Ratched — Murphy Adds His Dark Gothic Gory Ideas Onto The Cuckoo’s Nest’s Villain.
Netflix production ‘Ratched’, the latest creation by Ryan Murphy (well known for shows such as American Horror Story, Scream Queens and POSE.) The 8 part series takes on the antagonist, Nurse Ratched, from Miloš Forman’s 1975 classic ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, as its main character.
Mildred Ratched, portrayed by leading AHS actor Sarah Paulson, is a manipulative, stylish and complex character. She is the perfect image of a caring nurse in the 1940s, until Murphy peels away her exterior to reveal darkness that has been created within her. This suggests evil isn’t always born, it can be created. Murphy toys with the stereotype of Nurse Ratched — a metaphor for dismantling authority through any means necessary. In this case Mildred is prepared to do whatever to help herself, but it isn’t to gain power, it’s to help her loved ones.
Ratched takes place in 1947, in the middle of a psychiatric hospital in Northern California. It is headed up by Dr Hannover, a well known surgeon committed to curing ‘illnesses’ such as ‘melancholia’ and ‘lesbianism’, by episode two, Murphy has us watching through our fingers as Dr Hannover experiments with an ice pick lobotomy.
Ratched uses her charm and manipulation to worm her way over Dr Hannover and into a job at the hospital, who has just taken in a new patient to be assessed. Edmund Tollson — a seemingly deragned man, under investigation for the brutal murder of four priests. Played by Finn Wittrock, from the start Tollson creates an unsettling feeling in your stomach, his facial expressions and movements are disturbing. Mildred takes a special interest in his case and in trying to prove he is not fit to stand trial, as this twisted plot unravels we learn that Ratched and Tollsons relationship dates back to their childhoods.
Ratched has twisted storylines, it deals with relationships, power, love, and mental illness but, in a stylish and classic Murphy fashion. Ratched has taken on many of Hitchcock’s infamous styles, such as classic split screens, eerie camera shots, opening song and background music. Influences can be pulled from Vertigo, in the strong use of red and green colours to foreshadow key themes. Green is a key colour in the show, representing hierarchy as well as foreshadowing envy, lust, violence and oppression — key themes throughout the show.
The series questions how far love can go. We see it in the twisted relationship between Mildred and Edmund, in Mildred learning about her own sexuality in a time where homosexuality was thought of as a mental illness, and love between family members, translating directly into revenge and anger.
