Bramwell (1995–1998) User Reviews

Awesome three seasons, skip the fourth

[sherry-86-950063 · 9/10 · 21 June 2011]

This is an exceedingly hard series to rate because the first three seasons are so terrific and the fourth is unaccountably bad. First season deserves the 9 stars I gave it. I would seriously only give the last season one--half it they'd let me. Do yourself, Eleanor and the other characters a favour and resist the temptation to watch the fourth season.

The first three seasons are interesting, well composed period pieces of life in Victorian London. Story lines focus on an intelligent, educated young woman and her widowed father. Both are doctors. At the time women doctors were an anomaly. The class and sex divisions of that society are depicted in interesting detail throughout the series as Eleanor moves from a hospital position, dabbles in middle class general practice and goes on to become head of a free infirmary in the slums of the city.

Jemma Redgrave and the other actors are simply excellent. The casting director is to be commended. The third season ends at a good point, but the series is so well done you naturally want more. Resist if you can that tempting fourth season. It is a poison apple.

Apparently the Pod People visited the set in the third-fourth season hiatus, taking over the bodies and minds of both cast and crew. The last two tedious episodes are imitations of bad art-house fare--darkly lit, with unnaturally bright lighting on certain characters' faces. Intrusive, annoying and at times downright weird music. Eleanor's devoted father and other ongoing major characters apparently were abducted by our alien visitors, for they are nowhere to be seen. The Men in Black must have visited the Thrift (Eleanor's slum-based infirmary) because there's not a mention of them or the fact the Thrift appears to be an entirely different building (with several new floors!)in the same place it always was.

Worst of all is the fact that the characters we've come to love, with all their warts and bumps, have been replaced by automatons bearing the same names and clothing. It was of passing interest to see an actress as good as Jemma Redgrave tackle the role of an entirely new (and unlikeable) character with only a name in common with the person she'd portrayed so beautifully in the past.

Do not sully the memory of these people by watching the last season. You'll only regret it. Your time will be better spent looking up Jemma Redgrave in IMDb to see her other work. That's where I'm going next.

Seasons one and two are exceptional...

[boomer-kris · 8/10 · 12 April 2020]

Season 3 not so much, and Season 4 is embarrassing..or it should be. The characters lose all of the traits and behaviors that made them so endearing. And there were some excellent stories in the first couple of seasons, but season 4 shows this very smart woman acting like she had a frontal lobotomy. It's as if the series was written by two different sets of writers.

Do watch the first two seasons, maybe skip the later ones if you've come to love the characters. The synthesizers used for the music in the last two episodes have no place in the 1890's!

Very engaging

[jmcnulty-1 · 7/10 · 27 April 2011]

I had never heard of this series but since it was available on Netflix streaming I gave it a go.

What a pleasant surprise! It engaged me immediately and I found myself sitting through all night marathons to catch up with the story.

What the show does best is not to be cliché. The characters portrayed are not perfect human beings and have faults which makes the storyline nicely unpredictable with a few twists and turns that I found quite emotional at times.

It's very well acted throughout and Jemma Redgrave is outstanding and perfectly believable as a late Victorian doctor working in the slums of London and all the supporting cast do a fine job.

I have to add an addendum to this review since I hadn't seen the entire series when I wrote it.

The show is very good, but somehow it comes off the rails at the end of the line! Talk about a train crash!It's as though the show was canceled at the last minute so they hurried up the plot to wrap up two years into two episodes. Who knows, but all the characters are out of sync as is the plot with main characters disappearing never to be heard from again, and others appearing from no-where to take the lead. And the music get's surreal at times with no connection to the plot... at all. Quite a mystery and quite strange.

I had to remove two stars for the above reason.

Great period piece--well worth watching

[vgs1895 · 3 February 2004]

I came upon this miniseries by accident, and I am glad I did. I'd never heard of it, but it sounded interesting. It really does a good job of portraying what London and medicine probably were like back in the 1800's. Though not an overtly feminist piece, it does depict what women doctors had to go through to gain a bit of respect. The story line might be considered thin for four videos, but it held my interest enough so that I purchased it. If medicine, Merry Olde England, or good acting is of interest to the viewer, this is well worth watching.

