The Crimson Field - General Discussion

[sacrebleu]

In the end, I think the series just tried to do too many things. And focused more on personal drama than stories about being at an aide station miles from the front lines.

 

I will say, I did like the payoff for Joan's story, which is to say, no happy ending. And I felt for poor Moseley. 

[JudyObscure]

So we end without knowing the whole story on Kitty? "I did something very, very silly," didn't satisfy me and hardly equals a clean start with the doctor. Would an ordinary affair makes a scandal for the newspapers?

God, Joan is all kinds of stupid.

I was ready to shoot her myself. She just had to go to France to see if she could find out if he was dead or alive, something many, many people didn't know about their loved ones at during that war. She just had to wear that stupid ring around her neck, watching her kiss it was giving me the Golem creeps. Then she had to try to help him escape when he was in the safest place possible. She had to irritate her military judge as much as possible and finally the two of them had to kiss each other, risking injury from the guards.

[olivia1]

 

I assume he broke his leg so he wouldn't go back to the front.

Thanks. I felt so sorry for that kid. 

 

This show could have been great, but somebody dropped the ball. Loved seeing Molesley as a different character though.   Funny that the supply guy/Dowager's butler is a turd in both shows, Hated the wannabe head Matron that broke her figurine just to hide the ticket and do nothing evil with it, 

 

I agree on Joan's stupidity. She was like a love sick teenager. 

 

i could have forgiven it all if they had just shown us lots more of Kitty and her Scottish Dr.  

[proserpina65]

Then she had to try to help him escape when he was in the safest place possible

 

To be clear - Anton had already escaped when Joan found him at the cottage.  All she did was try to help him get farther away.  Not that what she did wasn't stupid, 'cause it was.

[Milz]

So we end without knowing the whole story on Kitty? "I did something very, very silly," didn't satisfy me and hardly equals a clean start with the doctor. Would an ordinary affair makes a scandal for the newspapers?

I was ready to shoot her myself. She just had to go to France to see if she could find out if he was dead or alive, something many, many people didn't know about their loved ones at during that war. She just had to wear that stupid ring around her neck, watching her kiss it was giving me the Golem creeps. Then she had to try to help him escape when he was in the safest place possible. She had to irritate her military judge as much as possible and finally the two of them had to kiss each other, risking injury from the guards.

 

If she and her husband were society figures or had a "name", the divorce would have made the papers, especially if it had 'shocking' details.

 

Gollum kisses....how precious!

[sacrebleu]

 

i could have forgiven it all if they had just shown us lots more of Kitty and her Scottish Dr.

That was another flaw in this series-- the pacing was so weird. They meet in the woods, exchange no words-- just start making out? Are we to understand that "meet me in the woods" was simply Edwardian code for DTF?

 

(don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Kitty/Thomas story-- but I feel like there were beats missed)

[Summer]

 At first I watched this show because it was on after Poldark and I love PBS so I gave it a shot and then really enjoyed the Kitty/Thomas storyline, but not much else.  And as much as I liked the Kitty/Thomas storyline, if I'm being honest it was really just the handsome Scottish doctor that I liked the most.  I don't understand the appeal of Kitty, she was virtually expressionless, unfriendly, not much of a personality, I don't see why both Tom and Miles were so into her, she didn't seem very appealing to me.  But...I am a sucker for a "slow burn" so I tuned in every week and, although I did warm up to the rest of the show eventually, like others have said I can see why it was not renewed.  

 

Hope to see Richard Rankin pop up again soon, tho.....

Edited July 27, 2015 by Summer

[M. Darcy]

 

What did the orderly do to his brother when he told him to get out of the tub and lie on his side?

He made him figure out the math of the improbability percentage that during a war, an English nurse winds up in the same small town in France as her German fiancée.  I guess to be fair considering they were probably both near a battle site it makes some sense.

