If you haven’t seen “Ratched” yet, do yourself a favour and set aside time to binge-watch this brilliantly disturbing psychological thriller.
Inspired by “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” by Ken Kesey, this 8-part series is created by Evan Romansky and developed by Ryan Murphy.
With Murphy proving his Midas touch in “American Horror Story”, “The Politician”, “9-1-1”, “Glee” and “Pose”, he delivers once again.
In fact, critics are singing the praises of “Ratched” for the excellent casting, character development and adroit direction.
Don’t even get me started on the stylish wardrobe, brilliant cinematography and authentic 1940s setting.
I was fortunate enough to get a virtual chat with Sarah Paulson, who, interestingly enough, also wears the hat of executive producer on this project.
If you think she looks amazing in this series, especially with that jaw-dropping wardrobe, she looks better up-close.
Let’s just say, at 45, she will put some actresses in their 20’s to shame. Also, she has this vibrant personality and such a way about her that there were intermittent moments that I forgot it was an interview.
Such is the magnetism of Paulson, I suppose. It certainly attests to all those Emmy and Golden Globe wins, too.
On wearing two hats in “Ratched”, she explained, “I’m sure it means different things in different environments but with Ryan, for me, this is the first time I’ve ever done this, in terms of having the opinion that I always have (laughs) but given a bit of extra credence because I have the title of executive producer.
“But for me, with him, what it meant was I got to watch every edit. I got to have input with casting.
“I got to speak with the writers all the time about everything. It doesn’t mean that I had the final say in any regard with anything, Ryan is the boss man and he gets to decide all the things as he should.
“It was a really collaborative, almost next step in our relationship, which has been almost a decade long at this point.
“He just felt it was time to have a bit of ownership of the projects I was helping to create with him.
“I thought that was a very empowering, wonderful thing that he did.”
As for getting to work with some of the finest actors on the series, she offered: “I had only worked with Amanda Plummer.
“That was a wonderful thing to be reunited with her.
“Judy Davis has been an actress that has been an absolute idol of mine for years.
“That was a daily pinch me I cannot believe I’m having this experience. A bucket list experience.
“And she is playing Nurse Bucket, do with that what you will. Sharon Stone is such a special persona and so wonderful in the part and such an icon.
“Cynthia (Nixon) I knew from New York but we never worked together.”
Of course, I can’t give away much about her character, Nurse Mildred Ratched.
At face value, she exudes an air of confidence.
As the narrative unfolds, viewers get to witness her dark side as she wrangles her way into employment at a leading psychiatric hospital as she has a hidden agenda.
On her character’s duality, Paulson offered: “Well, I brought them out simply by taking my guidance from the script.
“I think it is obviously very helpful when you have the text to guide you on what contributed to the Mildred Ratched that we had in our minds from ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’.
”This was a big opportunity to invent a world where some of the things that would happen to Mildred would result in a kind of joyless person, which ultimately Nurse Mildred Ratched is in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’; she seemingly has no access to her humanity and it was an interesting idea to see what would have had to have happened to someones life to contribute to that happening.”
She continued: “I don’t know how I brought it all out, I just followed the text and the story and played her for long enough that I started to feel that I understood her and that was very important, to find a way to not judge her and just do what I could to see, what would make sense to me about how to justify some of her choices, which to me were morally questionable but, to her, made a lot of sense.”
“If there is a redemption, it’s only in terms of what we come up against as audience members in terms of what we bring to the table watching it.
“Anybody who has seen that movie, and I would argue that’s a pretty large section of people, we have preconceived ideas of what she is and what she is about, so the redemption maybe only happens when, we as audience members, start to put emotional context to some of her actions that might be confusing and confounding when you watched the movie.”
“Ratched” is streaming on Netflix.