Loved Seasons 1-3

[ScienceIsCool · 8/10 · 16 August 2012]

I started watching this show (Netflix instant play) as background noise while I worked on some projects, but soon fell in love. I am particularly drawn to medical dramas, and this show was no exception. I love the relationship between the doctors Bramwell (Elanor and her father) and the hopefully somewhat-accurate depiction of the struggles a woman doctor might face in those times. I also love the depth of the more minor characters (Dr. Marsham, nurse Carr, Kate) and the witty humor and sarcasm employed.

I was grossly disappointed by the fourth mini-season of the show, however. I was warned not to watch it, by a Netflix review, but gave into temptation. Now I repeat a similar warning: if you admire Elanor's strength and character (and especially if you are fond of Dr. Marsham) don't watch Season 4. I am now trying to trick myself into remembering the series as it ended in season 3 as I was so disgusted with what went on in Season 4. The creepy music used in the intro, and throughout the fourth season should have given me a head's up. Also, Sidnney was replaced with a weenie of a character that badly needed a shave, and Dr. Robert Bramwell didn't make an appearance. Perhaps if he had, he would have knocked some sense into his daughter.

Skip Season 4 - Watch Seasons 1-3 Only

[latoyadavidson · 8/10 · 7 May 2020]

Fantastic series. Season 3 was amazing and is a good ending for the show. I watched Season 4 despite the reviews and because I usually watch shows in their entirety. However, the last season, it was like watching someone on drugs. It was horrible. The music, the way it was shot, it was all truly painful to watch. I'm going to simply pretend that Season 4 doesn't exist.

Bramwell --- the great and the terrible

[pdhutch · 8/10 · 26 September 2017]

*** Warning --- spoilers ahead!!****

This is my first review, not only on IMDb, but on any site of a TV show. But I had so many thoughts about this that I had to get them out and say something.

I discovered this show a few weeks ago on Britbox and for the most part, am so glad that I did! I'm going to sound like so many reviewers on here. Seasons 1-3 were just wonderful. It was delightful to watch them. I actually looked forward to coming home and watching an episode each night, as they were both relaxing but also challenged some of your thinking. What I enjoyed so much about these three seasons is that none of these characters are perfect -- but in essence, they are good. This is very hard to do with TV shows, in my opinion. Dr. Bramwell is a generally well-meaning person who truly wants to help people, but can also be snobbish, judgmental and even unkind. That being said, you can sympathize with where she is in life and what she hopes to accomplish. It was awesome seeing a strong, smart, independent woman doctor here. She made mistakes --- sometimes bad ones --- but for me, that made her character even more relatable and human. The characters on this show are complex and go far beyond being Victorian clichés. The end of season three was for me, the loveliest part of the show. You didn't know what might happen next, but it was handled in such a great way. As other reviewers have said, it's my opinion that the show should have ended there.

And then....there was season 4. I just got finished watching and I'm going back and forth between disappointed, angry and kind of sad. I don't really invest that much time or emotion into TV shows, but I enjoyed this one, and to see it come crashing down like that was hugely disappointing. I understand, I think, what the writers might have been trying to do and I appreciate that --- Victorian London could be an incredibly difficult and awful place for some, and Dr. Bramwell's fierce determination to find Dora is commendable. My problem is the complete and utter change of tone, style and intent on the part of the characters. There's nothing wrong with keeping a certain amount of consistency with TV characters. Shows make us think, but they can also provide a sense of comfort. To make such drastic changes was baffling. If the writers had decided from Season 1 to film the show this way, with this different tone, I would have understood. I may not have liked it as much, but at least I would have understood what kind of mood they were going for. Dr. Bramwell, though her cause to find Dora might have been worthy, quite frankly becomes insufferable, and I hate what they did with Dr. Marsham. I felt like I was watching an entirely different show.

I think, like others, I'm just going to pretend I didn't see season 4 and imagine that the show ends in season 3. It will leave me with much happier memories of this show!

