Call The Midwife...Review (Spoiler-free)
Oct. 13th, 2012 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatFinally got around to viewing the first two episodes of Call the Midwife one of the many tv shows airing on Sunday nights. Is it just me or are Sunday nights too crowded?
I had to play a bit with my DVR to grab everything. Upstairs Downstairs S2 did not make the cut, something had to go. And I despised the first season of that series, so no loss.
Call the Midwife currently airing on PBS in the NYC area on Sunday nights at 8pm (your areas may vary), is Britain's runaway hit about a group of midwives and is set in East London the 1950s. The series is based on the real memoirs of Jennifer Worth. It was developed by Heidi Thomas and produced by Sam Mendes production company. Vanessa Redgrave provides the voice-over of the mature Jenny looking back over her life. The cast includes Jenny Agutter as one of the nuns.
Like all British series, the cast is easily distinguishable from one another and resembles people we see in reality and not on the covers of glossy magazines. Sort of wishing US casting agents would take a page from the Brits in this regard, Game of Thrones certainly did, why can't everyone else? The Good Wife and Once Upon a Time are fine in this regard, but so many tv shows aren't. I wouldn't mention it - but this is a problem I've been having with US TV series lately, the inability to tell characters apart. The actors look too much alike. It's not realistic. Well, not unless we are watching a show about clones. And its not limited to women, the men look alike too. As if they all came out of the same modeling agency.
The BBC series has women and men of various ages, sizes, and shapes. (Not so much color, it's British and it takes place in the 1950s...) It is also tightly written. Not melodramatic - US series that focus on this subject matter have a tendency to get sentimental or cliche - they go for the heightened emotion. Midwife is more subdued and realistic. There's a quiet overall tone to it. Let's face it no one does historical costume dramas better than the British.
Currently my favorite character is not the lead, who I find somewhat grating to be honest, but Chummy Browne - a 6 foot, lanky woman, played with quiet fortitude and restraint by the wonderful Miranda Hart.
While the series is character focused, there's actually more action and more happening in it than in Chicago Fire. Also the pacing is better. As are the interpersonal relationships and conflicts. May not be fair to compare the two.
Call the Midwife like most British series is just six episodes in length. And a second season was immediately commissioned after the second-to-third episode. It had high ratings.
I'm beginning to think 6 -13 episodes is a good idea and something the US tv series should consider - it promotes tighter writing and smarter choices. You have more time to develop the series - because you just have to spit out 6-13 episodes. So less of a rush. And its a tighter focus. On the other hand, there is the problem of one creator and not great production style or much money. I've read complaints from Brits in the industry who prefer the US model which has more money and more episodes to develop characters and tell the story.
The story blends humor and pathos, along with a sense of quiet strength. It's not as sappy or sentimentally manipulative as Dowton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs. And feels a bit more
like...I want to say the British series based on James Herriot's novels or maybe the original Upstairs Downstairs?
I also like the fact that it is a workplace drama. Not focused on romances or soap opera aspects, but on the daily working life of midwifery. We see what it is like to be a midwife. What they go through.
The series also acts as a bit of an advertisement for the National Health Service. Clearly the writers and creators have a political agenda. Each episode mentions at some point how the National Health Service has dramatically changed health care in Britain. It apparently came into effect in the late 1940s/1950s? Ah, it was established in 1948. This is an issue in Britain at the moment, their conservative party apparently wants to do away with the service? So their media is reminded them of why this is a really bad idea. Rather like the fact that it is airing in the US because there are people here who need to be educated on what national health care actually means. It means advanced health care for those in abject poverty. Call the Midwife is not preachy about this. It's just casually mentioned in conversation, sort of the way anyone might mention it. So the writer's are fairly clever on this point. I'm impressed by that. Sneaking a political point of view into a series without being overtly obvious about it is not an easy thing to do.
Only drawbacks to the series are...the lead is a bit hard to really sympathize with, she feels a bit like a cipher - which is a problem with first person perspectives. And the nuns do at times fall into stereotype...there's the old somewhat senile nun, the cranky nasty nun with a heart of gold, the wise nun played by Jenny Agutter. But other than that, it's rather good. And I like the fact that it does not paint the Catholic religion in either a perfect or nasty light.
Overall a rather good series. Highly recommend.
Grade? A.
I had to play a bit with my DVR to grab everything. Upstairs Downstairs S2 did not make the cut, something had to go. And I despised the first season of that series, so no loss.
