Call the Midwife 7.08
Mar. 14th, 2018 07:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSeason finale already? I did not know it would be. Mind you, due to Darth Real Life, I'm behind everything fannish anyway. (Did manage to watch s2 of Jessica Jones during the last week, though will write when possible.)
'Twas a good finale, though, with an thematically appropriate "grief and hope" theme, and even some light moments, courtesy of Sister Monica Joan visiting the cinema. Regarding grief, the early scene of Fred shaving Tom was both tender and gut wrenching. So were two of our characters of the week late in th eepisode, the projectionist and Donal, sitting beneath their tree in the night and facing that Donal was afflicted with senile dementia. In addition to all else, this was also a late coming out story, as the projectionist's daughter Olive had to struggle through the realisation about the nature of her father's friendship with "Uncle Donal" during the last days of her pregnancy, and how this could be reconciled with her memories of her parents' marriage. Olive coming around post-labour and delivery to deciding that love is what matters is my kind of wish fulfillment at this point; we've had enough tragedy for a season.
One thing the finale did really well was connecting storylines, so the projectionist also showed up in Sister Monica Joan's subplot, greeting her in his cinema, showing young Timothy how to cut and edit reels (maybe I'm wrong in my speculation about Tim's future 60s career and he'll become a cinematographer/director instead?), and creating the birthday present movie for Sister Monica Joan our heroines all watch at the end of the episode. On a Watsonian level, it was a great idea for Valerie, Sister Winifred and Lucille to have had, and so very appropriate for the news and movie loving Sister Monica Joan. On a Doylist level, it completes the theme of people becoming memories, and accepting this with both sadness and joy; Sisters Julienne and Monica Joan holding hands when Sister Evangelina shows up on screen was a perfect case in point.
My particular heroine Phyllis Crane having to struggle through physical pain as well as emotional one and yet managing to come through: I kept fearing she'd have a breakdown, or something would happen with the baby, but no, Phyllis, stoic get-on-with-it heroine extraordinaire, manages to save the day once more. Her patient was basically her own kind of blunt outspokenness, causing early friction and later reconciliation.
Lastly: another maternity clinic closing and thus a lot more patients getting dumped on our heroines without warning - do I detect a comment on how the current NHS gets overworked with the authorities not helping, or am I overinterpreting? Anyway.
I still have the last Christmas Special to watch, so this isn't quite it until December with the midwives for me.
'Twas a good finale, though, with an thematically appropriate "grief and hope" theme, and even some light moments, courtesy of Sister Monica Joan visiting the cinema. Regarding grief, the early scene of Fred shaving Tom was both tender and gut wrenching. So were two of our characters of the week late in th eepisode, the projectionist and Donal, sitting beneath their tree in the night and facing that Donal was afflicted with senile dementia. In addition to all else, this was also a late coming out story, as the projectionist's daughter Olive had to struggle through the realisation about the nature of her father's friendship with "Uncle Donal" during the last days of her pregnancy, and how this could be reconciled with her memories of her parents' marriage. Olive coming around post-labour and delivery to deciding that love is what matters is my kind of wish fulfillment at this point; we've had enough tragedy for a season.
One thing the finale did really well was connecting storylines, so the projectionist also showed up in Sister Monica Joan's subplot, greeting her in his cinema, showing young Timothy how to cut and edit reels (maybe I'm wrong in my speculation about Tim's future 60s career and he'll become a cinematographer/director instead?), and creating the birthday present movie for Sister Monica Joan our heroines all watch at the end of the episode. On a Watsonian level, it was a great idea for Valerie, Sister Winifred and Lucille to have had, and so very appropriate for the news and movie loving Sister Monica Joan. On a Doylist level, it completes the theme of people becoming memories, and accepting this with both sadness and joy; Sisters Julienne and Monica Joan holding hands when Sister Evangelina shows up on screen was a perfect case in point.
My particular heroine Phyllis Crane having to struggle through physical pain as well as emotional one and yet managing to come through: I kept fearing she'd have a breakdown, or something would happen with the baby, but no, Phyllis, stoic get-on-with-it heroine extraordinaire, manages to save the day once more. Her patient was basically her own kind of blunt outspokenness, causing early friction and later reconciliation.
Lastly: another maternity clinic closing and thus a lot more patients getting dumped on our heroines without warning - do I detect a comment on how the current NHS gets overworked with the authorities not helping, or am I overinterpreting? Anyway.
I still have the last Christmas Special to watch, so this isn't quite it until December with the midwives for me.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-14 11:48 am (UTC)In the books, the midwives did leave Nonnatus House rather quickly so it's all kind of true, but I was really emotional.
Some commenters did say that the midwives in Britain are really overworked, just like the show. From here in the US I'm just glad that the majority of women have access to midwives as opposed to the slicing and dicing that goes on around here.
Watch the Christmas special! I hope Anakin RealLifeWalker, comes out of the dark side soon!