Series 1 through 3 amazing and series 4 a travesty

[rosalisa-09605 · 9/10 · 13 August 2019]

Bramwell was a wonderful , gritty depiction of medicine and public health in Victorian England. Well written and beautifully filmed , it's greatest asset however , was it's amazing characters and talented actors. I really cared for Eleanor , Doctor Marsham , Nurse Carr and Dr. Bramwell Senior. It broke my heart to see the what the writers did to Eleanor and Dr. Marsham's budding romance and friendship ! Dr. Marsham was so kind and caring. In season 4 , he was unrecognizable! Stop this series at season 3 and let your own imagination write the ending ! BBC fanatic

What a sad message for young women

[john-3048 · 6/10 · 17 January 2020]

As the product of a long line of strong, independent women professionals, who in turn raised four such young women, it is particularly discouraging that a once promising series reverted to clichéd reminders of how such women are incapable of fulfillment without a man and child at the center of their lives.

Like Game of Thrones, Bramwell writers, directors and actors introduced strong women, only to abandon them as either hopelessly incomplete without pledging subservience to their man and/or hysterically incapable of compromise. The first three seasons were entertaining, if not somewhat overwrought at times. For one thing, Doctors Bramwell seemed incapable of interacting without screaming at each other, alternating between maximum volume accusations, immediately followed by distraught apologies - in every episode.

Nevertheless, the series effectively explored any number of social issues and medical practices of the time. I suppose that's why groundbreaking Eleanor Bramwell's story arc was so troubling. Her predilection to alternately detest and then hop into bed with manipulative Dr. Finn O'Neill, another strong-willed outspoken character who seemed equally incapable of asking or stating the obvious, never failed to elicit groans from my wife and I. At some point during that terminally tedious storyline, we began referring to the series as "The Slutty Doctor."

My wife was convinced she would end up with dedicated and loyal Dr. Joe Marsham, until the show runners inexplicably morphed him into a mean-spirited jerk, and substituted a military man with so little character development there seemed no earthy reason for any mutual attraction after their inebriated snog on a park bench.

The last ten minutes of the final episode brought a jolting, yet merciful, end to a series storyline in search of meaning. After a lifetime of struggles with interpersonal relationships in a misogynistic profession, our beloved Eleanor bizarrely found contentment by abandoning her life-long career commitment for a transition man with no discernable qualities beyond a natty mustache, but who just happened to have impregnated her.

And the only person to attend her wedding? The equally strong and independent Nurse Carr, who only found her fulfillment with another military man after a single stroll in the park.

What a sad message for young women.

The Good Doctor

[khzzmyk · 9/10 · 28 December 2021]

I agree with most reviews. 1-3 were amazing and I had hoped that the story line and character of Eleanor would have stayed there. It would have been lovely to see the relationship between the doctors. Bringing in a soldier was useless and irrelevant.

Great first two series, so-so third series, and terrible fourth series.

[lundrira7 · 6/10 · 20 January 2019]

I really enjoyed the first two series of Bramwell which dealt more with Eleanor's determination to be a doctor for the poor. The emphasis was on the people she found to help and the hardships of trying to heal people without modern medical techniques and medicines. Then in series three, it shifts to Eleanor's love life and how an obviously intelligent and talented woman becomes putty in a man's hands. The fact that the object of her affection does not behave in a truthful manner turns this caring doctor into a self-centered shrew. I can cut a little slack as we all have our bad break up stories where we have done weird things, but hers was over the top. Things she said to friends and family were cruel and out of character. Season 4 carried on in this vein. Eleanor seems to forget she is a doctor and becomes a crusader for a cause - not out of dedication, but because of her guilt. She is horrible to all around her and then we are supposed to be surprised she is let go. However, the worst part is that after she trashes her friends and colleagues, ignores her patients, and buys a child to allay her guilt and then promptly ignores that child and leaves her for others to deal with - all is sunshine and roses at the end because Eleanor got her man. All those years of working to become a Dr. and giving countless hours to help others goes out the window and she and Mr. Quarrie ride off into the sunshine. Yuk!

Very compelling show

[johnkennethmann · 10/10 · 24 April 2019]

Really enjoyed this series particullarly from a historical point of view. Having said that Season 4 SUCKED! No other way to put. Weird soundtrack, filming technique was like an out of body ecperience, very dark mood. You spend 3 seasons loving theses characters and then season 4 happens and you really don't like them! Would love to see a. Mini series on how the characters lifes changed as they took on the 20th century.

