Netflix announced that it will premiere the first season of Ratched, its TV series based on a character from Ken Kesey’s classic 1961 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, on Sept. 18.
The series stars Golden Globe– and Emmy-winner Sarah Paulson as a young Nurse Ratched, who, in Kesey’s novel, tyrannically runs a mental hospital where her cruel treatment of the inmates leads to a patient’s suicide. The show’s executive producers include Paulson and American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy.
The new series effectively acts as a prequel to Kesey’s story, set in 1947, more than a decade before the events of One Flew of the Cuckoo’s Nest. It tells the story of how Ratched—here given the first name of Mildred—came to be employed as a nurse at a California psychiatric hospital. As Netflix’s summary puts it: “On a clandestine mission, Mildred presents herself as the perfect image of what a dedicated nurse should be, but…as she begins to infiltrate the mental health care system and those within it, Mildred’s stylish exterior belies a growing darkness that has long been smoldering within.”
Murphy, who’s won multiple Emmys and a Tony Award, tackled somewhat similar subject matter in the second season of American Horror Story, which took place, in part, in a brutal mental institution in 1964; that season also featured Paulson in a supporting role.
Louise Fletcher won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Ratched in the acclaimed 1975 film of Kesey’s novel, which won four other Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
