Call the Midwife

[MTR]

Next season will be a short season due to covid. 4-6 eps . Xmas special has been filmed do that's ok at least .

[ajk]

Time for the Christmas special!

As usual WTTW is being dumb about this. Not only are they holding it until 8 p.m. on Christmas night...but they're actually running the 2018 and 2019 specials earlier and more times than the 2020 special. Yes you read that right. So if you see a listing online or in the newspaper, be very careful.

Six airings each of the previous ones (mostly on the 11.2 subchannel), and only two of the 2020 special. The mind boggles. Anyway the other airing of the 2020 special is also on the main WTTW channel on Sunday December 27 at 9 p.m.

The one nice thing they're doing is that between noon and 8 p.m. on Christmas day, they're binge-running all eight of last season's regular episodes on the 11.2 subchannel. Not the best season but still very good.

But if you want to catch the new special, you've got a whopping two shots at it in Chicago. Hopefully the PBS website will stream it because this is nutso.

[ajk]

PBS has it on demand on their website:

www.pbs.org/video/call-the-midwife-season-10-holiday-special-2020/

...and it will be there for the next four weeks so you can catch it at your convenience.

It was mostly a good episode, just not really all that Christmas-y. Felt like a longer version of a regular episode. And we lost another cast member! Nurse Valerie, apparently the actress just up and quit over the summer after four seasons, so they had to explain it away right off the bat. I'm sure they'll replace her well and keep right on going...but wow I sure do not understand why these people keep leaving the series. Like they'll ever be a part of anything as good ever again? Very, very strange.

Speaking of which, did anybody else get the feeling that they're setting nurse Trixie up for her leaving? Like she's hit a crossroads in her life. This one I could understand; the actress is one of the few remaining Season 1 originals left so after ten years...well you could understand maybe wanting a change. But we'll see.

And wow that was quite a teaser from Sister Julienne at the end there. The next season could end up looking very different from what we're used to.

[ajk]

Latest news is that there will be seven episodes in season 10 and it will air in the autumn. So we wait.

[ajk]

So some good news and some bad news.

Bad news is that while Season 10 will start airing in Britain this weekend, we won't get to see it here on PBS until September. No idea why there would be such a ridiculous delay.

Good news is that the series just got another two-year extension! It was locked in through next year but now it's set through 2024. Wonderful that the BBC continues to support it.

[ajk]

FINALLY! Sheesh. Season 10 will premiere on PBS on Sunday, September 26. Seven episodes this time. And then the Christmas special will air on Christmas day like it usually does.

[ajk]

So it's September 26, new season starting! WOOHOOO!!!!!

Well wait, not so fast...of course this is WTTW so we have to wait an extra week.

The first episode of season 10 will air on the main 11.1 channel next Sunday October 3 at 7 p.m. According to the station website, there will be four repeats of it: Monday morning at 7 a.m. and afternoon at 2 p.m., both on the Prime subchannel 11.2, and then Tuesday at 1 a.m. and Thursday at 3:30 a.m. both back on the main channel. For the most part that's how the other six episodes will air as well, but each week is a bit different from the others as far as one or two of the repeats airing slightly earlier or later. So check their website (which I won't even link here because I'm so annoyed with them) or better yet go to pbs.com and just stream it there. I've done a lot of that and it always works great.

One nicer bit of news is that the week after the seventh episode there will be a 10th anniversary special with a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff. So watch for that.

[ajk]

Apparently I have to take back my irritation about the October 3 start, because it looks like a lot of other PBS stations did the same thing, possibly all of them. So it probably wasn't WTTW's fault.

Here's the link to the schedule for all of the airings including the rebroadcasts:

schedule.wttw.com/series/19343/Call-The-Midwife/

Watched the first episode tonight and it was wonderful, absolutely rock-solid as usual, beautifully done in every aspect. Particularly well-written even by this show's standard, and sets up some interesting things to unfold in the remaining episodes. What a joy to have it back again.

[MTR]

I really enjoyed it. I hope they don't write Trixie out? .It looks like they are setting it up for her to move on.

[ajk]

Well she had a kid in real life so it's possible, there was some talk of it. If not out entirely then maybe ratchet her down a notch.

Yeah there aren't a lot of characters left from the beginning and I'd hate to lose another one.

[ajk]

Finally made it through the last of the seven episodes of season 10 early this morning. A very strong season even by this show's standards. Maybe just a notch below that monster season 8, definitely a step above the previous season. The subject matter of the stories wasn't as powerful as in season 8 but the quality was just as good. the final episode was particularly strong (and the actress playing Trixie did her best work ever in this one, she really stood out).

I only had one quibble...the story about the gay man and his parents. They did a story about a gay man in season 3 and I felt very strongly that they wrote the wrong ending, made a big mistake. This one, ditto--it ended similarly and they missed a chance to correct what felt like a missed opportunity previously. Won't say more about it so as not to spoil anything for anyone who sees it, but that season 3 episode always has stuck with me as a rare misjudgment. Some people would disagree, fair enough.

The eighth episode of the season is the anniversary behind-the-scenes special and I really don't know if it wouldn't be spoiling things too much to peek behind the curtain like that. Probably will end up watching it but maybe just not yet.

Anyway to gush about this series yet again, this is one of the best things that's ever been put on television and it continues to be an absolute treasure. And on Christmas day we get the annual Christmas special, coming up fast!

[MTR]

I loved this season, i agree best season since 8. The special is really good, i was lost in nostalgia about how far this series has come . We are coming to a moment in time where the modern world will eclipse the midwife, that is historically speaking. The pill,birth control and maternity wards .

Not being a spoiler that's just history. However poorer neighborhoods like Poplar resisted change so as this is one of the BBC's most successful series ever i imagine the Midwives will continue marching on .
Notice the Xmas specials are no longer set in exotic locales?. The BBC has been undergoing massive budget cuts .The few dramas they have left are all on nickle and dime budgets .

[ajk]

Christmas special!

OK this is not a joke, here are the exact times for this year's episode airing in Chicago on WTTW:

Saturday 12/25 8:07 p.m. - main channel 11.1
Sunday 12/26 4:58 p.m. - main channel 11.1
Monday 12/27 3:29 a.m. - main channel 11.1
Monday 12/27 1:30 p.m. - prime subchannel 11.2

No idea whay the odd times. It will also be availble online for streaming.


p.s. Actually while 8:07 is a weird time, it's much better than in past years when they ran it at 7 p.m. and you couldn't get the dinner and cleanup done in time to watch it. So full credit for that.

[bird11]

Ajk- Just wanted to pop in here and tell you after reading all of your posts about this show - especially the Christmas Episodes, that I decided to record it this year and watched the Christmas episode tonight. It was great, I don't really know a lot about the characters but I stilled really enjoy the show. Very well acted, had tears in my eyes a few times.

[ajk]

Hey bird! Nice to hear from you. You ready to start shoveling snow? Well it was a quiet December at least....

Glad you liked the episode. I actually haven't watched it yet--keep trying to but the days have been too short this week. But it's up on the PBS website and I'll watch it in the next couple of days.

It really is an amazing series. When it was first announced I laughed like crazy--who would ever watch that?--but right from the beginning it was a winner. They actually have finished filming the next season already (eight episodes); it will air in Britain starting next month and here in the US starting in March.

If you're interested in past episodes, a lot of them are on Netflix or Amazon or Apple/Android streaming, or you can get DVDs of individual seasons on eBay for $10 or less.