Call the Midwife (TV Series) Episode #9.3 (2020) User Reviews

odd couples

[Calicodreamin · 8/10 · 22 November 2020]

Solid episode, storylines were well developed and lent to a few heartfelt moments.

Another good outing

[studioAT · 7/10 · 30 August 2020]

I disagree with the previous reviewer, I thought this was another good episode.

It was nice to see a bit more depth to the character of Lucille and that was well written/performed.

If anything I thought the fashion show element was weaker, with shades of things we'd seen done before in previous episodes.

If you try to apply to much logic to 'CtM' you'll come up short (how can old Jenny still be narrating things all these years later, when most of the people she knew at Nonnatus are long gone for example??), so I suggest people just embrace what is still up there with the best the BBC can offer.

Underwhelming

[The_nibs · 5/10 · 20 January 2020]

I don't know what's been going on with the writing for this show but it's weirdly underwhelming and all over the place. After seeing last week's sneak peek for this episode, season nine episode three, I was pleased that as viewers we'd be seeing more of Lucille's character. Ever since she was first introduced to the series I've always felt like she was painfully underutilized. What do we know about her besides her religion, her heritage, her boyfriend and her moral position? There has to be more to her than just that. I thought maybe this episode would catapult us into a new storyline for her, highlighting her struggles as a black midwife. The sneak peek implied she'd be faced with a bitter, racist patient, but what took place was wierdly not very racist at all? Instead the patient later admits to having a control issue because of her history with her own mother, which apparently explains her questioning Lucille's authority earlier in the episode - was she really racist or was this control thing true? Are we supposed to believe Lucille merely interpreted this patient's bad attitude as prejudiced for not wanting a black nurse? If so, what does that even mean? That Lucille feels uncomfortable in a white dominated profession? And what of her relationship with Cyril? I think we all thought huge progress was being made there but it became about Cyril's higher calling within his church group. The writers for this show just love non committed relationships and break people up before much of a relationship has even developed in the first place - look at Sergeant Woolf and Miss Higgins, it's like their relationship existed merely to break our hearts for no good reason. I thought putting a black midwife with an intensely racist pregnant mother stuck in an elevator was going to make for great suspense and tension, and lead to some kind of character development. I wanted to see this patient, with no choice but to rely on her perceived enemy, to eat her words, for Lucille to show some confidence and attitude and put this girl in her place. Instead nothing much happened and we were treated with an abysmal and wholly unnecessary fashion show, and a secondary storyline about a woman with a post pregnancy incontinence issue that felt too short and lack luster. I know that real midwifery is the same old stuff day in day out, but that's certainly not what we come to Call the Midwife to see, have the writers forgotten that? I just finished rewatching episodes from the earlier seasons (3 and 4) and the differences in writing style is staggering. I hope they do away with these dull, Pollyanna like storylines and get back to being a well articulated drama, get some character development going, and remind us why we bother coming back to watch it every week.