The Problem With ‘Ratched’
Human beings by nature are a curious lot, which, all things considered, is probably a good thing. Without curiosity, we wouldn't have all of the amazing scientific and cultural advances we've made over the centuries. However, sometimes it's best if you don't know something, like how they make hot dogs, or what exactly does it feel like when I put my hand on the hot stove? Some things just aren't worth knowing, and nowhere do we see that more than when new media tries to explain evil.
Now, in real life, understanding evil actions and people is a good thing. We can catch them better, or even stop them from doing things in the first place. It helps us get a handle on it. In our fictional media? Who cares? Sometimes a backstory for a bad guy is necessary. (Syndrome from The Incredibles would be a really weird villain if he just shows up and wants to kill all of the supers for no reason). But when it comes to force of nature villains? People who are evil for the sake of it? It shouldn't matter! It doesn't matter why Michael Myers kills. He's a force of evil, and part of the terror of him is that he's both human, and something beyond that. Finding out he had a bad home life or was cursed by an evil cult doesn't help that. Learning that Hannibal Lecter, a person so evil that you get uncomfortable whenever he's on screen, even though he's usually just talking, was a victim of the Nazis and that he was kind of in love with his dead uncle's Japanese wife? Unnecessary.
Enter Nurse Ratched.
First introduced in Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, then portrayed in the Best Picture Oscar-winning film of the same name in 1975 by Louise Fletcher, the character instantly became iconic, with Fletcher picking up the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal. She was ranked by the American Film Institute as the fifth most iconic film villain of all time, behind only Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, Darth Vader, and the Wicked Witch of the West. Everything about her was frightening, from her perfectly styled hair that invoked devil horns, to her quiet glares, to the quiet, calm, demeaning way she'd talk to you. From just the first shot of her in the movie, where you only see her walk down a hallway, you know she's not somebody to mess with.
In 2020, a Netflix show titled Ratched was released to mixed reviews, with Sarah Paulson playing the titular role. It is a prequel to the film, and in it, we get to see her backstory and learn everything there is to know about her.
Why?
At no point during the movie is her backstory discussed. She never has a talk with anybody about why her greatest joys in life are completely controlling and emasculating the patients under her care. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter in the slightest. Ratched is an idea in the form of a nurse. She's the physical representation of the way that the system controls and dominates people by stripping them of their individuality and humanity. She's obsessed with control, and her greatest frustration in the story is that she can't break McMurphy and bend him to her will. He's the only one who can make her lose her cool even for a moment.
Another thing about her that's memorable is that we've all met somebody like her. We've all run into the people who are more than happy to use their power to control, combined with the self-righteousness to justify their behavior. Ratched is terrifying because she is real and she is everywhere.
So why explain that? Given all of the information we receive about her just by watching or reading about her, we have everything that we need to know. She's the system. Her greatest joy is controlling her little kingdom and making all of the people bend to her will. Got it. With a backstory, her character is watered down because she feels more human, and thus it's easier to sympathize with her. But that just waters down what we loved about the character in the first place. She needs a backstory about as much as Michael Myers does. She's a force. She's the representation of a crushing terror that we've all had to experience.
This isn't a knock on Sarah Paulson, by the way, who by all appearances gives it her all and elevates the show. But at the end of the day, she can't hold a candle to Fletcher's performance. Nobody can. Take a look at the cover picture of the article to get what I'm talking about. Paulson looks like a slightly disappointed grade school teacher. With Fletcher, you know that if you were actually in the room with her, you'd do your best to blend into the background so that she has no reason to focus her attention on you.
At the end of the day, the answer to the question "Was this a story that needed to be told?" is a resounding no, regardless of whether the show was a masterpiece on the level of Breaking Bad or The Wire, which, by all accounts, it isn't anyway. Any answers to who she is show a fundamental misunderstanding of the character and why she's so impactful. If you're going to explain a character like her, it had better add to them. Anything more than what we got in the film and book just subtracts.
Hopefully we'll figure that out and leave well enough alone.
I doubt it.
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