Over the past 6 months, the amount of time that people have spent watching Netflix has increased due to the pandemic. Due to the closing of movie theaters and entertainment venues, more people have been forced to watch movies and television shows at home. Netflix offers a variety of different genres including their latest drama series, “Ratched” which premiered September 18th.
Sarah Paulson is widely known for her captivating lead role in the thrilling American anthology horror, “American Horror Story.” She is now starring in this mind-boggling drama as nurse Mildred Ratched.
I invested a week into the first season of Ratched and all I can say is “Wow,”– it’s definitely a jaw-dropper. We follow an asylum nurse known as Mildred Ratched who seeks employment at a Northern California psychiatric hospital in 1947. Sarah Paulson’s character Mildred is based on the central character in Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Mildred, a former army nurse with mysterious motives, plans to get into the Lucia Psychiatric Hospital where her brother, Edmund Tolleson was recently admitted for viciously murdering several priests, including one he believed to be his biological father. Mildred pretends to be a licensed nurse only to save Edmund from the electric chair.
The big plot twist of the series is when Mildred plans to kill her brother by euthanizing him in order to give him a quick and painless death, instead of having the state do it by what Governor Wilburn calls, “Old Sparky ”, otherwise known as the electric chair.
Viewers who were captivated by American Horror Story would likely enjoy Ratched. However the storyline of Ratched does consist of rather graphic depictions of violence such as dunking patients in boiling water as a form of gay conversion therapy, patients committing suicide, and unpleasant surgeries.
The series also dives deep into Mildred’s childhood life, and depicts the deepest trauma that she experienced through multiple vivid flashbacks. One specific flashback focused on a puppet show that Mildred and her brother Edmund watched as orphans who bounced around the foster system, as they lived with many families who abused them both sexually and physically. Edmund had killed their last foster parents allowing Ratched to escape, which is why Ratched felt she should return the favor by helping Edmund escape the psychiatric facility.
According to VanityFair, “Ratched” is described as wretched and nonsensical. While I agree that the show is very scattered and somewhat confusing, it is certainly a feast for the eyes with all the colorful cinematography and great acting. This series was very mind-boggling, and always surprised me in a good yet terrifying way.
Overall this was a really interesting series. Even though I have my criticisms, the series did an excellent job showing the depths of Milldred’s life, and how that trauma has affected her as an adult. I would definitely recommend it.