Call the Midwife currently airing on PBS in the NYC area on Sunday nights at 8pm (your areas may vary), is Britain's runaway hit about a group of midwives and is set in East London the 1950s. The series is based on the real memoirs of Jennifer Worth. It was developed by Heidi Thomas and produced by Sam Mendes production company. Vanessa Redgrave provides the voice-over of the mature Jenny looking back over her life. The cast includes Jenny Agutter as one of the nuns.
Like all British series, the cast is easily distinguishable from one another and resembles people we see in reality and not on the covers of glossy magazines. Sort of wishing US casting agents would take a page from the Brits in this regard, Game of Thrones certainly did, why can't everyone else? The Good Wife and Once Upon a Time are fine in this regard, but so many tv shows aren't. I wouldn't mention it - but this is a problem I've been having with US TV series lately, the inability to tell characters apart. The actors look too much alike. It's not realistic. Well, not unless we are watching a show about clones. And its not limited to women, the men look alike too. As if they all came out of the same modeling agency.
The BBC series has women and men of various ages, sizes, and shapes. (Not so much color, it's British and it takes place in the 1950s...) It is also tightly written. Not melodramatic - US series that focus on this subject matter have a tendency to get sentimental or cliche - they go for the heightened emotion. Midwife is more subdued and realistic. There's a quiet overall tone to it. Let's face it no one does historical costume dramas better than the British.
Currently my favorite character is not the lead, who I find somewhat grating to be honest, but Chummy Browne - a 6 foot, lanky woman, played with quiet fortitude and restraint by the wonderful Miranda Hart.
While the series is character focused, there's actually more action and more happening in it than in Chicago Fire. Also the pacing is better. As are the interpersonal relationships and conflicts. May not be fair to compare the two.
Call the Midwife like most British series is just six episodes in length. And a second season was immediately commissioned after the second-to-third episode. It had high ratings.
I'm beginning to think 6 -13 episodes is a good idea and something the US tv series should consider - it promotes tighter writing and smarter choices. You have more time to develop the series - because you just have to spit out 6-13 episodes. So less of a rush. And its a tighter focus. On the other hand, there is the problem of one creator and not great production style or much money. I've read complaints from Brits in the industry who prefer the US model which has more money and more episodes to develop characters and tell the story.
The story blends humor and pathos, along with a sense of quiet strength. It's not as sappy or sentimentally manipulative as Dowton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs. And feels a bit more
like...I want to say the British series based on James Herriot's novels or maybe the original Upstairs Downstairs?
I also like the fact that it is a workplace drama. Not focused on romances or soap opera aspects, but on the daily working life of midwifery. We see what it is like to be a midwife. What they go through.
The series also acts as a bit of an advertisement for the National Health Service. Clearly the writers and creators have a political agenda. Each episode mentions at some point how the National Health Service has dramatically changed health care in Britain. It apparently came into effect in the late 1940s/1950s? Ah, it was established in 1948. This is an issue in Britain at the moment, their conservative party apparently wants to do away with the service? So their media is reminded them of why this is a really bad idea. Rather like the fact that it is airing in the US because there are people here who need to be educated on what national health care actually means. It means advanced health care for those in abject poverty. Call the Midwife is not preachy about this. It's just casually mentioned in conversation, sort of the way anyone might mention it. So the writer's are fairly clever on this point. I'm impressed by that. Sneaking a political point of view into a series without being overtly obvious about it is not an easy thing to do.
Only drawbacks to the series are...the lead is a bit hard to really sympathize with, she feels a bit like a cipher - which is a problem with first person perspectives. And the nuns do at times fall into stereotype...there's the old somewhat senile nun, the cranky nasty nun with a heart of gold, the wise nun played by Jenny Agutter. But other than that, it's rather good. And I like the fact that it does not paint the Catholic religion in either a perfect or nasty light.
Overall a rather good series. Highly recommend.
Grade? A.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-10-14 02:01 pm (UTC)It does however discuss abortion in graphic detail and is less then evasive. The 2nd episode is about a young 15 year old whore that they saved from a back-alley abortion and sent to a clinic, who falls for her baby only to have the church rip it from her arms. (The whore house wanted the girl to have the abortion, she didn't and asks Jenny for help. Then describes the abortion in gory detail to the head midwife/nun.
Back alley abortions are horrific. )
Hardly evasive.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-15 09:41 am (UTC)