Netflix’s Ratched Season One Early Review

Netflix’s decision to make a Nurse Ratched origin story, was a perplexing one. This character, famously played by Louise Fletcher in 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is considered one of the greatest movie villains in history. However, the last time we saw someone trying to expand the backstory of another great villain it resulted in mixed reviews, often referencing how it arguably damaged the original menace of this character. With Ryan Murphy’s name on board, there’s cause for hope, however in the case of Ratched, it’s a series that decides to be a little too crazy for it’s own good.

Ratched follows the backstory of Nurse Mildred Ratched (Sarah Paulson), the antagonist of the novel and film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This season saw her begin her work as a nurse at a Northern California psychiatric hospital in 1947 as it admits its latest patient: the murderous Edmund Tolleson (Finn Wittrock). Throughout her time at the institution, Ratched deals with a string of obstacles both professionally and personally that help aid in understanding how she evolves into the nurse we know her to later become.

Ratched is essentially a melodramatic gore fest and a mixed bag of high highs and low lows. The campy setting of the 1950s is beautifully crafted and a spectacle to look at. The color palettes from the monochrome interiors, teal uniforms and striking red floor help to set a dreary, but fantastical atmosphere. The lighting and framing choices also help to build a tone that is uniquely Ryan Murphy.

The biggest strength of this series is the phenomenal acting across the board. Paulson, a current Murphy staple, leads the cast as the titular character that takes audiences onto a winding, psychologically harrowing journey. She is tough, mean and above all a manipulative liar. It is thanks to Paulson’s terrific chameleon style acting that this character is able to feel like an extension of Fletcher’s original rendition rather than a terrible imitation.

Meanwhile, Paulson is surrounded by a cast of superb players from Judy Davis (Nurse Betsy Bucket), Sharon Stone (Lenore Osgood), Cynthia Nixon (Gwendolyn Briggs), Amanda Plummer (Louise), Corey Stoll (Charles Wainwright), Jon Jon Briones (Dr. Richard Hanover), and many others. Some unfortunately don’t get the screen time they deserve, but they manage to shine in those subtle moments. However, this is where the positives end as the plot becomes so insanely cuckoo that it takes away from the series’ aesthetically pleasing visuals and cast.

Ratched is tonally all over the place. At one moment it feels like a psychological thriller with gore galore then it suddenly shifts to an overdramatic play with gasping reactions, old-timey dialogue and a booming chorus of horns and woodwinds that exaggerate the feeling of the scene. This back-and-forth tone never really settles into a grove and unfortunately also never finds the spark it needs to propel itself forward into something more. It could’ve been an intelligent dissection of the human psyche and mental illness with subtle horror elements, but instead it turns into what appears to be a rejected premise for an American Horror Story season that was attached to a pre-existing character.

Even though it dons the name of first-time showrunner Evan Romansky, the production has Murphy written all over it. Ratched follows a Ryan Murphy checklist all the way down to the half-boiled LGBTQ storyline. Murphy is a man of style over substance, as seen in his other two Netflix series The Politician and Hollywood, however, unlike those other series Ratched fails to feel like more than a pretty thing to look at. He brings back a character no one was begging for as an excuse to create a historically-set story that uses his own flare. Well whatever you can piece together as a coherent story.

What did you think of the first season of Ratched? Let me know in the comments!

still courtesy of Netflix

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Dylan Phillips