 

And, the improbability that every nurse and doctor with a dramatic past wound up in one field hospital in France.  I know, you need drama but it would have been nice if one nurse had just been there because she wanted to do the right thing and help. I guess even in past dramas, nurses were there for a reason such as losing a loved one, having loved ones in the War (Testament of Youth), atoning for lying and sending your sister's boyfriend to jail (Atonement), whatever reason Georgina was a nurse (Upstairs Downstairs)...but just not so much personal angst might have been better.  Of course, most of the time I couldn't tell the difference between the nurses so maybe there was one that was just there to help.

[proserpina65]

And, the improbability that every nurse and doctor with a dramatic past wound up in one field hospital in France.

 

This reminds of something Alistair Cooke said when Masterpiece Theatre was running the WWII RAF drama "Piece of Cake" - that there were certainly plenty of RAF pilots who were total knobs, but they probably wouldn't have all ended up in the same squadron.  (Highly recommend Piece of Cake, btw.)

[LuciaMia]

Ive missed the last couple of episodes.  What the heck is the "Blighty Ticket" and what's its signifigance?

Edited July 27, 2015 by LuciaMia

[M. Darcy]

 

What the heck is the "Blighty Ticket" and what's its signifigance?

If I remember correctly, the guy in charge of the hospital (I'm sure he has a name but I think of him as Moseby), wanted to send a soldier home because he wasn't either medically or mentally able to return to the front but the nurse decided to ignore him and sent the soldier back to the front....and he ended up back in the hospital in bad shape.  Instead of being smart and destroying the ticket home, she hid it in the figurine.

Edited July 27, 2015 by M. Darcy

[olivia1]

That's how I remember the blighty ticket too. Molesley had been told to send him back to the front but he disobeyed the order and wrote him a new blighty ticket. The nurse took the ticket and sent him back to the front. If she had shown that ticket to the commanding officer Molesley would have gotten in a lot of trouble for disobeying a direct order. She was mad at him because he didn't choose her for matron, but for some reason decided not to show the ticket even though she took it with her to the meeting. 

 

BTW Mr. Darcy, loved your answer to the question of the boy on the floor beside the bathtub question. 

Edited July 27, 2015 by olivia1

[springbarb]

That was another flaw in this series-- the pacing was so weird. They meet in the woods, exchange no words-- just start making out?

I thought we did see them talk a little before making out, but I could be wrong.

 

And totally agree that my investment in that storyline was based totally on the Scottish doctor. No idea why the boys were falling all over Kitty.

[merylinkid]

And just so you know. a Blighty Ticket means you are sent back to England to recuperate, not kept at a hospital in France or sent to the Front.

 

A Blighty wound is a severe enough injury to get you sent home.    The Americans referred to them as a "hometowner."

[dargosmydaddy]

 

I thought we did see them talk a little before making out, but I could be wrong.

We didn't actually hear them, but it did look like they might have been talking while we were seeing Miles watching them. 

 

And speaking of which, Miles really grew on me. Glad the cancellation means we'll never have to see the strain Kitty puts on the lovely Miles/ Tom friendship, because I really liked those two.

 

 

Hope to see Richard Rankin pop up again soon, tho.....

Yes, please! I could listen to that voice all day...

[Badger]

Richard Rankin was in the 3rd season of "The Syndicate" which is available on Youtube.  It aired just a few weeks ago.  He's also in "Outlander."

 

Kitty and Thomas were supposed to meet in the woods in Episode 4, but then she had to go into town to meet her soon to be ex.

[Thumper82003]

I'm sorry to hear the show has been cancelled.

There were so many topics they could have done, such as the kids who lied about their age who enlisted. Another was the Spanish Influenza, that killed more soldiers (& citizens) than the war, on both sides,

What would now be called PTSD was considered a moral failing, or cowardice.

Also not mentioned was the use of mustard gas. My great uncle was gassed 3 times, received the French Croix de Guerre (sp?) and other medals. He was one of the teens who went in at age 14-15, came out a disabled old man at 18. He had severe residual damage due to the gassing, but self medicated for what was likely PTSD. That was an elephant in the room never to be mentioned. The family lost track of him in 1943.