3 Good and 1 Bad Season

[carol-36189 · 6/10 · 28 January 2019]

How could a series take such a bad turn with writing, directing and acting not to mention settings, lighting and music. Seasons 1 thru 3 were enjoyable but I found it astounding that Eleanor was so dumb as to not see she was being used. But then the 4th season train wreck happened and proved that yes, in fact, Eleanor is that stupid. They should have ended it with season 3.

Season 4 RUINED this series

[dbh850 · 1/10 · 15 May 2012]

*SPOILERS!!!!*

Season 1-3: LOVE IT! Season 4: HATE IT!!

What the heck happened?!?! They ruined this series. By the time I was into Season 4, I realized completely different people probably wrote it - or if they are the same people, they all got brain injuries. I don't know which and I'm too disgusted with the whole thing to look that up.

As time went by, I became more and more disgusted with the protagonist, Eleanor Bramwell. She made some really stupid decisions and didn't learn from them. She lost her charm for me - I was more interested in her father and step mother by Season 4 than by her - and they disappeared completely. I don't understand why they wrote so much heartache caused by her. Poor Dr. Marsham! A completely decent fellow, honorable and smart and responsible and - well, I LIKED that relationship. Why kill it? They could have written ANYTHING happening.

And all that unprotected sex and the big crisis is a pregnancy. REALLY?!?! She's a physician at a time when there were very few women doctors and ALL of their battles were uphill, she knows everything about how pregnancies occur, they had very primitive birth control, and she's UPSET that she got knocked up?!?! Oh man - that really ticked me off. She KNEW that a pregnancy would be a career-ending scandal. I spent 13 years in university and a few more in internships myself. There is NO WAY I would do something that stupid if it could destroy a couple of decades of schooling and training.

On the medical side of things, it was remarkable to me that they showed so little in the way of the mortality rate from surgery at that time. It was a terrible, agonizing death. Opening up people's bodies and sticking your bare hands in there is NOT always helpful. It would have been realistic to have some of those sorts of things going on.

But most of all, it's not a good idea to write a protagonist whom people like in the beginning and despise at the end. Reading some of these reviews - and looking at what people are saying on Netflix - I'm impressed with how much people dislike the way the show ended and dislike the protagonist. This series should be required viewing for film majors.

an amazing series

[evso · 10 January 2000]

I have followed "Bramwell" since I started watching the mini-series on PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre" a few years ago. The depiction of a female doctor in Victorian England is very entertaining and groundbreaking. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in period drama or the history of medical practice.

great show, almost

[slappysquirrel_2000 · 8/10 · 27 August 2022]

I've watched this series several times over the years. What an abomination the last season was, and it seems to be everyone's overwhelming opinion, which is why I've taken away the last two stars. I guess the writers decided to just make some huge change to characters for the sake of making changes. What a betrayal to the characters. It was ended on such a low, low note. As the saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. No one said anything while reading the script and went ahead with production? So go ahead and watch the show, and skip the last season. I'd rather walk away from a quality project with unanswered questions instead of a huuuuuge disappointment.

Jemma Redgrave is amazing

[nrbessmer · 10/10 · 3 February 2019]

Taught period piece focusing on one of the first female doctors and professional woman in late Victorian times. Stellar cast with each episode centering around a theme: betrayal; loss; love; trust; class snobbery; and medical backwardness.

Well written and atmospheric bringing you into a very gritty part of London.

Definitely skip the fourth.

[kathyfleming-06531 · 9/10 · 8 October 2019]

Truly great 1-3 seasons I was late to discover but such good story and actors. I did not understand the final scene and dialogue of 4th Season at the church - I thought I heard Eleanor (Jemma Redgrave) say "No" to Major Quarie. Watched several times could not distinguish if she was going to marry him or not. Will never know.

A pleasure

[cloudmesa · 8/10 · 20 September 2022]

It's a pleasure to watch a show without cursing, fornication and same sex love scenes. In other words it's not a woke liberal trash show. These types of shows are hard to find in this modern sea of ugliness that is today entertainment industry.

Ms. Bramwell, although a little naive, should be a model for young women navigating this debauched world.

The show is presented in a square format that was prevalent in 1995. This in no way detracts from the wonderful acting and story line. I found it a refreshing reminder of how entertainment was and could be again with the right writers, directors and producers.

