In 2017, Netflix gave a two-season straight-to-series order to executive producer Ryan Murphy’s Ratched, a series starring Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actress Sarah Paulson as a young version of the infamous nurse from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Now, the streaming service has released a video in which Paulson quizzes co-stars Cynthia Nixon, Sharon Stone, and Judy Davis to see if they picked up any pieces of knowledge from their roles.
Set in 1947, the Netflix series serves as an origin story for Mildred Ratched and follows her early career at a leading psychiatric hospital in Northern California. While Paulson’s Nurse Ratched appears to be a model employee from the outside, she secretly begins to infiltrate the mental health care system and earn the trust of those within through nefarious means. Co-star Nixon portrays Gwendolyn Briggs, Ratched’s love interest and campaign manager of Governor Willburn, while Davis portrays Head Nurse Betsy Bucket and Stone plays a wealthy heiress named Lenore Osgood.
The video opens with a curious Stone inquiring about a box placed in front of Paulson. “These are some tools that might have been used around the time period where we were shooting the show,” Paulson explained before removing the first item, a tonsillotome, from the box. Throughout the video, Paulson provides a description of each item after her co-stars correctly guess its use, offering viewers insight into outdated medical instruments. Of course, Paulson notes that modified versions of certain instruments, including the ear syringe, are still in use. Prepare to hear the phrase “Swiss tonsil guillotine.”
Nurse Mildred Ratched was introduced to readers as the main antagonist of author Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Actress Louise Fletcher’s portrayal of the character opposite Jack Nicholson in director Miloš Forman’s 1975 feature film adaptation of the novel earned her the Oscar for Best Actress at the 48th Academy Awards. Over the years, Mildred Ratched has earned a reputation as one of the most famous fictional antagonists and was even named the fifth-greatest villain in film history in the American Film Institutes’s 100 Years… 100 Heroes & Villains special.
Unfortunately, fans of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest shouldn’t expect there to be any connective tissue between Ratched and the original story. Paulson has already stated that she doesn’t expect the second season to lead into the events of the Nicholson film.
On the other hand, that may not be the worst news for some viewers. While Ratched is not without its fans, reviews for the series have mixed, meaning fans of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest might actually prefer it if the series stays far away from Kesey’s story as much as possible.
Ratched is now available on Netflix.
Source: Netflix/YouTube