Charles Boyd (pen name for a mother-son) writes about this time frame. One series is about a WWI British nurse, the other is pre & post WWII Scotland Yard inspector. He has PTSD that he has to hide, and sees the ghost of his sergeant he had to execute. The ghost is his guilt. Books are much better than my descriptions.

Although they never said it directly, I think the execution of Edith Caravelle (not sure if that was her name) by the Germans saved Joan's life. The British couldn't do what the Germans did to a nurse, therefore she'd be sent to prison "for the duration".

[sacrebleu]

 

He's also in "Outlander."

Wait! Is he? I know there's been a campaign by some fans to get him on the show-- but has he actually been cast?

 

(scurrying off to the Outlander thread)

Edited July 28, 2015 by sacrebleu

[proserpina65]

Charles Boyd (pen name for a mother-son) writes about this time frame. One series is about a WWI British nurse, the other is pre & post WWII Scotland Yard inspector. He has PTSD that he has to hide, and sees the ghost of his sergeant he had to execute. The ghost is his guilt. Books are much better than my descriptions.

 

The author's name is Charles Todd, but yes, the Ian Rutledge mystery series does contain a wonderful examination of the effects both of shellshock itself and the societal attitudes about it on the human psyche, particularly in the earliest books.  I'd highly recommend the series, but make sure you start with the first book, A Test Of Wills, to get the full background.

 

I liked The Crimson Field and looked forward to each week's episode, but I have to confess that I've have preferred more WWI and less soap-opera melodrama.  And more hot Scottish doctor.

[Milz]

Re: Kitty's attraction

 

Maybe she's so cold she's hot???  It's like those tv shows where women are fighting over a guy with no job (and no prospects of getting one in the near or distant future), 9 kids with 9 different women, and a prison record.

 

The tv ratings in the UK were supposedly very good and I get the feeling the producers were expecting another season the way everything was left dangling (or semi dangling)..

[Summer]

 

The tv ratings in the UK were supposedly very good and I get the feeling the producers were expecting another season the way everything was left dangling (or semi dangling)..

Yes, Milz, I was thinking the same thing.  I would imagine they finished filming before they got the word about not being renewed because I have to assume they would have tied up the story lines if they knew ahead of time and give the viewers some sort of closure.  

Edited July 28, 2015 by Summer

[Badger]

The nurse who was executed was named Edith Cavell.  I remember I had one of those "Great Women" books when I was about 8 years old, and she was in it.  

 

Sorry if I was wrong about Rik Rankin being in "Outlander", but most fan references seem to be that he is in the show.

 

I think the ratings were good, but not spectacular and the critical response was lukewarm.  The problem many fans had is that shows with similar ratings and even lower were renewed.

[dargosmydaddy]

I think this is a show that could have blossomed with a second season. I mean, it was never going to be not soapy, but it just felt like they were trying to cram so many stories into too few episodes. The acting overall was good, the war story of the week was good... it had potential.

[lark37]

Too bad this didn't get a second season.  I really enjoyed it.  Between Aidan Turner as Ross Poldark and Richard Rankin as Tom in this, Sunday nights were quite a feast for the eyes.  

 

Someone upthread mentioned Charles Todd's Ian Rutledge books.  As a fan of WWI books, I have read many of the series and enjoy them as well as their other book series about Bess Crawford.  I mentioned Anne Perry's WWI books in another episode thread.  They also deal with the impact WWI and the trenches, mustard gas, etc had on the soldiers, nurses and their families.  I recommend them to anyone who has enjoyed this series. 

 

As for Kitty's appeal, Oona Chaplin seems to have a sultry kind of exotic look that many men find appealing.  She has a new series on BBC and in a review online for it, she was compared to a British Jennifer Love Hewitt.  I can see that resemblance, and men seem to like JLH quite a bit.  I would have loved more clarification of Kitty's marriage situation and why she lost the right to see her daughter, but overall, the cancellation of the series didn't leave too much up the air.  I was afraid that all the story lines would get left unresolved.  

