What We Watch
Name: Genevieve Terblanche
Position: senior writer, feeling those summer vibes.
I am watching: drama Ratched season 1 (2020) on Netflix.
My take on this show: I went in expecting Bollywood levels of melodrama and wasn’t let down. Ratched is a 1947-era prequel to the 1975 film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, which centres on cruel psychiatric nurse Mildred Ratched (Sarah Paulson, various roles in American Horror Story, 2011-now). She’s softer in this series, but already slyly manipulative and murderous. The plot – focussed on Mildred’s efforts to free her criminally insane brother – rots rapidly and the character and motivation are soon whatever, whenever, who cares! But the wardrobe (by costume designers Lou Eyrich and Rebecca Guzzi) and sets (by production designer Judy Becker) are mind-meltingly beautiful. I watched with the sound off at points just to enjoy.
episode 2, when asked why she’s silent after being taunted with a “what are you going to do about it?” Mildred explains, “I’m thinking of all the things
