In the last couple of days I got into the series Nurse Ratched. At first I thought it was a spin off from the American Horror Story series, because of the alumni of actors that were casted in the American Horror Story Series; as well as the way the story is being told, and the type of settings. It all reeks of the American Horror Story. It is no surprising why. It is because the main writer Ryan Murphy is one of the main writers on the American Horror Story series. Except for the production is a Netflix production and has nothing to do with the American Horror Story franchise.

What I found it interesting is that Nurse Ratched is the head Nurse that was featured in the movie “One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest.” Before the movie adaptation, it was a stage play that was featured on and off Broadway.

 The movie and play was based on the “ One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest” Novel by Ken kesey who used to work the grave yard shift on a part time basis at a Psychiatric institution. Would you believe that Ken Kesey used to supplement his income by being a volunteer subject in the infamous secretive MK Ultra program administered by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Those of you who are familiar with the MK Ultra program knows what that was about. Those that don’t know, well True_George will give a rundown of it in a future post.

Kesey portrayed the Character Nurse Ratched after the head Nurse at the Psychiatric institute where he worked. The orange color matching her lip stick and finger nails; her 1940’s hair style which was stuck in time because she never had any other hair style beyond the 1940’s. The Nurse’s uniform always heavly starched and no wrinkles. She wore the Nurse’s uniform as to hiding her sexuality; and Kesey specifically point out that she had large breasts. No matter how the head Nurse that Kesey based Nurse Rathed after appeared to him at that point in time; it was some years later that he ran into her at an aquarium and he mentioned that she appeared to be smaller then how he remembered her, and a lot more human. Yet, she still had a 1940’s hair style in which he commented that life must have stopped for her during the 1940’s.

The netlflix, production is a prequel to a time before she became the head Nurse at the Psychiatry Institution where the events that took place in “One Flew Over the Cukcoo’s Nest.”

I would say that the only thing that is controversy in the prequel is the question of Nurse Ratched’s sexuality. The back story to it is that she was sexual exploited as a girl and made to perform sexual acts with her foster Brother in front of an audience of pedophiles.

There were no mention of her ever having a meaningful relationship with the opposite sex; and that she is confused concerning her own sexual orientation. The show itself surrounds itself with the struggles of the homosexual; mainly on lesbians, who went to the psychiatric institution in hopes of finding a cure to their same sex attraction.  Prior to that the book, the play and the movie never spoke about Nurse Ratched’s sexual orientation. I wonder what Kesey would have said about transforming his character into a lesbian?  

Otherwise, I am halfway through watching the series. So far it has not been disappointed; at least to me.

Books by True George