Terrible music

[overjoyedtoo · 6/10 · 9 August 2022]

Whoever thought a xylophone would make a scene more dramatic was drunk on his a$$. The first three seasons were great, and the 4th season consisting of only two episodes were pathetic at best. Music makes or breaks any production as everyone knows. Whoever was in charge of the music should have been fired before they started...

The last season--no she did not betray her 'character'

[debleenab-79-975804 · 10/10 · 25 February 2012]

No, she did not go off the rails. There is a reason the title puns on the phrase 'loose women.' Anyone with even a glancing acquaintance of Victorian England and the condition of women at the time would understand the psychological pressure of disenfranchisement that Bramwell faces. The cinematic depiction of the last season mirrored the exact horror and psychic fragmentation a woman like Bramwell (who has achieved something on the strength of reason and ability in a man's world) experiences when she realizes that Woman in her time is still the victim of her sex, that she will continue to be victimized and penalized as such (through prostitution and moral judgment), and that even a woman of birth and money like herself can be brought low by the circumstance of her sex (in her case, by unwed pregnancy).

She refers to 3 women who matter, who needs to be saved—herself/her unborn child, Dora and another one. They are paralleled by the three men in the last episode—the soldier, the doctor, and the pious man, who should be the representative members of society helping the unfortunates, and who all know of the horrors but are unmoved by them.

In the scenes leading up to her confrontation with the benefactor-to-be, she lashes out at the indifference and unfeeling reactions of every one who punishes and scolds women who fall foul of the sexual line but who will not act to prevent and protect women and children, even after they know the dangers and the persons concerned. Bramwell is in effect railing against social utilitarianism where the happiness of the masses is arbitrated by a self-appointed few (the doctors, priests, legal and juridical institutions deciding for the very women their society uses and abuses).

The Victorian notion of duty marks the series of confrontations, when Bramwell is told off for taking 25 pounds to 'buy' the child prostitute. She is castigated and judged for being delinquent in keeping hours and money, even though her motivations were far higher than anyone around her. When asked why she did not try to rescue the child through the police, or the Salvation Army, or other social institutions, she says she does not know, but we do—when the fine upstanding men around her know and do little or nothing, can she depend upon them to take matters seriously and do right? Bramwell, through her actions, is trying to get people to recognize their true social duty—to do whatever possible to prevent vice and protect the possibility of innocence. When the child is found dead, it is the death of her innocence too.

The nuns at the convent where Bramwell seeks a possible anonymous confinement supposedly do good work but they want to teach her humility. They are not accustomed to seeing women asserting their will in a man's world. Even as the brides of Christ are chaste, so must ordinary eves be, and their God is interpreted in man's image, harsh and exacting. Is it any surprise that Bramwell says that in the absence of god, she is sure He will understand if she steps in and does what she can to protect one child, i.e., in the manifest absence of the compassion that is divine, ordinary ungodly people must do what they can, and if there is indeed a benevolent God, He won't mind the interference of people such as Bramwell. On this point, her actions –judged as impulsive, thoughtless, etc.—are in stark contrast to the measured mercy of the priest.

The dialog with her colleague and former fiancé who says she has brought it upon herself is very Victorian, and indeed very American (to attribute absolute responsibility for such a crime to the woman alone). It is interesting to note that not one of the people close to her intercedes with Major Quarrie who has made her pregnant on her behalf, until she berates him in the street. And then they punish her for her condition by dismissing her, showing so little concern for the future welfare and earning capacity for the two. Then and now, shame overrides self-reliance.

The point, I think is to show the horror that lay beneath the cover of Victorian society. The men used and abused it more, and were inured to it. Bramwell, being judged for being pregnant, feels empathetic about the plight of children, she feels for the powerless children because she is fighting to retain power as a woman in a man's world, and is failing, just as the child struggled to remain at the hospital when Bramwell insisted that she go. When the child dies, Bramwell feels a sense of urgent personal responsibility, and struggles to convey this to the men who are more 'objective' and detached. She had been an extraordinary woman in a man's world, now she was forced to be a more ordinary woman in a man's world. The last episode shows her as 'breaking up' also because it is a representation of her through society's eyes—a woman who erred, as a woman, when all this time she had tried to be a less emotional creature—a woman who has finally fallen and broken. Society could forgive a woman for being a doctor like she was, for that transgression, but it would not forgive what it saw a hubris and overreaching. Bramwell could not be allowed to be both woman and man (be sexual, sexually liberal and eager, as men were allowed to be, for example, Dr. Marsham, who was never castigated for frequenting brothels except by Bramwell and even then he saw no merit in her accusations; did he take revenge for her disclosure in the street by helping her get dismissed?), and bear a child. The nun's words were telling — she must be made to learn humility through being made 'no different' from the other unfortunate women who came to the convent for their confinement.

