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S09.E01: Episode 1

OnceSane

By OnceSane
in Call The Midwife

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JudyObscure

JudyObscure

2 hours ago, MissLucas said:

He was clearly fearing the scandal more than he cared for her - otherwise he would have respected her decision and set arrangements for her in motion. Like organizing a job where she could keep her child. As a man of a cloth this would have been an option under the pretense of being charitable towards his 'fallen' housekeeper. Or he could have asked Mother Mildred to do that instead of trying to pull rank (so to speak). This is what other priests in his situation have done - accepting raised eyebrows and whispers within the congregation as the price - at least the more decent ones. 

 

And she was clearly fearing scandal more than she cared about her child. She herself could have tried to organize a job where she could keep her child or she could have asked for help.  She could have kept her child -- accepting raised eyebrows and whispers as the price.  

I'm not trying to defend the priest's actions, he was wrong.  I'm saying I think the show is written with a double standard that overlooks  and forgives the mistakes and failings of women, while demonizing the men for theirs. This is Heidi Thomas's style and it reflects contemporary attitudes, but I don't think it reflects the 1960's attitudes very well.

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MissLucas

MissLucas

(edited)

I will give her the benefit of the doubt  for her actions. She was a victim of domestic abuse and she might have suffered from postnatal depression. And she showed remorse over what she had done and tried to do the right thing once she got help. I really don't see much of a double standard here - i.e. in this episode. (I'm a historian and I came across similar stories where men did the best to ditch all responsibility putting the blame on the woman, maybe that taints my vision.) In the show as a whole - that's another question that probably deserves its own thread.

Edited by MissLucas
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JudyObscure

JudyObscure

I give her the benefit of the doubt, too.  Her backstory explained a lot of her behavior.  I just give the benefit of the doubt to him, too, we don't know his backstory, his loneliness or possible bad experiences that led him to join the priesthood.  I would think that nuns would be trying to give the benefit of the doubt  to everyone and in the early episodes, ones that were based on true stories, they were.   Forgiveness is a very basic Christian principle and it should apply to both genders. 

11 hours ago, MissLucas said:

(I'm a historian and I came across similar stories where men did the best to ditch all responsibility putting the blame on the woman, maybe that taints my vision.) In the show as a whole - that's another question that probably deserves its own thread.

Yes, many men have done bad things to women, priests have done terrible things, women have deceived  men, and nuns have been famously cruel to children, but judging people based on what others of their group have done is prejudice.   

Maybe if Mother Mildred hadn't been so quick to pick sides and pass judgment she might have been able to break down his defenses and come to an agreement where he could have been more of a help to his child.

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Kohola3

Kohola3

18 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

I understand that as her employer and as a man in a position of authority he is more to blame than the woman, but I still think he is a human, subject to temptation and worthy of forgiveness if he falls.

He wasn't just an "employe"r and a "man in a position of authority".  He was a freaking priest, a man who accepted a vow of celibacy.  He was supposed to be the most perfect of men.  Instead he took advantage of a clearly vulnerable woman then turned his back on  her, wouldn't admit the child was his and wanted to take it from her.  I get so sick of the "people make mistakes, he didn't mean it" to justify the acts of priests from the beginning of time.  Raping children.  Having sex with women, impregnating them and leaving them to atone for their sins whilst expecting theirs to be forgiven.  Did he ever confess?  Who knows.  "I loved you" - past tense.  What a crock.

She was not blameless in that she left the kid in a trash bin and that she was allowed to keep the baby after that is a mystery.  But with backstory, of course she succumbed to someone who appeared gentle and loving even though he was only in it for the sex.  

I would have liked it if Mother Mildred had given him a knee to the groin.  Smarmy, officious "man of god".

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Bunnyette

Bunnyette

On 4/4/2020 at 8:33 AM, Kohola3 said:

He wasn't just an "employe"r and a "man in a position of authority".  He was a freaking priest, a man who accepted a vow of celibacy.  He was supposed to be the most perfect of men.  Instead he took advantage of a clearly vulnerable woman then turned his back on  her, wouldn't admit the child was his and wanted to take it from her.  I get so sick of the "people make mistakes, he didn't mean it" to justify the acts of priests from the beginning of time.  Raping children.  Having sex with women, impregnating them and leaving them to atone for their sins whilst expecting theirs to be forgiven.  Did he ever confess?  Who knows.  "I loved you" - past tense.  What a crock.

