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- Produced by Ryan Murphy and packed with his signature gory excess, Ratched makes a great series of still photos but tells a very disappointing story.
www.npr.org › 2020/09/18 › 913629938Review: 'Ratched' Is Good To Look At, But Not Good To Watch : NPR
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Sep 18, 2020 · Saeed Adyani/Netflix. Ratched is beautiful, but it's really bad. The messy eight-episode first season of the Netflix horror thriller (a second season is on the way) creates a backstory for Nurse...
- One of cinemas' most infamous characters gets an origin story on Netflix.
- Who's Your Favorite Movie Villain?
- Ratched - 12 First Look Images
- Verdict
By David Griffin
Updated: Sep 18, 2020 11:38 pm
Posted: Sep 18, 2020 11:30 pm
This is a spoiler-free review of Season 1 of Netflix's Ratched. All eight episodes are currently available to stream on Netflix worldwide.
Nurse Mildred Ratched is one of cinema's most memorable villains, standing toe-to-toe with the likes of Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort, and even Thanos. And while she may not wield any cosmic powers, her apathetic nature and totalitarian rule over her vulnerable psychiatric patients are haunting enough to make anyone's knees tremble. The character was created by author Ken Kasey in his 1962 best-selling novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Ratched's status as a pop culture icon was cemented in the subsequent Oscar-winning film of the same name directed by Milos Forman. In Netflix's Ratched, executive producer and director Ryan Murphy attempts to explore the origins of the infamous nurse in an eight-episode first season that's sadly more focused on style than substance.
In terms of its visual aesthetic, Ratched is simply stunning. From the gorgeous period-specific clothing to the lavishly designed sets, every painstaking detail is displayed in colorful fashion for you to feast your eyes upon. Murphy, having created a successful lineup of shows for FX such as American Horror Story and Pose before making his 300 million-dollar move to Netflix, isn't known for his subtlety. However, where those aforementioned series were able to strike a delicate balance between strong character development and shock and awe, Ratched appears to be more concerned with the latter.
By the time she's weaseled her way into the hospital within the first few episodes, Ratched has already been involved in a murder cover-up, bounty hunting, and a sexually awkward encounter. There are just so many narrative threads being thrown at the viewer that it's hard to know what exactly to focus on.
And while Paulson's Ratched is more expressive than her film counterpart, the supporting cast is even more over-the-top than she is. Daredevil's Vincent D'Onofrio, for example, who plays California Governor George Wilburn, is a one-note character who just bellows and hollers inappropriate things in every scene he's in. Another example is Sharon Stone's Lenore Osgood, an eccentric aristocrat with a monkey for a pet and a sadistic bilateral amputee for a son. Sure, Stone and D'Onofrio deliver their respective lines with gusto and as much charm as they can muster, but by the end of the series they come off as cartoonish characterizations rather than fully-formed individuals.
There are so many narrative threads being thrown at you that it's hard to know what to focus on.
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There's also the problem of trying to determine what kind of show Ratched is trying to be: drama, horror, romance, comedy, or all of the above? In one scene, you can have Ratched confessing to a dark secret from her childhood to a close confidant, then jump to another scene where someone is chopping their own arm off with blood splattering everywhere. Ratched feels like a mishmash of all of Murphy's previous works, laid out as an incoherent mess.
Thankfully, there are some bright spots sprinkled throughout, like an endearing relationship between Cynthia Nixon's Gwendolyn Briggs and Michael Benjamin Washington's Trevor Briggs. The two are in an arranged marriage to hide their true identity as gay. Gwendolyn and Benjamin's heartwarming compassion and care for one another is palpable, and the few moments they do share on-screen are some of the most memorable moments in Season 1. Perhaps if the series is renewed for a second season, the narrative will focus more on these smaller and more intimate moments, instead of the grandiose and shocking absurdities littered throughout many of the episodes. Time will tell.
Season 1 of Netflix's Ratched features an all-star lineup of actors, and a stunning display of gorgeous set designs and costumes. However, even with all of its visual glitz and glamour, Ratched fails to capture what made the infamous nurse so memorable in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, choosing to focus on style over strong character development.
Ratched: Created by Ryan Murphy, Evan Romansky. With Sarah Paulson, Finn Wittrock, Cynthia Nixon, Jon Jon Briones. In 1947, Mildred Ratched begins working as a nurse at a leading psychiatric hospital. But beneath her stylish exterior lurks a growing darkness.
- (71K)
- 2020-09-18
- Crime, Drama, History
- 60
Sep 18, 2020 · Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ratched’ On Netflix, Starring Sarah Paulson In Ryan Murphy’s Origin Story Of ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’s Sadistic Nurse. By Joel Keller @ joelkeller. Published Sep. 18, 2020, 5:30...
Ratched. Watch Ratched with a subscription on Netflix. A young nurse at a mental institution becomes jaded and bitter before turning into a full-fledged monster to her patients.
- (99)
- Sarah Paulson
- TV-MA
- 1
Sep 18, 2020 · Ratched, Netflix review: A thoughtful and beguiling origin story for a One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest icon. For his latest Netflix series, Ryan Murphy resists many of his more sensational...
Ratched is a suspenseful drama series that tells the origin story of asylum nurse Mildred Ratched. In 1947, Mildred arrives in Northern California to seek employment at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind.
