Day Three Hundred and Forty-four - Call the Midwife: Season 1, Episode 6, "Oh, Chummy, you're a delightful bride~"

It's been a long while since I watched any Call the Midwife, probably because there is only so much I can take in regards to my heartstrings being pulled. Still, today's a busy day and I needed something familiar, but not recent... shortish, but not too brief... and proven, not untested. So, Call the Midwife it is, and this episode features the trial of dementia-ridden Sister Monica Joan for theft and Chummy wrestles with the class differences between her and her beau, PC Noakes.

It's a hard thing to watch a dear character fall under both suspicion and illness. Sister Monica Joan's deterioration leaves her prey of both as she's caught filching knick-knacks from the market and accused to swiping quite a bit of expensive jewelry as well. Watching her begin to doubt herself is almost as painful as the pained looks she gets from her adopted family at Nonnatus House.

Conversely, it's not at all difficult to watch Chummy deal with her own issues. When her prim and proper mother comes to visit and finds her dating well below her station, it puts quite a bit of strain on her and PC Noakes' relationship such that she decides to break the whole thing off. It requires being taken into confidence by a desperate young mother living in squalor to become brave enough to take the plunge and defy her mother's wishes... and quite handsomely, too, dutifully informing her that a white wedding dress would no longer be appropriate (ooo, such scandal)!

As for Jenny Lee, herself, she has to come to terms with the intense feelings that she holds for her previous lover and the ramifications of the affair on her present life. Does she reach out for what her heart truly wants... or does she hold back from becoming a married man's mistress? The drama is mildly amped by the fact that her long time crush (well, one-sided on his part anyway), Jimmy, returns to help her (and Sister Monica Joan) in an hour of need.

As the series has worn on, while I still enjoy all of its period nostalgia and remembrances, I think the only things that keep me coming back anymore are the brief moments of character drama with Chummy. I can't find myself all that interested in Jenny Lee's love troubles, and just about every other character is simply static, even if the writers try and show a measure of roundness to everyone. While it's quality television, watching poor young mothers in urban London smoke or drink or live in terrible conditions, it all just loses its shock value after a while and I find myself a bit bored. That said, I'll probably always come back for Miranda Hart's portrayal of the ever awkward and sweet Chummy. There's just something so endearing about her drive, naivete, and innocence. It's almost (dare I say) moe.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and Fifty-nine - Call the Midwife: Season 1, Episode 5, "Love Is."

It's been yet another month since I watched any Call the Midwife, so I felt it was about time... especially since it seems that Season 2 just hit the Instant Stream and I'm going to have to catch up on those so my mother and I can trade notes.

A bit of a difficult one to watch, this one was, as Jenny Lee is once again confronted with a situation almost too hard to bear... this time with a middle-aged brother and sister whose relationship is too close for comfort.

Peggy, the cleaning lady at the Nonnatus House, grew up in the workhouses of near-myth... horrible, Dickensian conditions that separated her from her brother. When they finally found each other again in adulthood, the two were much changed and only able to find solace in one another. This fact at first repels Jenny Lee, but over time and witnessing both the declining health of the cancer-ridden Frank and the true warmth that both Frank and Peggy have for each other, at least comes to a certain acceptance.

The main plot, at the very least, serves as a nice contrast to Jenny Lee's own love woes as she's actively courted by Jimmy despite receiving a phone call from her mysterious past suitor who left her heartbroken. It's a bit difficult to be sympathetic to Jenny Lee's personal problems as she seems far to selfish and self-righteous when it comes to her love life, a bit of a tragic figure of her own making. Still, her personal drama is entertaining, if not depressing.

The not quite skinny-dipping party is a little fun as they're all trespassing in their slips and underwear and boxers, risque (and somewhat criminal) for PBS, but an interesting look at the dating rituals of the age... especially in comparison to nowadays. It's only a bit of a downer when Jenny Lee has an asthma fit after spurning Jimmy yet again.

As always, there's more fun to be found in Chummy's courtship with PC Noakes as she spends pretty much the entire episode fretting over meeting the constable's mother. While it does feel like it's dragging on a bit, it's still cute to see her blossom over the course of the season. Of course, having been inadvertently spoiled already as to their fate, I'm a bit underwhelmed and just want it to get over with, it's still good times in comparison to Jenny Lee.

I think the only subplot that really annoyed me was Fred's sow and her birthing. If I want livestock drama, I'll watch Silver Spoon, thank you very much. Sadly, it's not on Netflix or I would.

Call the Midwife is still the quality series it started off as, even if this particular episode isn't one of the strongest. It always challenges preconceptions and manages to surprise, both in its tragedies and its delights.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

Day Two Hundred and Twenty-six - Call the Midwife: Season 1, Episode 4, "A familiar face and the tragedy of soulmates."

It's been a while since I last watched Call the Midwife, but that's the beauty of BBC and PBS shows... they often have very short episode counts to their seasons so it's not all that hard to catch up.

This particular episode had quite a few threads running through it that were interesting and pulled at the heart-strings.

For the good, we see more and more of Chummy's (Miranda Hart) courtship with PC Noakes, as well as a small bit of intimacy with Sister Bernadette (Laura Main).

For the ill, however, there are two tales... that of a young mother doomed to a tragic end by eclampsia and an infant who is kidnapped from her stroller with the shadow of suspicion falling on her postpartum suffering mother.

As ever, I absolutely adore Chummy's blossoming. It seems as though I have happily fallen into the same trap as the rest of the fans of the show, as she is absolutely my favorite character and to see her grow into her womanhood is a delight. Much kudos, as usual, to Miranda Hart for her portrayal. Of particular note this episode is the dance sequence where she and PC Noakes flail about ridiculously, enjoying themselves all the way. That's joy... and that's love.

I was also a huge fan of those brief moments with Sister Bernadette. You can obviously see her mild strain and envy towards the midwives as they giggle their way through the mildly bohemian experience of being young, independent, and frisky. It was a surprisingly heartfelt scene when she took off her wimple and let her hair down, however briefly. That longing look at herself in the mirror, reminding herself (or, perhaps, just coming to the realization) that she's still a woman was darn effective... and very reminiscent of a similar scene that I've viewed in Kaoru Mori's Victorian Romance: Emma.

When it comes to the episode's conflicts, the kidnapping was a bit of a stretch, with the acting from the husband and wife coming a bit awkward and somewhat hard to believe, but that might have been for effect, to keep the suspicion on them believable (at least from their fellow characters as the viewer knows that the kidnapping is real). It was good to see Mary (Amy McAllister) again, though, even if she has become a rather convenient villain. It would have been so much easier to make the kidnapper a faceless, anonymous waif, but tying her back to a tragedy from a previous episode reminds us that great pain can force us to insanity.

The second tragedy of the episode evoked quite a bit more emotion from me, probably because it was just pointless, random loss... a cruel twist of fate. Yes, it was nice to see Cynthia (Bryony Hannah) get a bigger part in an episode as she's often relegated to background and supporting roles, but hard to watch her suffer through the loss as she helps a dying patient's husband come to terms with the inevitable.

All in all, Call the Midwife remains a well-crafted period drama that is both entertaining and poignant. Still worth the watch, most assuredly.

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~