From A+ to F- thanks to Season 4

[Berlinerin2020 · 6/10 · 23 October 2022]

It's hard to believe that a top flight production such as Bramwell in its first three seasons could become such a horror show in Season 4. Xylophone music? "Dark Shadows" lighting? Really?

All of the people we came to love in seasons 1-3 are gone: Dr. Robert Bramwell, Alice, Kate, the LOVABLE Dr. Marsham (not the nasty man who masquerades as Dr. Marsham in season 4), and Sidney. And perhaps most importantly, the writing quality is utterly lame in season 4. It's as if the writers had amnesia and forgot about the entirety of the character development of seasons 1-3!" Conclusion: Hard pass for Season 4.

So although I LOVED seasons 1-3, I can only give the whole series a "6 star" rating because of the poor quality of season 4.

first-rate series!

[WilliamCKH · 9/10 · 27 April 2010]

turn of the century London....a thrift infirmary treating patients with the diseases and scourges of the day....graphic depictions of 19th century medical practices, including operations, amputations, etc... a beautiful lady doctor with a heart of gold and a stubborn streak...YES PLEASE....MAY I HAVE SOME MORE! I'd jump off a ladder if there was a chance I'd get treatment from Jemma Redgrave. I can look at her all day.

I've got to stop watching shows like this. It only makes it harder in real life...finding real women to compare to the likes of Eleanor Bramwell

Have taken heed...

[catnapbc · 6/10 · 8 January 2023]

And am just watching season 3, but am already convinced that the best has come and gone, even though I have not quite finished the whole season. For a young, strong-willed and clearly bright (rare) female doctor in those days, you can see how her interactions with her father and others is becoming less 'her' and more of a bitter shadow of herself who reacts and acts like some petulant teenager. I did find the women's dresses to be so over-the-top frilly, puffy and downright weird (apart from the poor ones of course), that it really distracted me too often. The period details were good otherwise, assuming the production was as authentic as is portrayed. The poverty shown, as well as the lack of sanitation and basic medical facilities should really remind us how lucky we are today. Well, most of us in the 'Western' world. The acting is generally fine and the supporting cast often better in terms of character portrayal. Some good solid storylines with the occasional dud, like the religious segments, but fairly enjoyable entertainment. Not the best period series the British have produced, but not the worst. I will skip season 4 and save myself from giving this series an even lower rating. A grim reminder of that period in London, where the class distinction was even more extreme than in recent times.

no excuses, season 4 is garbage

[wmeyer-8 · 1/10 · 4 July 2012]

*** This review may contain SPOILERS ***

First of all, seasons 1-3 were very well done, with few disappointments. Characters were well developed, as were relationships.

Then came season 4. With all respect to the reviewer who claims Eleanor "dis not go off the rails", she clearly did. And so did the writers, who appear to have little sense of balance or subtlety in season 4.

I am inclined to believe that the absence of some characters in the closing season resulted from their having read the scripts and dashed for the door.

Major failings include: - no clear sense of the time elapsed since end of season 3

• horrible music, intrusive and forgettable

• loss of characters without explanation (Sidney, Robert, Kate, and others)

• new characters whose back story only becomes apparent in snatches over time

• near total suspension of reason on the part of Eleanor, and of morals, as well

• utterly implausible introduction of Dr. Marsham's moral turpitude (the man worked too many hours to have had time for that)

• uneven exposition of plot: there are jarring leaps over details which needed explication, and on the other hand, dreary working to death of the details of the search for Dora, which added little to our understanding, or of the plight of such girls

I could write more, but suffice it to say, your time will be spent much more happily on more engaging activities; arranging your books, or doing your taxes, or even a visit to the dentist.