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Call the Midwife (on PBS in the US)


gardenvarietycitizen

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Neato. Thanks. OT, I saw Vera Drake. I thought it was great. Thoughts?

I thought it was really good. Though I was confused as to why she broke down when she was caught. I wanted her to be defiant because she was doing the right thing or at least stoic, but to just lose all your nerve and cry on and on like that...it was less compelling for me because of that.

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I think some of the problems with certain American TV shows is that the WRITERS don't seem to know where the story is going when they start, but not only that, they don't even have a full completed arc per SEASON. If they get cancelled midway, well, that's that.

Japanese TV dramas (which can certainly stink up the room, don't get me wrong) tend to be written before they air, all 13 episodes or so for the season, and the story has a beginning, middle, and end. I find that the TV I like in the US is similar. Far too many of the shows I don't like seem to just peter out, or else they open a bunch of mysteries and never close them, or they get wilder and wilder but never actually answer anything (or worse yet, contradict earlier canon). Surely it's just due to the funding of those particular shows? I didn't like the X-Files for this reason, though I liked it in the beginning.

Good points. It's less a problem, I think, with procedurals like the Law & Orders, etc. but anything with an overall theme could really use some long-term planning (Lost! and X-Files - looking at you both here). Otherwise, things can get weird, and if it's a sitcom, you end up with Cousin Oliver. If you're a drama, I don't know what you get. Maybe Luke's Long Lost Daughter on Gilmore Girls? Seems like it's more the producers than the writers, though - from what I've read (although mostly sci-fi), the writing tends to be done by outside people, based on ideas from the executive producer types. Either way, there needs to be something planned out so they don't write themselves into a corner, or pull a Lost and leave a bunch of questions that never really get answered.

And this is kind of why I hate the season-finale-cliffhanger tradition - because I've had too many shows who didn't get renewed for that second season, and you never (usually) knew what was going to happen to resolve the cliffhanger.

Have you tried Babylon 5? The producer (J. Michael Straczynski, aka JMS for a reason) had the whole 5 seasons planned out in advance, complete with "trap doors" for each character in case of actor changes. He also wrote 92 out of 110 episodes, so I'm surprised he didn't implode from the stress. But it worked out really well, one of the first US series to have season-long story arcs. There was a hitch in season 4, though, when the network had issues and almost cancelled season 5 - the major storyline points got shoehorned into season 4, then season 5 got the OK, and there was kind of a shortage of story to put in the episodes.

(I need to finish watching my DVDs. I was watching when it was airing originally, but I was working nights during season 3, got behind, and never caught up, especially after the show changed networks. It was a show where you had to pay attention and watch episodes in order, so after I missed a couple of weeks, I was pretty lost.)

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Yes Mrs. Kay. I watched all six epis in two days. Google watch the midwife online free. The watch eu series worked for me.

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Yes Mrs. Kay. I watched all six epis in two days. Google watch the midwife online free. The watch eu series worked for me.

Thanks, I'll try that link once this episode is over - the television was left on after MrKay went to bed, and I decided to flip through the channels, and was very happy to see that an episode of Call the Midwife was about to start! :dance: The episode I'm watching now is about the arrival of "Chummy", and "Jenny" meeting a pregnant runaway. I'm really enjoying it so far; I like the realistic historical setting, although some of it is a bit hard to watch, like the mother with rickets.

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OT, but is anyone here utterly confused by Downton Abbey?

My mum loves it and when I visit her she always wants to put it on. I do not get the appeal as absolutely no one would ever behave that way.

Last time she banned me from "talking any more about the IRA" and "whinging about what you would do if you were him" (the Irish bloke) as well as "moaning about how they would never say that". :lol: Does anyone here like it and why?

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Downton Abbey is the cheesiest thing I've ever seen. It's basically a soap but an old timey one so people don't feel ashamed of it. Sorry, I'm not much elp, but it's nice to find someone else who doesn't get it either!

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OT, but is anyone here utterly confused by Downton Abbey?

My mum loves it and when I visit her she always wants to put it on. I do not get the appeal as absolutely no one would ever behave that way.

Last time she banned me from "talking any more about the IRA" and "whinging about what you would do if you were him" (the Irish bloke) as well as "moaning about how they would never say that". :lol: Does anyone here like it and why?

I guess I don't understand what's confusing about it. Could you be more specific? I love, love, love it, btw. It's a bit of a soapy drama with great clothes, a great house, and situations that a middle class American like me never would have encountered during that time period. It's a glimpse into another world that, if I had lived during that time, I would have had no access to or knowledge of. It's a period fantasy, sort of, it you will.

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My auntie was a midwife back in the seventies on the Isle of Dogs but I think things had modernised a bit by then!

My mum said her only complaint was that all the roads looked so clean!

That's why I love Mad Men. The details are so accurate. Dirty littered New York streets, the litter at the picnic etc. that's how it really was!

Call the midwife was great. I really enjoyed it. Would love to see another series.

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I guess I don't understand what's confusing about it. Could you be more specific? I love, love, love it, btw. It's a bit of a soapy drama with great clothes, a great house, and situations that a middle class American like me never would have encountered during that time period. It's a glimpse into another world that, if I had lived during that time, I would have had no access to or knowledge of. It's a period fantasy, sort of, it you will.

It's just so weird! No one in those times would have spoken like that or behaved like that. I watched it and said "Oh, I get it, it's a parody, right?" My mum said "No. Shuuuuutttt uuuuuupppp." :oops:

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Another Vera Drake fan here. I guess she cried because she was ashamed. Ashamed that her family were in the dark and ashamed that she'd caused a young woman to become very unwell. It's of it's time.

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It's just so weird! No one in those times would have spoken like that or behaved like that. I watched it and said "Oh, I get it, it's a parody, right?" My mum said "No. Shuuuuutttt uuuuuupppp." :oops:

But how do you know that no one in that time would have spoken or behaved like that? Granted, you would know far more about this than I would, but this is just about one family and their household and how Julian Fellowes envisions them behaving. It is what it is, I guess is what I'm trying to say. :)

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But how do you know that no one in that time would have spoken or behaved like that? Granted, you would know far more about this than I would, but this is just about one family and their household and how Julian Fellowes envisions them behaving. It is what it is, I guess is what I'm trying to say. :)

LOL yeah, I get you. And like "it is what it is" :) I'm not trying to say anyone shouldn't enjoy Downton, just, um, I'm a pedant and it seems surreal.

Partly, there's a fair few anachronisms in behaviour or speech. People are very blunt and they wouldn't have been. There's a few turns of phrase which made me do a double take.

The young Irish revolutionary is all wrong on numerous levels. Private Eye (UK satirical magazine) described him as a Sinn Fein commercial, or an advert for Noraid. He's neither - he's a caricature revolutionary, especially for that time and that place. I find that rather worrying because it sort of demeans the history of the movement. People don't think "Oh, this is a fictional portrayal and not like the real thing at all". They think "The telly showed me it was like that, so it must have been."

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My niece and I watched the first show. During the first birthing scene and I quote "im adopting." She is 7. My mother and U almost fell out of our chairs laughing.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The last episode was great! Although now that

Chummy is married, I'm worried that she won't be hanging out at Nonnatus House for Season 2

.

And the US is getting the Christmas episode by New Year's too, so I'm pretty happy about that.

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  • 2 months later...

Last night's episode was so sad! The poor little baby. Very real though. Hats off to them for tackling the tragic side of midwifery 50+ yrs ago.

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I know - I mean I know it's mostly about Jenny as the book (and therefore the series) is from her perspective but I want to find out more about Cynthia and Trixie too.

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