Call the Midwife 7.03
In which reality ensues, and our heroines try their best to cope.
One of the rare cases of the week where neither the A nor the B plot has a good outcome, and the ongoing story of a regular takes a tragic turn, too. Mind you, of the three, the Trixie development is the one that feels somewhat like gratitious angst to me. Not that it feels ooc for Trixie, with her backstory of a traumatized father whom she felt it was her duty to cheer up, to conclude that in order to give Alexandra a happy childhood, she needs to give up Christopher and make him get back with Alexandra's mother. And I think the episode is clear on this being a miscalculation on Trixie's part - for starters, Christopher's divorce happened before she ever met him, the problems between him and his former wife had nothing to do with her, and there's no guarantee that Alexandra would feel happy in a home with parents who force themselves living together, au contraire. At the same time, this is a very period appropriate opinion to take in addition to making sense for Trixie, and I guess it will lead to her and the audience getting to find out that sometimes divorced parents work far better for a child. That's not the part I find gratitious. It's connecting this story with Trixie, post sacrificing her relationship, falling off the wagon. Here's the difference between reality and fiction: yes, addicts often do that, and it's an ongoing struggle through the rest of their lives BUT there is only so many times you can show this in a fictional narrative without the audience starting to tune out instead of empathizing. We've done Trixie the secret alcoholic. I don't see what a repeat could add except, see above, more angst.
Meanwhile in Poplar: the family not plagued by abuse, as nuns and audience initially suspect, but Huntington's disease and the poverty that means the only care the children can receive is by the state, which means separation, was one story where the show refused to come up with a last minute rescue, and I think that feels true to the problem. (Also, the actresses playing the mother and Wendy did a terrific job with the body language.) There wasn't anything our heroines could have done other than what they did to help the family, and that, too, is part of their lives.
Magda getting fleshed out some more as a character but also being made the second case of the week and leaving: well, I hope she'll be back later in the season, because in this episode the show used her to bring in some outside perspective that was unusual for British tv (specially tv set in the early 60s). The story about her escape to the West (complete with refugee camp interlude) balanced by the fact that abortion was at this point already legally available to Hungarian women when it wasn't to British women was well done, I thought, neither prettifying life behind the Iron Curtain nor going for the Western pop culture image of everything being more backward there. The show has done some episodes where the lack of availability of legal abortions caused tragic consequences already, so this was a good reminder that this lack wasn't inevitable even in 1963, not everywhere. In terms of our heroines' reactions: Sister Winifred bringing up that there could be legal consequences and Sister Julienne deciding not to go public with this makes me wonder whether this is a set up for future developments as well. At first I thought that being compassionate is all very well, but by letting Magda leave at the end of the episode the episode avoided having either Sister Julienne or Shelagh or both confronted with a woman who wanted an abortion on a long term basis. Then I thought that this might still come, not least because, as I said, Sister Winifred pointing out that "abortion on convent ground", with drugs from their supply, could have consequences sounds like set up. Worst case scenario: dastardly Daily Mail journalist gets wind of story, presents it as Dr. Turner being the father of Magda's aborted baby with Shelagh forcing her Au Pair to haven an abortion via her old place of work and the nuns eagerly helping, investigations aren't able to prove anyone's innocence (how could they?), end of Nonnatus House. Not that I expect this to end this way, but my current speculation is that this might be a danger and this will be where we'll see Magda again, showing up at the proverbial last minute to testify to our heroines' innocence, but in the meantime, everyone will have examine their own attitude towards abortion.
Trivia:
- Fred and Violet provided the sole relief from angst in this episode and were indeed adorable, from "Burkle, Fred Burkle" onward.
- Valerie referring to Shelagh as "Mrs. Turner" in conversation, as opposed to by her first name, is a reminder that she's joined Nonnatus House only very recently
- one of the sashes Violet stitches is for "Miss Nadine's Dance School", which is a neat continuity touch.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1271624.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
One of the rare cases of the week where neither the A nor the B plot has a good outcome, and the ongoing story of a regular takes a tragic turn, too. Mind you, of the three, the Trixie development is the one that feels somewhat like gratitious angst to me. Not that it feels ooc for Trixie, with her backstory of a traumatized father whom she felt it was her duty to cheer up, to conclude that in order to give Alexandra a happy childhood, she needs to give up Christopher and make him get back with Alexandra's mother. And I think the episode is clear on this being a miscalculation on Trixie's part - for starters, Christopher's divorce happened before she ever met him, the problems between him and his former wife had nothing to do with her, and there's no guarantee that Alexandra would feel happy in a home with parents who force themselves living together, au contraire. At the same time, this is a very period appropriate opinion to take in addition to making sense for Trixie, and I guess it will lead to her and the audience getting to find out that sometimes divorced parents work far better for a child. That's not the part I find gratitious. It's connecting this story with Trixie, post sacrificing her relationship, falling off the wagon. Here's the difference between reality and fiction: yes, addicts often do that, and it's an ongoing struggle through the rest of their lives BUT there is only so many times you can show this in a fictional narrative without the audience starting to tune out instead of empathizing. We've done Trixie the secret alcoholic. I don't see what a repeat could add except, see above, more angst.
Meanwhile in Poplar: the family not plagued by abuse, as nuns and audience initially suspect, but Huntington's disease and the poverty that means the only care the children can receive is by the state, which means separation, was one story where the show refused to come up with a last minute rescue, and I think that feels true to the problem. (Also, the actresses playing the mother and Wendy did a terrific job with the body language.) There wasn't anything our heroines could have done other than what they did to help the family, and that, too, is part of their lives.
Magda getting fleshed out some more as a character but also being made the second case of the week and leaving: well, I hope she'll be back later in the season, because in this episode the show used her to bring in some outside perspective that was unusual for British tv (specially tv set in the early 60s). The story about her escape to the West (complete with refugee camp interlude) balanced by the fact that abortion was at this point already legally available to Hungarian women when it wasn't to British women was well done, I thought, neither prettifying life behind the Iron Curtain nor going for the Western pop culture image of everything being more backward there. The show has done some episodes where the lack of availability of legal abortions caused tragic consequences already, so this was a good reminder that this lack wasn't inevitable even in 1963, not everywhere. In terms of our heroines' reactions: Sister Winifred bringing up that there could be legal consequences and Sister Julienne deciding not to go public with this makes me wonder whether this is a set up for future developments as well. At first I thought that being compassionate is all very well, but by letting Magda leave at the end of the episode the episode avoided having either Sister Julienne or Shelagh or both confronted with a woman who wanted an abortion on a long term basis. Then I thought that this might still come, not least because, as I said, Sister Winifred pointing out that "abortion on convent ground", with drugs from their supply, could have consequences sounds like set up. Worst case scenario: dastardly Daily Mail journalist gets wind of story, presents it as Dr. Turner being the father of Magda's aborted baby with Shelagh forcing her Au Pair to haven an abortion via her old place of work and the nuns eagerly helping, investigations aren't able to prove anyone's innocence (how could they?), end of Nonnatus House. Not that I expect this to end this way, but my current speculation is that this might be a danger and this will be where we'll see Magda again, showing up at the proverbial last minute to testify to our heroines' innocence, but in the meantime, everyone will have examine their own attitude towards abortion.
Trivia:
- Fred and Violet provided the sole relief from angst in this episode and were indeed adorable, from "Burkle, Fred Burkle" onward.
- Valerie referring to Shelagh as "Mrs. Turner" in conversation, as opposed to by her first name, is a reminder that she's joined Nonnatus House only very recently
- one of the sashes Violet stitches is for "Miss Nadine's Dance School", which is a neat continuity touch.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1271624.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.