Breathless - General Discussion

[SonofaBiscuit]

Eh, I can understand why this wasn't renewed.  I thought that the last episode was pretty dumb.  It just seemed like too many people were keeping unnecessary secrets.  The two sisters who didn't want anyone to know that they were related, Enderbury not telling his wife that he really got the job, the big to do about Cyprus?  All of it felt kind of pointless.  I guess that Jean was ashamed of her upbringing, but anyone who would judge you negatively for taking care of your father who has dementia (or whatever was supposed to be wrong with him) is really a terrible person.  Richard really was an awful person, though, so I could see him looking down on Jean for that.   

 

 

I may be way off, but it seems like the Powells aren't really married, or are married in name only. They sleep apart and are never affectionate toward each other. I don't think Tommy is Mr. Powell's son, and maybe Mrs. Powell isn't his mother, either. I'm not sure where they got Tommy though.

 

 

No, you were pretty much right on the money there!  When Otto said that he had never even kissed his wife, I was thinking "WTF?!!"  Apparently he hadn't kissed many women because that kiss between him and Nurse Wilson was all kinds of awkward looking.  The two of them holding hands as they were walking out of the hospital seemed like a really bad idea...at least try to be discreet even if you are on your way out the door to start your affair.

 

I can't say that I'm upset about creepy Inspector Mulligan being murdered.  He had problems and lots of them at that.  The whole reveal of the Cyprus secret was just kind of blah.  Like that's it??  I imagine that the second series would have been Otto trying to keep Enderbury quiet about the murder.  I got  the impression that Enderbury was not the type of man that could have lived with the guilt of what he had done, so it probably would have ended with him killing himself or something like that.

[izabella]

I was underwhelmed by the Cyprus reveal.  Really?  Was drunk driving even a crime back then?  It was an accident, so what was the big deal?

 

Why did Enderbury refuse to take the new job?  What was the point of that?  Is he in love with Otto and won't ever leave his side?

 

Why was Jean nursing her husband's mistress?  Does not compute. 

 

What did they do with the dead body??

[SonofaBiscuit]

I was underwhelmed by the Cyprus reveal.  Really?  Was drunk driving even a crime back then?  It was an accident, so what was the big deal?

 

 

Now that you mention it, I too wonder if drunk driving was illegal.  There was a patient this episode who drove drunk and wrapped his car around a tree and nearly lost his wife and baby.  He stopped to thank Richard as he was being wheeled around by one of the nurses and even said that he had been drinking, but I didn't see any police there to arrest that guy.  Maybe Otto would have been better off spending his money to bribe someone to forge some papers saying that Elizabeth and the fiancée were married.  That way, he wouldn't have been stuck in some fake marriage fathering a child that wasn't his for the last nine years.  I would assume that Elizabeth's baby wouldn't have been taken from her if she had been legally married but a widow...but I really don't know this for sure.

 

Why did they have to make Elizabeth pregnant with creepy rapist Mulligan's baby?  Poor Otto gets to start all over again and pretend he's the father of this child too.  I think that he was halfway out the door until this happened. 

 

I actually liked quite a few actors in this one, so I hope that they go on to find better projects. 

[beadgirl]

Yeah, his refusal to take the job came out of absolutely nowhere; add in his idiocy with Mulligan, and I want Lily to free herself.

 

 

I'd also like to acknowledge another trope present here that I wish would die a fiery death: that of the only female character who defies patriarchal sex roles dies (by cancer of her ladyparts, ain't that an anvil). Sure, everybody loved her instead of despising or pitying her, but dead she still is. And her death is a Lesson To Us All.

I get what you are saying, but I don't find her liberating or a role model.  She did, after all, rekindle a relationship with a man she knew was married, without caring at all about whether anyone else might get hurt.  At the funeral someone said she always lived for herself, or words to that effect, and that illustrated my problem with her -- she appears to have always put herself first.  And I don't think that is a good way to live a life, whether you are a man or a woman, married or unmarried, parent or child-free.

 

And no, I don't hold her more responsible than Truescott -- his apology is not nearly enough to make it up to Jean.  Jean, on the other hand, deciding to take whatshername's advice and be herself?  I approve.