She was not blameless in that she left the kid in a trash bin and that she was allowed to keep the baby after that is a mystery.  But with backstory, of course she succumbed to someone who appeared gentle and loving even though he was only in it for the sex.  

I would have liked it if Mother Mildred had given him a knee to the groin.  Smarmy, officious "man of god".

I have a feeling going to stay at the “Mother House” allowed her to keep the baby...however Mother Mildred could have been less aggressive and perhaps negotiated a settlement for the child.

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JudyObscure

JudyObscure

10 hours ago, Bunnyette said:

I have a feeling going to stay at the “Mother House” allowed her to keep the baby...however Mother Mildred could have been less aggressive and perhaps negotiated a settlement for the child.

Yes, that's what I would have expected from one of our midwife/nuns, they're usually putting the welfare of mother and child ahead of they're own feelings.

Maybe it's because I was raised Presbyterian and not Catholic but I never expect priests (or ministers) to be perfect or above the rest of us, they are all just men to me.  Sure they are supposed to set a good example, but if they don't, we Presbyterians just fire them, we don't go into shock over it.  In fact our most recent one in this town turned out to be an out of control alcoholic and after several DUI's he had to be let go, hopefully to a good rehab center.  The Catholic priesthood, with all due respect to the many wonderful dedicated men in that church, does tend to attract more than it's share of bad ones probably because a "vow of celibacy" is a good way to explain why they aren't dating or marrying.

I watched this again and the priest in this episode, while clearly  in the wrong, didn't seem worthy of quite so much hatred from Mother Mildred. He's not responsible for all the sins of all the priests in 2000 years of church history and to me there's a whole world of difference between a pedophile and sex between two consenting adults.

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kwnyc

kwnyc

I'm just glad they didn't kill Terry! That kid was a sweetheart, and the fact that he was going to be able to break out of the working class by attending a "grammar school" was a quiet commentary on how, in some ways, the world was changing for the better.

 

(And oh, yes, I was freaked out that no one testing the people for diphtheria was wearing a mask!)

  • Love 8
kirklandia

kirklandia

This season's episodes are piling up on my DVR. Here is an idea for an episode – giving birth in a pandemic.
My daughter's baby is due a week from today, and I don't feel ready to watch women laboring and babies being born, much less deal with any potentially heartbreaking plot threads. Even at the best of times, the birthing scenes make me weepy.  And now, when I can't be with my daughter and don't know how long it will be before I get to hold my new grandson, I just can't deal with it.

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Kohola3

Kohola3

(edited)
On 3/30/2020 at 1:52 PM, PradaKitty said:

After airing in the US Call the Midwife shows up on Netflix IN FULL EPISODES. I usually watch the PBS airing and the Netflix to see what I missed! 

And are you able to see the differences?  It's been noted from others that:

6 hours ago, caitmcg said:

As far as I know, the only option for the unedited episodes in the US is the DVDs.

Just wondering before I bother with Netflix.

Edited by Kohola3
caitmcg

caitmcg

3 hours ago, OnceSane said:

Netflix does not have the unedited episodes for regular season episodes.  Not sure about Christmas specials.

I think the Christmas specials are aired on PBS without edits, unlike the regular seasons.

Back during the first few seasons, some PBS affiliates (though I don’t think it was many) actually aired the unedited episodes for the live airing (including my local one, KQED). The streaming episodes released on the PBS website have always been the edited ones. The aired episodes have all been the edited ones, since season 4, I think.

InsertWordHere

InsertWordHere

On 9/15/2020 at 5:37 PM, Spunkygal said:

For folks still looking for season 9, it’s now on Netflix.

Reading the earlier comments about how badly it was edited by PBS, it seems like it might have been butchered even worse by Netflix. There were a few scenes left in with no explanation to what was happening. Most glaring were brief glimpses of Vi during the Churchill funeral and a shot the Turners with the bunnies that was literally just one second before another brief shot of Sister Julienne and an abrupt end to the episode. Even the music seemed to just cut off. Very badly done. 

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LeGrandElephant

LeGrandElephant

On 1/6/2020 at 8:01 AM, OnceSane said:

I like that Lucille took part in the hosiery pictures, but was very much the most primly posed of the bunch.  That is totally in character for her, so I appreciated that.

Somehow I missed the actual photo they took! Is it online somewhere?

