One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an exceptional book, but also one that can sometimes make for discomforting reading. Perhaps the most uncomfortable part of it is the book's subtext around the character Nurse Ratched; a domineering bully who denies her natural womanhood and robs men of their power, dignity and virility. In the climax of the story, Ratched is throttled, and her top ripped open to reveal her boobs; it is seen as a crowning moment of triumph when the onlooking men finally witness this proof that she is only just a woman after all. When I saw they were making a prequel series about the life of Nurse Ratched, I was curious how a modern retelling would recontextualise the character, considering the kind of sexist narrative she came from.
About six episodes in, I started to wonder if the series would ever get around to it. A generous interpretation of Nurse Mildred Ratched from the series is that she is a complicated person. A less generous and more accurate one is to say she is a muddled and poorly defined character. Sometimes she's callous and domineering. Or she is genuinely compassionate and shocked on behalf of her patients. Sometimes she is frigid and sexually naive. Or she is sexually adventurous and flirtatious. She adores the man she works for. Or perhaps she hates him. There are moments where the path towards the character of the book shines through, but a lot of the material used to flesh Ratched out ends up confusing the picture. For instance, does exploring Ratched as a closeted bisexual really add anything to her character, or does it simply serve to set up a negative stereotype of a queer person who inevitably becomes a man-hater?
This is a problem I have with the rest of the show. The enchanting costumes, colourful locations and the sweeping orchestral score are all in service of a confused plot that meanders along without any real clear aim. Sometimes you have brash, melodramatic figures with very clear goals explicitly stated over and over, but just as often you get messy characters who flounder from episode to episode, simply reacting to everything else. On top of this, the movie drops in a lot of lurid, violent scenes that feel cribbed from the likes of other shows like Hannibal. It feels like perfunctory adult content that is out of place and often pretty damn unrealistic. It doesn't take long before the bodies start to pile up, as hitmen, serial killers, and lunatic dowagers get thrown into the kitchen sink.
Nothing about Ratched really demonstrates a reason for it to exist, or even why it needed to call itself a Cuckoo's Nest prequel at all, beyond branding. In many ways it is just an excuse to a revisit some of the lazy horror stereotypes exhibited by American Horror Story: season 2, a show which was unsurprisingly made by many of the same people.
Series You Will Fall into A Deep Sleep
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an exceptional book, but also one that can sometimes make for discomforting reading. Perhaps the most uncomfortable part of it is the book's subtext around the character Nurse Ratched; a domineering bully who denies her natural womanhood and robs men of their power, dignity and virility. In the climax of the story, Ratched is throttled, and her top ripped open to reveal her boobs; it is seen as a crowning moment of triumph when the onlooking men finally witness this proof that she is only just a woman after all. When I saw they were making a prequel series about the life of Nurse Ratched, I was curious how a modern retelling would recontextualise the character, considering the kind of sexist narrative she came from.
About six episodes in, I started to wonder if the series would ever get around to it. A generous interpretation of Nurse Mildred Ratched from the series is that she is a complicated person. A less generous and more accurate one is to say she is a muddled and poorly defined character. Sometimes she's callous and domineering. Or she is genuinely compassionate and shocked on behalf of her patients. Sometimes she is frigid and sexually naive. Or she is sexually adventurous and flirtatious. She adores the man she works for. Or perhaps she hates him. There are moments where the path towards the character of the book shines through, but a lot of the material used to flesh Ratched out ends up confusing the picture. For instance, does exploring Ratched as a closeted bisexual really add anything to her character, or does it simply serve to set up a negative stereotype of a queer person who inevitably becomes a man-hater?
This is a problem I have with the rest of the show. The enchanting costumes, colourful locations and the sweeping orchestral score are all in service of a confused plot that meanders along without any real clear aim. Sometimes you have brash, melodramatic figures with very clear goals explicitly stated over and over, but just as often you get messy characters who flounder from episode to episode, simply reacting to everything else. On top of this, the movie drops in a lot of lurid, violent scenes that feel cribbed from the likes of other shows like Hannibal. It feels like perfunctory adult content that is out of place and often pretty damn unrealistic. It doesn't take long before the bodies start to pile up, as hitmen, serial killers, and lunatic dowagers get thrown into the kitchen sink.
Nothing about Ratched really demonstrates a reason for it to exist, or even why it needed to call itself a Cuckoo's Nest prequel at all, beyond branding. In many ways it is just an excuse to a revisit some of the lazy horror stereotypes exhibited by American Horror Story: season 2, a show which was unsurprisingly made by many of the same people.