TV Review - Ratched

This series is meant to be a prequel to Ken Kesey's novel and subsequent film adaptation, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). The book as the film was meant to be a critique of how mental health care was treated before changes were made in the 60's and 70's. It's meant to be a critique against conformity and oppression, as well as the shunning of marginalized people. It's also a critique against authoritarian rule. Those themes are addressed in this series, but, in radically different ways than the book or the film. Instead of telling the story from the perspective of the oppressed or marginalized, this series tells the story from the opposite perspective. Except, things are muddied or muddled because this series also wants the oppressors or people in the authoritarian roles to be seen as themselves oppressed or marginalized too. That would be fine, if both sides are sympathetic, and it was about a power struggle or tug-of-war between those both sides, but the series goes off on plots that just become increasingly ridiculous and over-the-top.

Created by Evan Romansky and developed by Ryan Murphy, instead of being a prequel of Kesey's book and film by Miloš Forman, it feels more like an entry in Murphy's American Horror Story franchise, which already feels world-weary after nine seasons. That franchise is mostly about following serial killers, romanticizing and sexualizing them, as well as delving into the darkest fantasies of human depravity, murder and mayhem to the extreme but without much nuance. It's base depravity, driven by base motivations, such as revenge. Kesey's story didn't have such depravity. The worst thing in his book is when a patient tries to strangle a nurse but is unsuccessful. However, Murphy loves to revel in depravity, so emotional or psychological torture isn't enough. Murphy needs actual, physical brutality and gore, bathing the screen in blood, which ultimately distracts from what could have been a deeper dive into Kesey's story and the characters he laid down.

Sarah Paulson (American Crime Story and Mrs. America) stars as Mildred Ratched, a former nurse who served in the war who has now come to northern California to get a job at a mental health institution called Lucia. She seems determined to get a job there no matter what. It's not clear why she's so determined. Even when she's told that the institution is in financial trouble, she engages in underhanded tactics in order to get the job. She's in fact very manipulative, even resorting to tactics that result in people's deaths, in ways that aren't so indirect. It seems over-the-top and it is, which is probably the point.

Finn Wittrock (American Crime Story and American Horror Story) co-stars as Edmund Tolleson, a serial killer who is brought to the same hospital where Mildred works. It quickly becomes evident that Edmund is the younger brother to Mildred. Edmund murders several men simply because they're priests. He blames one particular priest for destroying his life. It's hinted later that maybe other priests or others abused him. Yet, he goes on a rampage and mutilates a bunch of them that seemingly have nothing to do with him.

He then pretends to be insane in order to avoid the death penalty and possibly even a long prison sentence. In that, it makes his character the analog to Jack Nicholson's character in the 1975 film. However, instead of being an instrument to challenge the authority and the oppression, he's instead here being an instrument to embrace the authority and oppression to his advantage, which would have been fine, if that was the focus of this series. Because Murphy and his collaborators have a very short attention span and the pacing of his series has to be always at a breakneck speed, the series can't really stew in that. Murphy therefore skips along to more brutal revenge plots.

Jon Jon Briones (American Crime Story and American Horror Story) also co-stars as Richard Hanover, the doctor who runs the state hospital. He's afraid that the hospital is going to be shutdown for financial reasons, so he keeps trying to implore the governor to give him funding. Meanwhile, he seems to genuinely believe that he can reform people from criminal behavior. Some of his methods seem to be akin to torture, which would make Briones' character akin to Jeff Goldblum's in The Mountain (2019), which is a film that drills into the abuse and horror of one particular type of mental health treatment, that of the lobotomy. This series doesn't drill into Dr. Hanover's methods. Hanover's presence just becomes fuel for revenge plots. The series has several people trying to get revenge and outright kill Dr. Hanover.

That in itself could have been an interesting premise on which to hang the plot of this series. Yet, that is just a plot point in a line of tons of plot points that Murphy churns past in order to get to the next. It doesn't feel like the deep dive into a great literary character turned into a great cinematic character. It just feels like an excuse to do the typical, Ryan Murphy, glossy, gory, homoerotic, pulpy work. If one wants to see a better TV series that's essentially a prequel and indeed a deep dive into a great literary character turned into a great cinematic one, then check out Bates Motel (2013). That A&E series was a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). It was done in a brilliant way that wasn't just pulpy, but balanced dramatically and heartfelt in a humane way and not the cartoonish way here. It's also a show that treats mental illness in a more heartfelt and realistic fashion.

Kesey's book and the subsequent film established a group of male characters in an institution. The film gives us a good idea of who those men are, but this series could have been an opportunity to explore the backstories of those men. Murphy's series squanders that opportunity. Maybe that would be for future seasons of this series, but it felt squandered here, mainly because the characters created here felt too much like cartoons. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest gave us the iconic character of Chief Bromden, played by Will Sampson, the tall and powerful, Native American performer. This series could have been an opportunity to bring in stories from Native American experiences, but alas, that isn't the case.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 8 eps.

Available on Netflix.