 

[Thumper82003]

The author's name is Charles Todd, but yes, the Ian Rutledge mystery series does contain a wonderful examination of the effects both of shellshock itself and the societal attitudes about it on the human psyche, particularly in the earliest books.  I'd highly recommend the series, but make sure you start with the first book, A Test Of Wills, to get the full background.

 

I liked The Crimson Field and looked forward to each week's episode, but I have to confess that I've have preferred more WWI and less soap-opera melodrama.  And more hot Scottish doctor.

I had a CRS moment with the authors' name, yes it is Charles Todd. I wish Crimson Field went into the time like the Todd books.

I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but in the US, by the time the history teachers get to the 1900s, they pretty much just gloss over things before school is out. Too often the kids of today have no idea about that time in history.

Other topics they could have covered include women's rights, including why a divorcee was so much a scandal. Not going into the Spanish influenza was another major flaw, but that may have started around 1916.

Going into head wounds, shell shock, amputation and infection are other topics.

Again, I'm sorry the show was cancelled.

[Badger]

The reason they didn't go into the Spanish flu is because it was 1914.  The writer had planned out a different series for each year of the war, so I'm sure she would have done the Spanish flu had the show lasted that long.

 

Getting back to Rik Rankin, no, he is not in "Outlander", but he was in a couple episodes of "American Odyssey" earlier this year.

[Badger]

http://www.thirteen.org/program-content/interview-with-writer-and-creator-sarah-phelps/

[lucindabelle]

.wait her child is illegitimate? How do we know that? I assumed she's nto allowed to see the daughter she had with her husband, who cruelly pretended the little girl was there.

[proserpina65]

.wait her child is illegitimate? How do we know that? I assumed she's nto allowed to see the daughter she had with her husband, who cruelly pretended the little girl was there.

I don't think the daughter was illegitimate.  The only information we got from the show heavily implied that Sylvie was the husband's child.

[proserpina65]

I found Kitty completely unlikeable and both Flora and Rosalie straight up lied about past accomplishments a few times.  Who, over fourteen, does that?

 

Lots of people, to judge by some of the resumes I saw when I was an assistant to the hr manager.

[lucindabelle]

That's what I thought, was just replying to waht someone else had written...

[Badger]

And adultery for a mother made her automatically unfit for custody.  

[Tvfan12345]

Finally watched all 6 episodes. I'm a bit of a history nerd, so I was really excited to see how this series turned out. I'm also a sucker for historical dramas. 

I'm not looking for a fictional show to teach me history. I can check out a documentary, read a book, or visit a museum if I want that. I'm more interested in whether a show captures the feel of an era and is honest in how it portrays how people saw the world at their time. I think it would have been a much more successful show had it just trusted the show's setting. As others have said it should have focused more on the daily life of working in a WWI era field hospital instead of trying to cram a big medical case/issue into every episode. There should have been more than enough daily drama for four seasons  -- friendships, the breaking down of social divisions, the daily challenges of running a field hospital,  the nurses fighting for respect, and yes even romances. Some of those elements where there, but it just got lost.

 

I am thankful it introduced me to Richard Rankin. 

 

If you haven't checked out ANZAC Girls, you should make a point to watch it. 

 

Things I loved:

Kitty and Thomas -- Did my shipper heart good. 

Miles and Thomas

 

Things I liked:

Flora

Grace and Roland

 

Things I hated:

Joan's story line

Kitty's back story and creepy husband coming to France

[phantom]

Well, it wasn't adultery that made her unfit for custody. I'm pretty sure in this time period the husband almost always got custody in a divorce. It was assumed the mother couldn't support herself and a child financially, and with the child being the man's heir, he was given priority.

 

Edited to clarify: you are right, as adultery was one of the few accepted conditions for divorce it would have played into the custody decision. I was just speaking that historically, even if the wife had done nothing to violate the marriage vows, she likely would not have gotten custody over a wealthy, well-connected husband.

