Netflix
In 1975, Louise Fletcher gave life to one of the most iconic screen villains ever in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and made the name Nurse Ratched synonymous with pure evil. Now, the great Sarah Paulson dons Mildred Ratched’s nurse’s uniform i nRyan Murphy’s prequel series Ratched, which gives us Mildred’s origin story beginning in 1947 (although the story does dip back to her childhood as well).
If you watch American Horror Story, you could almost view these eight episodes as a new season of that series. In typical Murphy fashion, several storylines are thrown at us thoughout the run, sometimes feeling a bit rushed. The main story is Mildred’s, how — and why — she came to be a nurse at the Lucia psychiatric hospital in California, and her interest in a young man, Edmund Tolleson (Finn Wittrock), who is being housed in a specially constructed cell in the basement of the facility (previously a wine cellar) after murdering four priests. Tolleson will almost certainly get the death penalty for his crime, but Mildred wants to make sure that doesn’t happen.
At the hospital, there are branching storyline that involve Dr. Richard Hanover (Jon Jon Briones), who may or may not be who he claims to be, Head Nurse Betsy Bucket (the inimitable Judy Davis) who will obviously be a huge influence on Mildred later in life, nurse in training Dolly (Alice Englert) who is drawn to Edmund, and Huck Finnegan (Charlie Carver), an orderly with traumatic facial scarring from his time serving in the war. Each of them play a part in forming who Mildred Ratched is and will be, bringing out both her softer side — she uncharacteristically, at least if you know the older version of the character, cares for the patients at the hospital, going out of her way to help them while also being ruthless and cold-blooded with anyone who stands in her way, and that includes Hanover and Bucket. But Mildred has perfected the art of manipulation to bend just about anyone to her will.
Outside of the facility, other characters make an impression on Mildred, and vice versa. There’s private investigator/hit man Charles Wainwright (Corey Stoll in what can be described as the Marion Crane of the season … Psycho should understand the reference), Louise (Amanda Plummer), the dotty former Flapper who runs the roadside motel in which Mildred has taken up resident and who has no problem sticking her nose into anyone else’s business, Governor George Milburn (Vincent D’Onofrio) who needs to be persuaded to keep funding the hospital and agreeing to have Edmund declared insane so he can’t be tried — something the gov is not keen to do in an election year, Gwendolyn Briggs (Cynthia Nixon), the governor’s liaison who has a secret of her own, and Lenore Osgood (Sharon Stone), a very wealthy socialite who has an axe to grind with Hanover, dragging Wainwright and Ratched into her scheme. And that’s not to mention the patients, including a late-to-the-season addition of Charlotte Wells (Sophie Okonedo) whose multiple personality disorder is a blessing and a curse for Dr. Hanover.
So there is A LOT going on over the course of these eight episodes, and the last few episodes are very reminiscent of American Horror Story as bodies begin to pile up as the season comes to a close. And if you’re wondering, yes, Ratched is a horror-thriller in the vein of Alfred Hitchcock and Brian DePalma. In fact, the show makes many visual and aural references to the films of those directors with the sweeping Steadicam shots De Palma has employed in films like Dressed to Kill and Obsession, to musical cues taken directly from Hitchcock’s Psycho (and possibly Vertigo) as well as from the classic thriller Cape Fear. The music for the series is outstanding, and if you have a home theater set-up, it’s definitely worth cranking up the volume for.
Netflix
The series is also gorgeously shot with some stunning production design, particularly the grandeur of the hospital, but also to the small details of Mildred’s room, and the hotel exterior which echos that of the Bates Motel in Psycho. Some critics may say this is typical Murphy style over substance, but I think it’s become fashionable for critics — who haven’t actually produced a show themselves — to drag Mr. Murphy regardless of what the project entails. I do not fall into that category. I loved examining the sets, being overwhelmed by the music, and being enthralled by the story and the characters. I believe it’s very important to know right from the start that these are just the first eight chapters of a story that will have eight more to come, so you really can’t complain that there are so many dangling threads by the end of the season.
As for the cast, Paulson is again remarkable, switching from caring to sinister to manipulative in the space of a breath, and her verbal sparring with Judy Davis is something to behold. Davis is wonderful and is more Ratched-like than Mildred, for now anyway, and any time someone can get Ms. David on screen it’s going to be worth the effort. Jon Jon Briones may have an even more complex character than Mildred, going through the season as an authoritative doctor and a man constantly looking over his shoulder because of things he’s done in the past. Cynthia Nixon is probably the most human of the characters, someone who wears her heart completely on her sleeve, especially after she comes into contact with Mildred and has her eyes opened to the governor’s efforts to win an election at any cost, even if it means executing someone for his own gain. Sophie Okonedo also gives a tour-de-force performance as a woman with multiple personalities, including a haughty violinist, an Olympian looking for Hitler, and a young child. If there is any issue with the acting, it’s Finn Wittrock as Edmund. He’s been saddled with what is basically a one-note character and does the best he can, but that’s mostly just being a bit unhinged. Perhaps there will be more layers to Edmund in Season 2. There are also small roles for the wonderful Harriet Sansom Harris and an almost unrecognizable Rosanna Arquette.
I found Ratched to be an exciting homage to the classic thrillers of Hitchcock and the modern thrillers of DePalma … which were also homages to Hitchcock. It looks and sounds wonderful and it has an impeccable cast. I eagerly binged the season over the space of three nights and I can’t wait for the second season to arrive. It took a few episodes to get into Murphy’s last Netflix outing, Hollywood, but I was all in right from the beginning of Ratched, and full disclosure, I’ve never seen Cuckoo’s Nest and I didn’t feel lost at all so no worries if you haven’t seen the movie.
If you’re a fan of AHS and Paulson, you should not be disappointed. The question from here is how does this Mildred Ratched become the Nurse Ratched of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Hopefully the series will continue that journey.
What did you think of this season? Sound off in the comments below!
Netflix
Share this post
