{"id":115534,"date":"2020-09-15T19:17:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T18:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=115534"},"modified":"2020-09-16T11:37:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-16T10:37:11","slug":"ratched-review-the-nurse-will-see-you-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/ratched-review-the-nurse-will-see-you-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Ratched review: The nurse will see you now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Murphy and Evan Romansky\u2019s latest show, Ratched, <\/strong><\/em>is described as the origin story of Nurse Ratched \u2013 the stony-faced, manipulative and cruel character in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/strong><\/em> (played in the Milos Forman 1975 film adaptation by Louise Fletcher, who won an Oscar for her performance).<\/p>\n

Starring Murphy regular, Sarah Paulson, in the titular role, the character immediately appears as you would expect \u2013 judging a couple showing plenty of PDA in a gas station, her lip curling in disdain. She\u2019s on her way to a Californian psychiatric hospital, which has hit the headlines due to it housing high-profile murderer Edmund Tolleson (Finn Wittrock), who has just killed four priests.<\/p>\n

But Mildred Ratched is not all she seems. Her clean-cut, stylish exterior hides a deep secret, though she effectively manipulates her way into the hospital to work as a nurse, much to the disdain of head nurse Betsy Bucket (Judy Davis who is wonderfully funny) after charming the hospital\u2019s doctor \u2013 the ethically questionably Dr. Richard Hanover (Jon Jon Briones).<\/p>\n

Edmund is all everyone is talking about (though Mildred\u2019s opinion is initially differing depending on who she\u2019s speaking to) \u2013 especially the local governor (Vincent D’Onofrio showing snippets of that Wilson Fisk charisma previously seen by the bucketloads in Daredevil<\/em><\/strong>) and his aide Gwendolyn Briggs (Cynthia Nixon) who are looking to use him as a springboard for re-election.<\/p>\n

Ratched\u2019s true intentions of infiltrating the hospital slowly become apparent, but not before we get a side spy story with Corey Stoll who introduces us to the delightfully fabulous gazillionairess Lenore Osgood (a scene-stealing Sharon Stone who sports a monkey on her shoulder throughout), as well as a wonderfully genuine central love story and Ratched’s murky past told through puppetry.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no denying that a Ryan Murphy production is always gorgeous, and that\u2019s very apparent here \u2013 it\u2019s a stylish array of every colour you could think of, all proudly displayed for your visual delight. Full of sweeping coastal shots, lingering stares and ornate settings, Ratched<\/strong><\/em> is beautiful.<\/p>\n

What doesn\u2019t quite stick the landing is its tone \u2013 it’s not as horrific as Murphy\u2019s American Horror Story,<\/strong><\/em> nor is it as character-driven as the novel or Forman\u2019s film – rather Ratched<\/strong><\/em> sits on a wavering precipice of the two. The patients in the hospital aren\u2019t given enough time for the show to delve into mental illness, nor is there room to really discuss the nurses’ horrible mistreatment of them.<\/p>\n

The horror element also doesn\u2019t sit quite right either; with the few interspersed gory set pieces feeling out of place. It borrows very much from AHS\u2019s<\/strong><\/em> ‘Asylum’ series \u2013 but where those garish set pieces feel at home nestled between evil Nazis and murderous nuns in that series, it doesn\u2019t sit as comfortably here in between cases of schizophrenia, racism and homophobia.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Ratched<\/strong><\/em> isn\u2019t as disconcerting as it [we] hope it is \u2013 in fact its most confounding element for those in the UK is the fact that its opening credits uses the same music as Jonathan Creek\u2019s <\/strong><\/em>(Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns’ Danse Macabre)\u00a0though we didn\u2019t once spot a mop of curly hair or any real mystery (plenty of murder, though!).<\/p>\n

Paulson, as ever, is fantastic. Ratched\u2019s pent-up rage and vulnerability clearly come across, though perhaps the character is more of a sympathetic figure here than we have seen before. Nixon (the oyster restaurant scene is luscious) and Stone (can we just have her in everything please?) are also stand-outs, as is Sophie Okonedo\u2019s schizophrenic patient Charlotte Wells.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t go into Ratched<\/strong><\/em> expecting either AHS<\/strong><\/em> or One Flew Over The Cuckoo\u2019s Nest<\/strong><\/em>. This is its own thing and though it seems preoccupied with setting up the next series (which has already been commissioned), it does its job effectively \u2013 ensuring that by the end you’re intrigued enough to want to spend more time in this weird, lavish world.<\/p>\n

Ratched is released on Netflix on 18 September.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We review Netflix and Ryan Murphy’s new series, Ratched.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":114106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[8,207],"tags":[6910],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/RATCHED_103_Unit_00199RC2-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}