Edited August 13, 2015 by phantom

[limecoke]

I was initially excited about this series and watched all six episodes.  Ultimately, I found it very unsatisfying as a story.  It seemed to crank along, leaving loose ends all over the place and precious little about the real story of the nurses who served in WWI.  It pales in comparison to "Anzac Girls," which follows the stories of several true life nurses who served in Egypt, Gallipoli and France during the war.  I loved it so much, I did research to find out what happened to these brave women after the war was over.  Interesting stuff.  Can't recommend it highly enough.  It's an Australian production - beautifully filmed, brilliantly acted and everything "Crimson Field" tried to be and was not.  Can't recommend it highly enough. 

[Constantinople]

On 6/26/2015 at 6:20 PM, JudyObscure said:

So far I like everything about it but their star.  That much  certainly reminds me of Downton Abbey. Lady Mary er, Kitty is snobbish and cruel to almost everyone, particularly enjoying telling those less beautiful, left on the shelf girls just what ugly losers they are, but we're supposed to forgive all when we see her secret kindnesses to the lower orders.  I'll be watching though.  It's Sunday, it's PBS.

She did come across as a "truth teller" (I hate those).

To be somewhat fair, the only reason Lady Mary would have gotten within 321.7 miles of the field hospital at Boulogne, or wherever the hospital was located, is that York is approximately 321.7 miles from Boulogne according to Google.

[Constantinople]

How on earth does the Matron have time to read every single letter written by every single woman at the hospital?  There appear to be about 6 female cast members who are regulars, but background shots and Joan & Grace's chat about training VADs suggests there are many, many more.  Is Matron also known as Evelyn Wood?

[Constantinople]

On 7/26/2015 at 11:01 PM, merylinkid said:

God, Joan is all kinds of stupid.

 

On 7/27/2015 at 8:05 AM, JudyObscure said:

I was ready to shoot her myself. She just had to go to France to see if she could find out if he was dead or alive, something many, many people didn't know about their loved ones at during that war. She just had to wear that stupid ring around her neck, watching her kiss it was giving me the Golem creeps. Then she had to try to help him escape when he was in the safest place possible. She had to irritate her military judge as much as possible and finally the two of them had to kiss each other, risking injury from the guards.

I wished the officer interrogating asked "Did you not, in an effort to undermine His Majesty's war effort, attempt to break-up the Lucky Thirteen and thereby get a dozen good soldiers killed after you tried to get 'Dad' sent home?"

She was so irritating.  By the end she was my least favorite character and I was ready to frag Sister Margaret and Rosalie after the first episode or two.  Yes, there's only a war going on Joan, but no one else has problems but you.  Plus, everything she did only made things worse.

I can't help but wonder if the writer had some vague idea there would be no Season 2.

• Kitty "I'm so sorry I'm such a bitch to you Rosalie, it's just the way I am -- i.e., I won't change -- but we're totally besties now , right" and Rosalie's all "Absolutely, but first I have to stare at penis in the woods to get over my fixation"
• Sister Margaret turns over the blighty pass to Sister Grace

Reasons why I'm glad the series was cancelled

• Thomas is safe from Kitty.  The last time I saw Kitty leave her family, cross over the water to serve as a nurse on a foreign battlefield, and then hook-up with someone from the North, it didn't end too well
• No more secrets to reveal.  I was starting to wonder if the Quarter Master was really Churchill in disguise
• No risk of a Joan in prison story line in Season 2
• I don't have to figure out why Rosalie is the only person who reads newspapers and thus knows about Kitty's past.

Disappointments

• Like everyone else, I felt the series would have been better if every character didn't have a deep, dark secret and focused more on stories relating to life in a military hospital.  How on Earth did Downton Abbey do a better job of this?
• Would it have killed them to have a nurse named Sister Christian?

[proserpina65]

On ‎02‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 8:46 AM, Constantinople said:

How on earth does the Matron have time to read every single letter written by every single woman at the hospital?  There appear to be about 6 female cast members who are regulars, but background shots and Joan & Grace's chat about training VADs suggests there are many, many more.  Is Matron also known as Evelyn Wood?

I'm not sure how she'd have the time, but from what I've read about nurses in WWI, it would be required of her to read letters home and censor anything which might give away locations, that the war is going badly, etc., just like commanding officers in the army and navy.