Besides the number of times this period drama makes you sob like a baby.
The third season of BBC's Call the Midwife — which wrapped up last month in the U.K. and begins on March 30 on PBS in the States — attracted an audience of more than 10 million viewers when it aired across the Atlantic, a figure that puts it on nearly equal footing with Downton Abbey. But that series gets far more attention than this subtle and superb period drama.
Set in 1950s East End London and based on Jennifer Worth's memoirs, Call the Midwife tracks the lives of a group of young midwives and the sisterhood of nuns with whom they work at Nonnatus House. Babies are born, labors — both real and figurative — undertaken, and love blossoms and fades. It is an extraordinary show about birth and death and what comes in between. As written by Heidi Thomas and her talented staff, Call the Midwife manages to be both warm and profound in equal measure, opening a window to a time long gone yet offering a glimpse into the eternal and the transitory. It's tea cozy television with a very deep soul.
But if you haven't yet watched Call the Midwife (or have already fallen in love with its easy charms), here are seven reasons why it is worth watching. (Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.)
The show offers not only the varying perspectives of four very distinct characters, but also from two points in time.
While most definitely an ensemble drama, Call the Midwife most often utilizes the perspectives of the four young midwives at the story's center: confident Jenny Lee (Jessica Raine), sophisticated Beatrix "Trixie" Franklin (Helen George), clumsy Camilla "Chummy" Fortescue-Cholmondeley-Browne (Miranda Hart), and meek Cynthia Miller (Bryony Hannah).
The quartet of woman could not possibly be more different from each another, yet somehow, their dynamic works remarkably well: As they sip Babycham and listen to records after hours, they embody a certain spirit of unity and power. Raine's Jenny — based on memoirist Worth — anchors the show in both a physical and emotional sense, seeing as it's narrated by "mature Jenny" (Vanessa Redgrave), looking back on her life at Nonnatus House. The duality of perspectives presented, the innocence of contemporary Jenny juxtaposed against the experience of her future counterpart, gives the show a patina of gravitas. It helps as well that the disembodied voice belongs to Redgrave, whose heartfelt narration is one of the hallmarks of the show.
Courtesy of Jonathan Ford/Neal Street Productions 2013
Chummy may have once offered comic relief, but her arc this season is nothing short of gut-wrenching.
There are many reasons why Hart's Chummy has been a breakout character over the three seasons the comedian has played the role. But the physical comedy that the pratfall-prone actress displayed early on (like while learning to ride a bicycle) has been replaced with emotional depth and pathos. And in the third season, Hart delivers a staggering performance that is at once jaw-dropping and heartbreaking for its fierceness and nuance. That it conflates her fraught dynamic with her emotionally distant mother, Jenny's innate tenderness, and a stunning look at dying with dignity gives her arc a palpable sense of importance and grace. Hart may be known for her humorous roles, but as Chummy, she delivers several scenes that establish her as a serious dramatic actor and reduce the viewers to jagged sobs.
Neal Street Productions
The journey of Sister Bernadette, as she leaves the sisterhood to take a vow of marriage, is incredible.
When we were first introduced to Sister Bernadette in the first season, I had no idea that the young nun's storyline would prove to be one of the most compelling and insightful looks at the tug of war between the religious and secular ever to appear on television. As played by the divine Laura Main, Sister Bernadette — now called Shelagh Turner — is a standout character of the highest order, not least of which for the heartache and realism that Main infuses into the role.
As she falls in love with Dr. Turner (Stephen McGann), she is forced to choose between the pull of her heart and the vocation for which she left the secular world behind. On a lesser show, this storyline might have been incredibly saccharine or exploitative, but here, Shelagh's struggle to find her own path and to choose romantic love was rendered as something incredibly poignant and powerful. Post-marriage to Dr. Turner, Shelagh continues to question her role in the world in Season 3, finding that there are always hard choices to be made and that secrets loom even between the best of individuals.
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