Call the Midwife 8.01 - 3.
The Midwives are back, and I nearly missed them!
I thought the season opener was a bit avarage, but the next two episodes were lovely. Making an old suffragette the patient of the week in 8.2 was a neat idea, as was combining this with a situation I've sadly witnessed myself more than once - you have someone who can't anymore live by themselves, but they truly dread ending up in a home for the loss of autonomy more than anything else. Having Sister Monica Joan as the oldest member of the ensemble recall bits of the protest actions ditto, and making Lucille the main nurse/midwife to interact with her inevitably was a reminder of the civil rights movement in the 60s on the other side of the Atlantic.
One of the reasons why I thought the opening episode was only avarage was that the show has already done "illegal abortions are really dangerous!" tales a couple of times. Whereas while we had a handicapped baby in the Thalidomid storyline, that was tied to a very specific historical event. Children born with cleft lips are fare more common, and you can't blame any medication or the pharmaceutical industry's greed. The show displayed its usual optimism in having Betty and her entire family cope (with some organisational help from Valerie), but it felt earned, as the episode displayed the difficulties amply.
Meanwhile, what at first looked like a story about measles and vaccination actually turned out to be a moving story about grief and the anxiousness and sense of guilt that comes with it when the grieving mother has a second child. It also was a chance for the show to flesh out Dr. Turner's new secretary beyond "stern elder lady", and I liked the result.
8.02. and 8.03 both present Violet campaigning for and becoming a councilwoman as an ongoing storyline, and every time I was a bit worried it might go for the cheap route (i.e making it a comic relief story about Violet's bossiness or Fred the henpecked husband), this turned out not to be the case. So far, it strikes me as a good storytelling decision, and also one that makes Watsonian sense for the character to get into local politics - Violet's a shop owner deeply tied to the local community, and she has the confidence. (BTW, I didn't miss she wore a red cocarde as opposed to her rival's blue one on the election scene, so I'm assuming she's Labour.)
Lastly, the two new nuns, Sisters Hilda and Frances: so far so good, I like them, and look forward to getting to know them better.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1327179.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
I thought the season opener was a bit avarage, but the next two episodes were lovely. Making an old suffragette the patient of the week in 8.2 was a neat idea, as was combining this with a situation I've sadly witnessed myself more than once - you have someone who can't anymore live by themselves, but they truly dread ending up in a home for the loss of autonomy more than anything else. Having Sister Monica Joan as the oldest member of the ensemble recall bits of the protest actions ditto, and making Lucille the main nurse/midwife to interact with her inevitably was a reminder of the civil rights movement in the 60s on the other side of the Atlantic.
One of the reasons why I thought the opening episode was only avarage was that the show has already done "illegal abortions are really dangerous!" tales a couple of times. Whereas while we had a handicapped baby in the Thalidomid storyline, that was tied to a very specific historical event. Children born with cleft lips are fare more common, and you can't blame any medication or the pharmaceutical industry's greed. The show displayed its usual optimism in having Betty and her entire family cope (with some organisational help from Valerie), but it felt earned, as the episode displayed the difficulties amply.
Meanwhile, what at first looked like a story about measles and vaccination actually turned out to be a moving story about grief and the anxiousness and sense of guilt that comes with it when the grieving mother has a second child. It also was a chance for the show to flesh out Dr. Turner's new secretary beyond "stern elder lady", and I liked the result.
8.02. and 8.03 both present Violet campaigning for and becoming a councilwoman as an ongoing storyline, and every time I was a bit worried it might go for the cheap route (i.e making it a comic relief story about Violet's bossiness or Fred the henpecked husband), this turned out not to be the case. So far, it strikes me as a good storytelling decision, and also one that makes Watsonian sense for the character to get into local politics - Violet's a shop owner deeply tied to the local community, and she has the confidence. (BTW, I didn't miss she wore a red cocarde as opposed to her rival's blue one on the election scene, so I'm assuming she's Labour.)
Lastly, the two new nuns, Sisters Hilda and Frances: so far so good, I like them, and look forward to getting to know them better.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1327179.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.