Netflix is giving us no end of treats at the moment, and its latest offering for your binge-watching pleasure is Ratched, which drops on to the streaming platform on Friday.
This one will be a must for fans of American Horror Story, since it’s the latest series from that show’s creator Ryan Murphy – and it’s got a pretty stellar cast attached to it too.
So just what is Ratched – whose origins are rooted in a classic novel-turned-movie – all about and what time should you expect it?
Here’s what you need to know…
What time is Ratched released on Netflix?
Ratched is set for release on Netflix at around 8am on Friday morning.
That’s in keeping with the time at Netflix HQ in San Francisco – where it will be midnight at the time the show drops in the UK.
There are eight episodes in total, and as with most Netflix series the whole lot will drop at once – meaning you’ve got a long weekend’s watching ahead of you.
The good news is that the show has already been renewed for a second series before the first has even aired – you can expect to see that some time in 2021.
Who is in the cast of Ratched?
Sarah Paulson leads the cast of the series as Nurse Mildred Ratched.
The actress is of course no stranger to Ryan Murphy creations, having appeared in American Horror Story from 2011-2018 – and she’s rejoined the cast for the next series, which is due to air next year.
Her co-stars include Australian actress Judy Davis (A Passage To India, Husbands and Wives, The Starter Wife, Feud: Bette and Joan) as Betsy Bucket, and Sex and The City’s Cynthia Nixon as Gwendolyn Briggs.
The show also marks the return to the screen of Basic Instinct legend Sharon Stone, who appears as Lenore Osgood in the series.
Other cast members include Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction), Rosanna Arquette (Ray Donovan, Desperately Seeking Susan), Alice Englert (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell), Sophie Okonedo (Criminal Justice, The Slap) and another AHS alumnus, Finn Wittrock.
What is Ratched based on?
Ratched is a prequel to the classic novel-turned-film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, revealing the origins of its character Nurse Mildred Ratched – a nurse at a mental instutition who goes out of her way to exert her power, intimidating her patients into submission.
The film – which sees Ratched played by Louise Fletcher – sees her meet her match in the form of disruptive patient Randall P McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) a convict who is sent to the institution and proceeds to lock horns with her as he causes mayhem among the inmates.
The book, written by Ken Kesey, was published in 1962 while the film was released in 1975.
Along with It Happened One Night and The Silence Of The Lambs it is the only film ever to win all five of the main Oscars – for best picture, director (Milos Forman), actor (Nicholson), actress (Fletcher) and screenplay.
Ratched follows the nurse as she makes her early forays into the mental health system in the US, with the action going all the way back to 1947 as she takes a job at an institution in California which is carrying out some disturbing experiments on the human mind.
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