"What a pity," as Dr. Zachary Smith himself put it, that such an enlightening indelible little carving of M*AS*H is so ironically labeled with 1 of the dullest titles in its storied history - I could have done better easily in the 6th grade! - though the contemporary viewing audience still around would not yet know of this for many long years. My regard for this episode has not changed in all these decades despite its Disappointment Island resident "canonic" flaws. The uninitiated (having seen neither the ho-de-la-hum - "said with affection," in no less than Colonel Potter's own words - original movie or this program's early, more inclusive chapters - & Nurse Kellye must've been on leave painting Tokyo town red) will be of the wrong impressions that these "Nurses" are a) all such complement among the 4077th crew; b) that the place was populated by 98% white people; & c) that somehow (observed elsewhere, though directed at the "quarantine patient") there was noplace else for the Major to crash, even only overnight, than squeezed in with a quartet of subordinates she was clashing with. Such a ridiculous state of affairs had already been aired aboard ye Federation starship Enterprise ("Elaan of Troyius," 1968) wherein somehow that spacegoing tug had no other room for, especially the future (titular) equivalent of Princess Diana, that VIP than to inconvenience the chief Communications officer Lieutenant Uhura, for accommodations. In both cases this was done purely as a drama-creating device (which hopefully since has not been worked til it dropped), which here actually was more effective for more than just that. Miss Loretta Swit said as much herself, & who should try to argue against that? So it is that while its not insubstantial blemishes keep it from being of 10/10 character, they are not enough to diminish it past a 9; & overall it takes its place among the best & most endearing of M*A*S*H, which this now being 47 years later ain't nothing to sneeze at - oops, no pun! {:^)
Review of The Nurses
