Call the Midwife

[Cardinal_Fang]

I suppose the one thing that doesn’t quite ring true about the show is that social ills are almost always resolved in a way designed to appeal to us living in the 21st century rather than in what would actually happen to Brits living in the mid 20th century. Episodes about crime, racism, homosexuality, wife beating, abortion, marital infidelity, child abuse, poverty, and so on all end with the our heroes of Nonatus House taking actions, expressing attitudes, and giving advice that usually very neatly align with what is seen as virtuous and sensible today rather than what would more likely be expressed in London in the 1950s and 60s.

Well put. Although I love the show, this aspect makes me uncomfortable. Particularly in areas where social opinion has changed a lot, it bothers me that these 1950s women believe the way I do. Heck, in the 1970s I didn’t believe the way I do now about abortion and homosexuality.