 

On 3/30/2020 at 10:52 AM, PradaKitty said:

After airing in the US Call the Midwife shows up on Netflix IN FULL EPISODES. I usually watch the PBS airing and the Netflix to see what I missed! 

Wait but I just watched on netflix and after reading about the cut scenes here, I don't feel like I saw any of them? Are you sure?

 

On 3/30/2020 at 5:00 PM, chitowngirl said:

You got the sense that they made up at the end because they gave each other a friendly wave, but you’d never know this from the angry exchange we saw.

Can you remind me what was going on with Val and her cousin? I don't remember them fighting or them making up. Was the fight in this episode or last season, to do with the grandma?

 

On 3/30/2020 at 1:37 PM, dargosmydaddy said:

I felt for the lady, but I really don't know why she was allowed to get the baby back after that.

Yeah, I kept thinking they were all WAY too forgiving and way too ready to favor the birth mother after she'd been shown to be a danger to the baby. Leaving it on the doorstep of the midwifery is one thing, but inside a closed trashcan? By all rights the baby should have died. And no one even asked her what she was thinking when she did that! They just give her back the baby and act like that's the best outcome! The whole plot would have worked better if she'd left it on the doorstep, or left it in a closed box (not direct in the trash full of germs) and then called to tell someone it was there, or something like that.

On 3/30/2020 at 7:31 PM, OnceSane said:

The episodes aren't full on Netflix.  They seem to be cut differently than the PBS versions sometimes, but still aren't the full episodes that air on the BBC.

Ok, that fits with me thinking I'm still missing scenes,  but weird that they'd cut them again in their own way. Why not just air the full episodes? 

On 4/3/2020 at 9:39 AM, laney said:

Although she retained sole rights to the baby by leaving him off the birth certificate, it also allowed him to continue preying on others as a priest

It seemed like he was implying he'd have the right to put the baby up for adoption even if she didn't want to, which isn't at all how things would work nowadays.  

GiuliettaMasina

GiuliettaMasina

On 4/3/2020 at 2:08 PM, JudyObscure said:

The teacher could have been said to "hold herself out as living an upstanding life," yet they  understood that people can slip below  their own standards.

The woman in this case, left a baby to die in the cold.  She too committed her sin in secret while presenting herself publicly as a moral housekeeper.

The priest wasn't responsible for what other priests have done and it's not as though he was a pedophile.  I'm not sure he was "preying on" this woman or emotionally abusive to her.  He said he had truly loved her and she might have actually healed a little  from the husband who beat her if the priest had been gentle with her.

I think it's a double standard in the show, with the women being given forgiveness and the benefit of the doubt regarding future behavior, while the men are held accountable for the relationship as though they were the only one with any agency. 

I understand that as her employer and as a man in a position of authority he is more to blame than the woman, but I still think he is a human, subject to temptation and worthy of forgiveness if he falls.

One has to admit to doing something wrong in order to atone. Being worthy of forgiveness and being owed forgiveness are not synonymous.

On 4/3/2020 at 5:28 PM, MissLucas said:

I would have felt more sympathy for him had he not done his damnest to pressure her into giving up the child - including to threaten her with social services, casting doubts over her mental state and trying to blackmail her with her job. He also tried to throw his paternal rights into the mix which of course backfired in the end. 

Also: they had a sexual relationship so chances are that he had seen her scars and was aware of her emotional vulnerability. 

He was clearly fearing the scandal more than he cared for her - otherwise he would have respected her decision and set arrangements for her in motion. Like organizing a job where she could keep her child. As a man of a cloth this would have been an option under the pretense of being charitable towards his 'fallen' housekeeper. Or he could have asked Mother Mildred to do that instead of trying to pull rank (so to speak). This is what other priests in his situation have done - accepting raised eyebrows and whispers within the congregation as the price - at least the more decent ones. 

Yup. Or even better, done the right thing and quit his job to marry her and uphold the religion he supposedly is a representative of. Zero sympathy for this piece of trash. 

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chediavolo

chediavolo

Just started watching this on Netflix and I am up to this episode. I wanted to post comments before, but really this was too much not to mention: Brenda dumped her newborn baby in a garbage can, and placed the lid on where it should have died had it not been found oh so  conveniently,  and she gets away with it . No charges?! it on the basket on the front steps instead of throwing it away? She should have been charged. She should be in a mental facility and had a much harder time getting her baby back if it all . 

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