Call the Midwife: Christmas Special 2015
Dec. 27th, 2015 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakComfortable and relaxing, despite some angsty fake-outs.
Also, between the end of last season and this special Delia evidently regained her memories - there is no "Eureka" moment in this one, she already knows who Patsy is to her when this special starts - which I'm more than okay with, since with a few exceptions tv amnesia is my least favourite angst device, and I'm all for Patsy and Delia happily reuniting.
Sister Monica Joan nearly dying and then not, otoh, I'm just a bit mixed about. I mean, in retrospect it was obvious they wouldn't kill her in the Christmas special, but they had me when cross cutting between her in her old home and the birth of Iris' baby - I thought they were going for a balance of life and death thing. Considering her age, though, and the dementia, I'm not sure how often they can keep using fretting about Sister Monica Joan as an angst device before it becomes unbelievable. This said, I found Sister Evangelina praying with her very moving, and earlier the encounter with the anti atom bomb protesters who were squatting in the manor (and presented sympathetically, both narration wise and from Sister Monica Joan's pov, who told them what she hadn't told anyone else in decades, her original name, Antonia).
Loved the continued use of Shelagh's love of music as a characterisation point for her, and the fact she was assisting Sister Julienne in the episode's second childbirth, after comforting her re: Monica Joan earlier. The bond between Sister Julienne and Sheelagh remains one of my favourite things about the show.
Tom, flirting or at least looking with interest at Barbara is a really bad idea. Not that you're not free to move on after Trixie broke up with you, but seriously, not with one of her colleagues. This said, I appreciated Trixie seemed to be doing well in the special, and did notice she declined the Christmas drink.
Mr. Schwab (spelling) the BBC producer was hilarious (and played by the Archdeacon from Rev, wasn't he?). Though one of my favourite scenes, the one where he goes on about how he, as a child actor, had to act in Peter Pan with chicken pox and Sheelagh turns that around by expressing her sympathy instead of letting it cow her, in retrospect contains a theatre anachronism in the punch line. "I didn't even play Peter Pan. I played Smee!" was hilarious, but since Peter Pan was always played by an actress, not a man or boy, on British stage at that point, impossible for Mr. Schwab (who'd have been a child actor in the 1930s) to say.
Also, between the end of last season and this special Delia evidently regained her memories - there is no "Eureka" moment in this one, she already knows who Patsy is to her when this special starts - which I'm more than okay with, since with a few exceptions tv amnesia is my least favourite angst device, and I'm all for Patsy and Delia happily reuniting.
Sister Monica Joan nearly dying and then not, otoh, I'm just a bit mixed about. I mean, in retrospect it was obvious they wouldn't kill her in the Christmas special, but they had me when cross cutting between her in her old home and the birth of Iris' baby - I thought they were going for a balance of life and death thing. Considering her age, though, and the dementia, I'm not sure how often they can keep using fretting about Sister Monica Joan as an angst device before it becomes unbelievable. This said, I found Sister Evangelina praying with her very moving, and earlier the encounter with the anti atom bomb protesters who were squatting in the manor (and presented sympathetically, both narration wise and from Sister Monica Joan's pov, who told them what she hadn't told anyone else in decades, her original name, Antonia).
Loved the continued use of Shelagh's love of music as a characterisation point for her, and the fact she was assisting Sister Julienne in the episode's second childbirth, after comforting her re: Monica Joan earlier. The bond between Sister Julienne and Sheelagh remains one of my favourite things about the show.
Tom, flirting or at least looking with interest at Barbara is a really bad idea. Not that you're not free to move on after Trixie broke up with you, but seriously, not with one of her colleagues. This said, I appreciated Trixie seemed to be doing well in the special, and did notice she declined the Christmas drink.
Mr. Schwab (spelling) the BBC producer was hilarious (and played by the Archdeacon from Rev, wasn't he?). Though one of my favourite scenes, the one where he goes on about how he, as a child actor, had to act in Peter Pan with chicken pox and Sheelagh turns that around by expressing her sympathy instead of letting it cow her, in retrospect contains a theatre anachronism in the punch line. "I didn't even play Peter Pan. I played Smee!" was hilarious, but since Peter Pan was always played by an actress, not a man or boy, on British stage at that point, impossible for Mr. Schwab (who'd have been a child actor in the 1930s) to say.
