Call the Midwife 6.05.
Feb. 20th, 2017 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which the episode manages a delicate balance re: a certain branch of health care, introduces a new character and furthers the arc plot development.
And I don't mean dentists with the branch of health care, feared as they are. :) Btw, as introductions of a new love interest (for Trixie) go, this one didn't try to hide what it was but was smoothly and charmingly done. Also, given tv's tendency to conflate different areas of expertise as long as they can be labeled "science" (I'll never forget Fred the physicist conducting an autopsy on Angel), I approve of shows pointing out that no, it doesn't work that way; Trixie, as a midwife and nurse, can't do dentistry, while New Guy, as a dentist, can't do what Dr. Turner does when by chance present at a birth. Oh, and in terms of dealing with phobias, having a plot where the mother of the week is plagued by her rotten teeth (and dentist fears) and is rescued by complete removal and new teeth was also neatly done, addressing something people are still often embarassed and shamed about, not just in the 1960s.
But it was the other plot of the hour that turned out to have the most relevance to our regulars. Now this isn't the first time the show did an episode with mentally handicapped characters, so I wasn't worried re: the depiction of Reggie, and glad that Violet wasn't made the bad guy for her initial reservations. The mental hospital first considered for Reggie hit of course every Bell Jar/Nurse Ratchet/Name Your 60s or 70s Mental Care Horror Scenario button, and that's before we discover who else ended up there; however, as is pointed out by several characters, Reggie isn't ill, he simply has a low IQ and thus can't live alone, and I think one main reason why Shelagh finds a progressive home where mentally handicapped people are treated well and live in a community, not as prisoners, instead of the episode resolving this subplot by letting Reggie stay with Fred and Violet (since Violet comes around to him pretty quickly), as I first thought it would, is that the show doesn't want to tar ALL institutions dealing with mental health care with the same brush, because demonizing the entire branch for the audience is pretty easy, given the ongoing Sister Mary Cynthia plot.
(Also: Reggie staying with Fred and Violet would have just pushed the problem a few years into the future, since neither of them are young anymore.)
However, the way depression was treated, especially in women, really did lead to some gruesome scenarios. And I think I've figured out what the main point of introducing Sister Ursula at the start of the season only to remove her three eps later was. They could never have done this storyline in a scenario where Sister Julienne was in charge throughout, because Sister Julienne wouldn't have sent Cynthia away to the Mother House in the first place instead of dealing with her trauma with a combination of kindness and therapy in Poplar. So a new boss had to exist for a while in order to trigger this entire chain of events which now has Sister Mary Cynthia in a place where she never should have been. The trailer last week gave it away, but the moment of discovery by Sister Monica Joan and Fred still felt gutwrenching. Mind you, when Not Nurse Ratchet said "another therapy" my instant fear was lobotomy, and I was downright relieved for a moment when it turned out to be ECT instead before recalling Sylvia Plath's intense and appalling description of the procedure. (BTW: yes, I am aware that what happened to Sylvia Plath - which she consequently also used in fictional form for The Bell Jar - isn't how electric shock therapy is supposed to work and that its application, if handled rightly, can indeed by very beneficial. But somehow I don't think Mary Cynthia will escape the Plath experience re: ECT.) 1962, the year this season is set, was the last year Sylvia Plath was alive (she killed herself in February 1963), but this show being what it is, I at least am confident Mary Cynthia will escape Plath's ending. She might leave the Order, though. Sister Julienne has just started to find out it's not easy to get someone out of a mental institution once they're put there, and you're not related, and it was the Order which put her there.
And I don't mean dentists with the branch of health care, feared as they are. :) Btw, as introductions of a new love interest (for Trixie) go, this one didn't try to hide what it was but was smoothly and charmingly done. Also, given tv's tendency to conflate different areas of expertise as long as they can be labeled "science" (I'll never forget Fred the physicist conducting an autopsy on Angel), I approve of shows pointing out that no, it doesn't work that way; Trixie, as a midwife and nurse, can't do dentistry, while New Guy, as a dentist, can't do what Dr. Turner does when by chance present at a birth. Oh, and in terms of dealing with phobias, having a plot where the mother of the week is plagued by her rotten teeth (and dentist fears) and is rescued by complete removal and new teeth was also neatly done, addressing something people are still often embarassed and shamed about, not just in the 1960s.
But it was the other plot of the hour that turned out to have the most relevance to our regulars. Now this isn't the first time the show did an episode with mentally handicapped characters, so I wasn't worried re: the depiction of Reggie, and glad that Violet wasn't made the bad guy for her initial reservations. The mental hospital first considered for Reggie hit of course every Bell Jar/Nurse Ratchet/Name Your 60s or 70s Mental Care Horror Scenario button, and that's before we discover who else ended up there; however, as is pointed out by several characters, Reggie isn't ill, he simply has a low IQ and thus can't live alone, and I think one main reason why Shelagh finds a progressive home where mentally handicapped people are treated well and live in a community, not as prisoners, instead of the episode resolving this subplot by letting Reggie stay with Fred and Violet (since Violet comes around to him pretty quickly), as I first thought it would, is that the show doesn't want to tar ALL institutions dealing with mental health care with the same brush, because demonizing the entire branch for the audience is pretty easy, given the ongoing Sister Mary Cynthia plot.
(Also: Reggie staying with Fred and Violet would have just pushed the problem a few years into the future, since neither of them are young anymore.)
However, the way depression was treated, especially in women, really did lead to some gruesome scenarios. And I think I've figured out what the main point of introducing Sister Ursula at the start of the season only to remove her three eps later was. They could never have done this storyline in a scenario where Sister Julienne was in charge throughout, because Sister Julienne wouldn't have sent Cynthia away to the Mother House in the first place instead of dealing with her trauma with a combination of kindness and therapy in Poplar. So a new boss had to exist for a while in order to trigger this entire chain of events which now has Sister Mary Cynthia in a place where she never should have been. The trailer last week gave it away, but the moment of discovery by Sister Monica Joan and Fred still felt gutwrenching. Mind you, when Not Nurse Ratchet said "another therapy" my instant fear was lobotomy, and I was downright relieved for a moment when it turned out to be ECT instead before recalling Sylvia Plath's intense and appalling description of the procedure. (BTW: yes, I am aware that what happened to Sylvia Plath - which she consequently also used in fictional form for The Bell Jar - isn't how electric shock therapy is supposed to work and that its application, if handled rightly, can indeed by very beneficial. But somehow I don't think Mary Cynthia will escape the Plath experience re: ECT.) 1962, the year this season is set, was the last year Sylvia Plath was alive (she killed herself in February 1963), but this show being what it is, I at least am confident Mary Cynthia will escape Plath's ending. She might leave the Order, though. Sister Julienne has just started to find out it's not easy to get someone out of a mental institution once they're put there, and you're not related, and it was the Order which put her there.
