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Original poster

Call the Midwife season 10?

32 replies

SantaClawsServiette · 22/12/2021 03:18

I'm rather behind I know, but I've been up for some generally positive tv lately so I've been getting caught up on the ;ast few seasons of CTW. I started with season 8 where I had left off and now I'm on season 10.

I am finding it more and more difficult to see the show as a fairly realistic, if overall positive, depiction of the time. I always felt in the early seasons that they were very even handed and the characters seemed to have a realistic variety of views, but were still sympathetic to the viewers. After the show diverged more from the books it was obvious that they were choosing themes with the benefit of hindsight, but it still seemed realistic.

Has anyone else felt this about the show - I just feel like the writers or producers or someone is inserting a very 2021 perspective onto these people living in the 1960s. Both in terms of making all regular characters have a narrow range of fairly modern views, and only allowing unsympathetic ones to have other views.

I don't really expect CTM to have a cast that's all against each other or anything like that, but I just keep thinking "this is supposed to be pre 1970?

Even their stuff in season 9, about vaccination, (which I know was pre-covid) seemed more heavy handed than I expected. So maybe it is just a writing problem?

OP posts:

Toddlerteaplease · 22/12/2021 03:29

I agree. I think it's had it's day and it's time to stop. Since Tom left. Pastor Robinson has taken on the role of the vicar. Black people were not accepted than as they are now. All saints poplar was also a very Anglo Catholic parish, I believe. So a non conformist Pastor would not have been accepted. Especially not by the nuns.

TallulahsCurse · 22/12/2021 06:44

I agree . I absolutely loved the first few series and I also read the books that they were based on, which I also loved - well worth a read if you haven't already!
Now I just find it samey / boring and not believable. I've watched them all because it's force of habit when it's on, but to be honest I don't think I will bother with the next series as the last one was so crap!

Twizbe · 22/12/2021 06:54

The social distancing in the last one made it so hard to watch. It was so blindingly obvious.

Also I've found some bits now so unrealistic of the time. There's no way Lucille would be alone with her boyfriend in his flat at night.

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gamerchick · 22/12/2021 06:58

Isn't the writer or producer the Dr what's his face wife IRL? I got a bit tired of seeing him tbh. May as well change the name.

TallulahsCurse · 22/12/2021 07:02

@gamerchick

Isn't the writer or producer the Dr what's his face wife IRL? I got a bit tired of seeing him tbh. May as well change the name.

His absolute lack of any acting ability and how he hams everything up to the extreme also ruins it for me. I don't remember him being this bad in the first few series but now he's like a pantomime!

Toddlerteaplease · 22/12/2021 07:57

He didn't really appear in the first few series. He was only called in, in an absolute emergency. Now he's everywhere. As well
As miraculously diagnosing very rare conditions on his own.

choosername1234 · 22/12/2021 08:22

I agree, the modern perspective on the issues they raise is incredibly frustrating. The writers are clearly trying not to offend anyone while ignoring the social realities & prejudices of 1960s Poplar

TallulahsCurse · 22/12/2021 10:29

@Toddlerteaplease

He didn't really appear in the first few series. He was only called in, in an absolute emergency. Now he's everywhere. As well As miraculously diagnosing very rare conditions on his own.

Exactly! ... He does ruin it for me :(

Toddlerteaplease · 22/12/2021 17:45

I can't imagine Reggie would have been as integrated and accepted in the community.

kierenthecommunity · 22/12/2021 18:02

He didn't really appear in the first few series. He was only called in, in an absolute emergency. Now he's everywhere. As well
As miraculously diagnosing very rare conditions on his own

While mansplaining it all very carefully to grown woman, as if they were six years old

Puffalicious · 22/12/2021 18:08

@kierenthecommunity

*He didn't really appear in the first few series. He was only called in, in an absolute emergency. Now he's everywhere. As well As miraculously diagnosing very rare conditions on his own*

While mansplaining it all very carefully to grown woman, as if they were six years old

This with bells on. I've been rewatching from series 1 and it's sooooo much better. My mam used to love it as she'd read the books before and she got me into it. These days I'm not sure she'd even watch it (sadly not with us anymore). Trixie has also become a huge caricature of herself- she and the Doc make it almost unwatchable.

steppemum · 22/12/2021 18:11

@Toddlerteaplease

I can't imagine Reggie would have been as integrated and accepted in the community.

actually, while I agree that many issues are written from a modern perspective, and discrimination against people with Downs was rife, I think that within a community people like Reggie were accepted. Language would have been non pc. He may have been referred to as the simple one for example, (or ruder) but the community would have been possibly more accepting than in some places now.

