Marley Eleven Bury brings us his Ratched Season 1, Episode 3 & 4 Breakdown.
Ratched descends into mediocrity, with flashes of genius; hampered by a screenplay that’s lost sight of its original brilliance
Well, this is deeply disappointing. A show that started with so much promise is; unfortunately, on the fast track to becoming forgettable.
So why is this? Unfortunately, what hampers this two-parter is a frustrating weave of interconnected issues; so let’s dive right in.
The story opens in episode 3 in a mysterious, gorgeous manor. The home of a powerful, wealthy and vicious heiress; played by Sharon Stone, the gorgeous production design is contrasted by Lenore’s vicious desire for revenge.
Yet even she is dwarfed by her son’s assholery, a vicious paraplegic who; despite his condition, you immediately dislike and are right to do so.
The setup intrigues and the reveal that she is seeking revenge on Dr. Hanover is chilling, however; as of right now, this part of the story has fundamentally derailed the entire season.
Take Edmund Tolleson’s standoff with Dr. Hanover in Ice Pick: A fantastic confrontation and one I was keen to see explored further: During this two-parter, they did not even share a single scene and the absence was sorely felt.
The introduction of this new plot-line has taken screen-time away from elements which badly needed and; quite frankly, deserved more development than this one has gotten.
I’ll explain further why this one lacks as we go on, yet this two-parter has further issues.
After the title-sequence, we have one of the two-parter’s bright spots as Ratched, a scarred war-veteran orderly named ‘Huck’ and Nurse Bucket; in response to the lobotomy’s failure to ‘cure’ Miss Blix of her lesbianism, use a new treatment.
The process involves placing the poor-woman inside of a 117-degree-hot bath for 30 minutes, before placing her in an ice-cold bath immediately after for 5 minutes.
The process is so clearly brutal that even Ratched is disgusted by it; a nice continuation of her character’s humanisation after the dinner with Mrs. Briggs.
It adds further complexity to Ratched after her morbid interest in the lobotomy; as well as horrific use of it to silence Father Andrews, yet to see her hit a personal limit shows she is not a completely ruthless monster… yet.
However; from here on out, the episode largely loses focus: Threads scattered across several different plotlines. Some are intriguing, such as Governor Wilburn’s ruthless insistence that Tolleson die before the election; a biting commentary on our historic and modern-day politicising of the justice system.
Others just end up completely bogging down the narrative: Instead of further developing the narrative around Tolleson and Dr. Hanover, they explore his sexual frustration with a horny nurse… right.
Other reveals; such as Ratched and Tolleson having at some point had incestuous sexual relations, just end up falling completely flat, as you wonder why on earth this show is wasting valuable screen-time on bizarre ideas when it has introduced about twenty far-more compelling ones.
Dr. Hanover’s dark backstory of allowing an insane patient to cut off his own body limbs; before he himself fled, feels incredibly over-dramatic and while there is some potential substance to it, it just ends up feeling like a complete waste of time in contrast to its stronger elements.
That sumps up several storylines here: A waste of time. Distractions from a genuinely brilliant manipulation storyline with Ratched, Hanover’s potential dynamic with Tolleson: All of that becomes lost in elements the first two-episodes kept to the fringe of the story.
Here, they drown out the superior aspects and while the cast; led by the still terrific Sarah Paulson, do their best to keep it afloat, they’re ultimately fighting the tide.
The production aspects remain as strong as ever: The hospital feels as alive, evolving and growing as ever; a character in and of itself, trapping the cast in a space that they both manipulate and are manipulated by.
Even the weaker storylines; such as Ratched’s attempts to get her brother laid in episode 4… yeah… still benefit from the series production design and location geography.
Pointless as it feels to the overall narrative, the lead-up to make that climax; metaphorically and literally, possible still has strong tension thanks to a dynamic use of the set.
Nevertheless, this show could turn itself around; provided that it re-focusses in on the elements that made the pilot exceptional: Manipulation and its emotional costs, the psychological battle of wits; the unique use of production values.
All of this is what the show must re-focus on going forward from this bizarre two-parter, if it is to regain its early quality.
Ratched Season 1 episode 3 and 4 breakdown by Marley Eleven Bury.
Episode Reviews
Our Rating
Summary
Sadly a show that is in danger of veering off the track as this unusual two parter has lost the quality and the gripping selling point that made the first two episodes so enticing.
