Written by Evan Romansky
Directed by Ryan Murphy
Directed by Ryan Murphy
Mildred: "Looking good today, Mildred."
It's heading towards the end of September. It's around this time we should all be settling into the latest season of American Horror Story but COVID had other ideas and in it's place and to try to fill the void is a prequel series to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest that nobody strictly asked for but at the same time, why not, eh?
When I say American Horror Story, it's best to think of Asylum and Hotel for reasons that should be apparent while watching all of this opening episode. The location itself is set in Lucia State Hospital while there's an arguable overemphasis on styling up the title character that's a bit reminiscent of the other season I mentioned here.
Now let's get to Mildred Ratched herself. Louise Fletcher made the character into an instant icon and true villain of the big screen. Sarah Paulson is one of my favourite actors currently working in Hollywood today and I'll watch her in just about anything.
However this opening episode alone and what I've read about the series as a whole, it feels like she's playing Ratched in name only and that Judy Davis's more stern fellow Nurse Bucket would be closer to what Ratched should be as opposed to Paulson herself. Hopefully that does change as the series progresses but I'm doubtful it will.
Saying that, this episode sets up everything necessary with Mildred's ongoing mission. When a position at Lucia State Hospital isn't available, she resorts to blackmailing a fellow nurse into creating one and once she's there, she willingly puts two patients lives in danger in order to ensure that Dr Hanover (Jon Jon Briones) becomes unable to fire her on the spot.
Out of the patients, the most tragic is her treatment of vulnerable Dario Salvatore (Daniel Di Tomasso) whom she coaxed into killing himself in Hanover's office while the end of the episode somewhat revealed her connection to new arrival Edmund Tolleson (Finn Wittrock), also known as the Clergy Killer. She's determined to make sure that Edmund doesn't die and give the lengths she's already gone to ingratiate herself into Lucia's, Mildred will probably succeed in that particular endeavour.
Paulson does command the episode pretty well and you can tell this is a passion project for her (considering she has a producer role on the series as well). In terms of performances, I do think Finn Wittrock excelled in his brief screen time here as did Judy Davis as the biting Bucket while I also find myself intrigued by Charlie Carver's mysterious Huck Finnegan as well.
On top of that, there was also Corey Stall's Charles Wainwright who seemed fascinated by Mildred but also not willing to tolerate her mind games while Cynthia Nixon had a few nice scenes as secretary Gwendolyn Briggs. Less great were Briones as Hanover, who just seems woefully inept and Vincent D'Onofrio as the slightly sleazy governor but maybe both characters will get a little more interesting as the show goes on.
- Like Hollywood beforehand, we didn't get the title sequence here and at least one other regular - Sharon Stone's Lenore Osgood has yet to be introduced.
- Slight shout to Amanda Plummer's motel owner, Louise, who seemed to be slightly stern and a bit of a fangirl of the Clergy Killer. I'd keep an eye on Louise if I were Mildred.
- Standout music: Peter Sivo Band's This Is Ours.
- Chronology: The episode opens in 1947 with the priests going to see Miracle On 34th Street while the main events then take place six months later.
We've had stronger and we've had weaker pilot episodes from Ryan Murphy in the past and this would probably be square in the middle. It doesn't quite have the edge that American Horror Story had in it's earlier seasons but it's a solid opening episode, even if there is a danger that this could wind up being very style over substance. Hopefully it can really hit it's stride though.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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