 

Boy, based on what I just wrote, you'd think I was far more invested in this show than I actually am.  It was predictable and annoying, and Otto's face when his wife revealed that she's pregnant with Mulligan's baby (because of course) made me laugh and laugh. 

[attica]

I don't find her liberating or a role model.  She did, after all, rekindle a relationship with a man she knew was married, without caring at all about whether anyone else might get hurt.  At the funeral someone said she always lived for herself, or words to that effect, and that illustrated my problem with her -- she appears to have always put herself first.

 

Yes, you're correct. But the men that do that don't die of dick cancer. Truscott gets his wife back, basically forgiven. I'm not saying she's a role model; I'm saying her character pays for defying heteronormative gender roles -- where women are not supposed to put themselves first, ever -- by being killed off.

 

You can find her behavior distasteful without thinking she deserves what the writers gave her, especially in light of unequal treatment of the male characters.

[peeayebee]

I guess everyone is as disgusted as I was by the routine tie-up-all-the-loose-ends, soap opera, happy ending.

I wouldn't say it was a happy ending. Which of the main characters are happy? Angela seemed a bit ambivalent about her long-lost husband suddenly turning up. Otto certainly wasn't happy. Jean doesn't know if she'll be able to trust her husband. Richard may be on the way to becoming a better man, but I don't think he's happy. Lily isn't. Charlie isn't.

 

It certainly was an odd little series. 

 

When Otto told Mulligan what his marriage was all about, I wasn't surprised because it was pretty clear to me that their marriage wasn't really real and that Thomas wasn't Otto's son. I wasn't sure if he was Elizabeth's son, so at least that was cleared up for me.

 

Again I'll say that although I despised Mulligan, I thought Iain Glen was really good. I thought it was brilliant when he slapped his hands in front of Elizabeth's face. He couldn't strike her, but that gesture was just as frightening, maybe even more so.

[Jordan Baker]

Why did they have to make Elizabeth pregnant with creepy rapist Mulligan's baby?  Poor Otto gets to start all over again and pretend he's the father of this child too.  I think that he was halfway out the door until this happened. 

 

I was very confused by the conversation between Otto and Elizabeth. I thought she was asking him to perform an abortion, but no one else has mentioned this. Did I misinterpret what was being said about doing something "tonight"?

[M. Darcy]

I thought too that she was planning on having an abortion.

[peeayebee]

At first I thought she was asking Otto to perform an abortion, then I wasn't sure. She looked kind of crazy at the end, so maybe she actually wanted to keep the baby as a way of keeping Otto with her, just like he stayed with her because of her first pregnancy. Maybe she was using the pregnancy to keep him since she knew Otto and the nurse were in love.

[dcalley]

I was very confused by the conversation between Otto and Elizabeth. I thought she was asking him to perform an abortion, but no one else has mentioned this. Did I misinterpret what was being said about doing something "tonight"?

I thought her "no" was "no abortion," which Otto had indirectly asked about by saying "what are we going to do ?" I think her "tonight?" was because she didn't quite catch his meaning at first. Then she said no after realizing what he was really asking. I thought he was stunned that she would want to keep the baby and she was trying to convince him how nice it would all be.

 

Whatever they did with the body, it didn't take all that long. The murder was after 1 and Otto was to meet Angela at 4. And Joe was in town for a while before he made his presence known to Angela, right? He saw her from behind on a previous day. That's kind of messed up.

 

Good riddance to this dreck.

[Mumbles]

Wow, that was awful, not just by Masterpiece standards, but even compared to American standards. Outrageous scenarios, seemingly reasonable people acting in unrealistic ways, and a bunch of women who did not deserve the treatment that they deserved from the dog-like men in their lives. The fashion was fun, I'll give it that.

 

It was interesting to learn - if this is true, and I'm not relying on this show for verisimilitude - that nurses couldn't be married (?!).  (But Chummy was married in "Call the Midwife"!)

[dcalley]

I haven't found much about the "marriage bar" in the '60s except for this:

 

In 1935, the London County Council removed the marriage bar for teachers and medical staff. The marriage bar was removed for all teachers and in the BBC in 1944, in the Civil Service and most local government and the post office in 1954. In certain areas including some union offices, the marriage bar survived into the 1960s.

