Ratched (2020)

If indeed the characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) are not paragons of realism, as I've always read, but rather symbols in an anti-authoritarian fable, then one should have no problem accepting the premise of Ratched which imagines an origin story for Nurse Ratched. Like Athena bursting forth from Zeus' head, Mildred Ratched (a typically game Sarah Paulson) enters into a series of grandiloquent events worthy of the soapiest mythology. Whether it's any good is another matter entirely. Sifting One Flew through American Horror Story, Ratched is total trash, preposterous and horribly written in parts, especially the juvenile Sharon Stone subplot. It also suffers from executive producer Ryan Murphy's risible penchant for correcting history so that in one story line, lesbians are sprung free from the barbaric Lucia State Hospital in 1947. But trash can be fun and Ratched lacks the Boomer baggage of the Forman "classic" even though it traffics in a similar kind of anti-intellectual individuality as when head nurse Betsy Bracket (Judy Davis) declares that doctors are unnecessary to the operation of Lucia. The real attraction is the Ross Hunter-worthy production design - dust-free sets, perfectly pressed costumes, screaming primary colors. Mamacita apparently cleaned Lucia because it sparkles like Joan Crawford's Brentwood estate. The  Northern California oceanside motel where Ratched stays is supposed to be ratchet (see what I did there?) but comes off enchanting instead. Sharon Stone's mansion is an Orientalist migraine. And the office of Dr. Richard Hanover (Jon Jon Briones), director of Lucia, can comfortably fit a 747 in front of the largest window in Christendom. 

Grade: B-minus (docked a notch for not stopping at a limited series)