Lifeisnteasy · 22/12/2021 18:17

I loved the first few series. Sister Evangelina was my favourite, was gutted when she died. I agree it seems to have turned into Call Dr Turner but then I guess the advent of the 70s did see a lot more male doctor intervention in pregnancy/birth, so maybe it’s accurate? Will we see Sister Mary Cynthia again?

Lifeisnteasy · 22/12/2021 18:21

@Toddlerteaplease

I can't imagine Reggie would have been as integrated and accepted in the community.

I also don’t think the nuns/midwives would have been so supportive and empathetic in their manner toward women who were prostitutes, giving birth to lovechildren or having illegal terminations.

IglesiasPiggl · 22/12/2021 18:22

I think this will be the last series - people stopped giving birth at home as the norm around the time they are up to. It has really become the Dr Turner Show in recent series and much less about the midwives sadly. No way would they all be so progressive in an area recently out of the slum era.

Twizbe · 22/12/2021 18:44

@kierenthecommunity tbf the mansplaining is one of the most accurate representations of the time period.

I'm sure midwives of the times had to sit through many a mansplain by their local GP.

I think the midwives and nuns would have been quite sympathetic to the prostitutes and unmarried mothers. They would have known that it wasn't the womens' fault they were in that situation.

Lunariagal · 22/12/2021 18:55

I watched the first couple of series avidly, and then I read the books. The books are very gritty and some of the stories are grim. I've never watched it again as it now grates on me, how the rose tinted specs have been applied for Sunday night telly.

Rainartist · 22/12/2021 19:18

I've recently watched them all from the beginning. It was definitely better in the first few series. Dr Turner is far too in the picture being god's gift to medicine and whilst the inclusion of the ethnic minorities isn't as bad as in The Larkin's, it probably isn't very realistic, apart from a couple of racist comments to Lucille that other "EastEnd" midwives heard and pulled up on its like the writers think they've "done racism" and everyone can move on and pretend all was well.

kierenthecommunity · 22/12/2021 19:35

tbf the mansplaining is one of the most accurate representations of the time period

Good point. But still a massive irritant

I think we’re all supposed to adore him too which grates

amusedbush · 22/12/2021 19:43

I always loved it but I haven't watched the last series, maybe even the last two. It has absolutely become Call The Turners and the whole bloody family are insufferable.

user15364596354862 · 22/12/2021 19:57

It's not a documentary. They're just trying to provide light entertainment.

kierenthecommunity · 22/12/2021 19:59

I think this will be the last series - people stopped giving birth at home as the norm around the time they are up to

The books finished well before IIRC and Jenny said the nuns moved to different areas of nursing for exactly that reason - that women were using the advantage of free child birth in hospital that their mothers could never have dreamt of

They are making it more clinic based than the original few series but there’s still a lot of births to liven it up a bit

Toddlerteaplease · 23/12/2021 00:02

@IglesiasPiggl I believe they've already commissioned another two series after this. Though by the late 70's early 80's that order had left Poplar for Birmingham. To work with people with HIV/AIDS

longtompot · 23/12/2021 00:11

I remember the first few series were so grim you could almost smell the rooms and the women in labour. These last few series haven't had the same impact, but I guess in a way you'd expect that. The housing has much improved as has the sanitation, and the medical care has also improved. But the story lines do feel very watered down. They could go so much further, but just stop shy of it.
I agree about Dr Mansplaner. Feckin annoying as anything.

Original poster

SantaClawsServiette · 24/12/2021 00:47

Yeah, you've all echoes many of my own feelings.

I really don't mind that they are a bit cozy at times, I think there is a place for shows where the leads aren't all fighting their demons, or drug dealers, or cannibals, etc.

And I am ok with changing the focus a little towards the hospital as that is reflective of the real social changes.

Part of the issue to me is that actually, I am ok when sympathetic characters in period pieces have views that are largely in line with those of other good people of that period. I don't need the writers to patronize me by pretending that good people in 1967 thought the same thing as good people in 2021, or that all good people think the same things at all!

But the point some have made about the Turners being a bit hard to take, or Trixi, or the mansplaining which I think is really exposition intended for the audience, may be on point - it may be mostly down to the writing being not up to the same standard overall. Bad writers just can't handle that kind of problem effectivly.

OP posts:

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