 

ETA: And I'm just watching Miss Marple's "Murder at the Vicarage" from 1986 (on Netflix) and the actress who played Jean Truscott's mother-in-law is the vicar's wife (and she was Chummy's Mater as well as a lot of other roles): Cheryl Campbell

Edited September 9, 2014 by dcalley

[SonofaBiscuit]

I was very confused by the conversation between Otto and Elizabeth. I thought she was asking him to perform an abortion, but no one else has mentioned this. Did I misinterpret what was being said about doing something "tonight"?

 

It's very possible that I misinterpreted because I was seriously confused as well.  I thought that Otto was offering to perform an abortion but she decided that she wanted to keep the baby.  I'll have to go back and rewatch because whatever happened wasn't very clear.

 

I thought that Inspector Mulligan's body would be shown floating in the water somewhere.  Oh well.

 

I had to laugh at Otto going to meet Nurse Wilson at the café and seeing her holding hands with some mysterious man through the window.  I don't remember if she had told Otto that her husband was missing...but if she did, Otto was probably seriously confused.  She may have not even told Otto about Joe since nurses weren't allowed to be married, so if that's the case, Otto was probably thinking "WTF?!"

[M. Darcy]

On the upside - Shaun Dingell lived!  He killed someone but he made it out alive.   Poor Iain - he never gets the girl.  Well, sure he was blackmailing her but still....

[beadgirl]

 

You can find her behavior distasteful without thinking she deserves what the writers gave her, especially in light of unequal treatment of the male characters.

Sure.  Although, Truescott is the only one, I think, who really did get away with his bad behavior. Mulligan paid for his crimes, including adultery and rape, by getting murdered.  Lily's husband (I keep forgetting his name) is his own worst enemy and will clearly ruin his own life all by himself.  Otto I thought was the typical arrogant cad, but he agreed to a loveless marriage to protect a woman and her child, and was willing to risk his career and status and even death to protect her from Mulligan, and based on the reappearance of the lost husband, apparently won't be getting the supposed love of his life.

 

That said, there was definitely an attitude that men can do whatever they want, and one of the things I found most irritating about the show was that no woman ever called them out on their hypocricy or just said "no thank you."  Not every woman from that era was a doormat, and not every man was an amoral jackass.

 

I too assumed Elizabeth wanted to keep the baby, and continue to pretend to be a happy family, which is why Otto's face was to stricken.  But I guess we'll never know; the series was not renewed, right?

[dcalley]

I had to laugh at Otto going to meet Nurse Wilson at the café and seeing her holding hands with some mysterious man through the window.  I don't remember if she had told Otto that her husband was missing...but if she did, Otto was probably seriously confused.  She may have not even told Otto about Joe since nurses weren't allowed to be married, so if that's the case, Otto was probably thinking "WTF?!"

I'm pretty sure he knew she was married.

 

I guess we'll never know; the series was not renewed, right?

Right.

[izabella]

I'm pretty sure he knew she was married.

 

Yes, Otto knew she was married.  She tried to put a stop to the whole thing, and told him about it.  He knows her husband was missing.  He knows she hid it because nurses aren't supposed to be married. 

[editorgrrl]

I was underwhelmed by the Cyprus reveal. Really? Was drunk driving even a crime back then? It was an accident, so what was the big deal?

Elizabeth's fiancé, Glen (the US airman), was killed. To avoid vehicular homicide charges, Otto put Glen's body behind the wheel and bribed Mulligan. A revelation now would ruin Otto's medical career in the UK—and perhaps lead to charges in Cyprus.

[proserpina65]

Well, I watched it tonight.  It is the most relentlessly bleak and depraved piece of muck.  I will absolutely not be watching the rest of this dreck.

 

I agree completely.  What was the point, really?

 

I can't figure out why, exactly, they were running this under the "Masterpiece Mystery" banner.  Unless the mystery is how they managed to make something with Jack Davenport in it so absolutely unappealing to me.

Edited October 2, 2014 by proserpina65

[atlantaloves]

Well, I for one, loved this series, it was MAD MEN IN A HOSPITAL.....fabulous. want more more more....but Nope. DAMN IT....LIGHT ME UP.