love to scream some of the absurdities given like gifts to the actors here. Ratched would like to think that it falls more so into the camp of the serious work of Murphy, figuring itself as a multi-dimensional character study of a villain that we have all but reduced to a stereotype of an "evil woman", but the character in the book and film is a lot more than that, and the attempts at giving the character dimension here are very lacking, cheap and easy options. Hence, I'm putting the show certainly in the camp of trash. Although, it’s still fun and watchable trash, as is the usual case with Murphy’s oeuvre.

Overall, the performances are all great. Sarah Paulson makes her own version of Ratched, wholly different from Louise Fletcher’s iconic Oscar winning take on the role. The difference of material seriously aids a removal from the original text. Paulson imbues the character with great manipulation, more like an Iago than the purely bureaucratic evil that the character usually inhabits. However (and this isn’t Paulson’s fault), many of the objectives for the character are seemingly muddled and Paulson struggles to keep up with the rapid changes in tone that are given to her role. Finn Wittrock as psychotic priest killer Edmund Tolleson is suitably menacing and imbues the show with a threatening sexuality that gives us some zip, but a zip that doesn’t linger and rather just pops in and out briefly. Cynthia Nixon is a little too meek for my liking in the role of Ratched’s love interest, just a bit of a nothing role that’s not given much by Nixon. Sharon Stone is similarly not given much to do, which is a real shame, because what she is given is some of the show’s highlights. The standouts are Jon Jon Briones and Judy Davis, who both give excellent performances, primarily Davis. Sophie Okonedo is rather entertaining in her role, but doesn’t really take the character to any place of great interest. The same sort of thing can be said for most of the characters.

credit

The show is plagued by Murphy-isms that have led his current crop of shows to be falling more to the miss side of things, than the hit which he used to so completely own. He just can’t resist making interesting villains into understandable heroes, and it just reduces time and time again so many great characters. However, the main problem with the show is that so many plotlines simply come to nothing, either fading out or ending on dull lead balloonish notes. The show really does lose its pace and interest by the end of its 8 episode run and I fail to see how this could be stretched out for another few seasons. However, if there was one person who could milk this cow dry, it’d be Murphy.

-

I do wonder what my feelings would be if this show hadn’t marred itself with a name that it doesn’t deserve or warrant. I ultimately still think it’d be the same reaction. A watchable 5/10, with many very interesting plotlines that come to nothing and many that are given up on very swiftly. There are many bright spots, but they are nowhere near bright enough to shine up the abundance of lesser parts.

P.S. God it’s good to have Sharon Stone and Judy Davis back. Hopefully this leads to a renaissance for the two actresses, they certainly bloody deserve it.

-Thomas Carruthers