Bramwell/YMMV


 * Squick (One episode features this trope incarnate in a young woman fond of swallowing needles and pins. And shoving them under her skin. Wherever she could. Fun girl. Also, the majority of the surgery scenes stray into this due to the methods of the time-- not to mention how Frederick died.)
 * Narm - Sir Herbert, particularly at the beginning of the series. It's hard to say whether this is a deliberate caricature of a Victorian gentleman or slightly bad acting, but his facial expressions are to die for.
 * Values Dissonance: Doubles with Unfortunate Implications. As a whole the series is very good with making the characters hold the opinions of their time, even the otherwise forward thinking Lady Doctor Bramwell herself. But in 2x07 her hints of progressiveness go sideways and backwards instead of forwards. While running away from someone, 18 year old cross-dresser Frederick is hit by a cab and brought to the infirmary. They discover he's an "invert" or a homosexual, and someone "makes" him grow his hair long and wear dresses, though by now he feels more comfortable with that part. Everyone is disgusted by him due to the illegality of homosexual acts and the cultural abhorrence of gender roles being messed with, not to mention the part about him possibly being a rent boy. Frederick admits he's homosexual but he hates his lifestyle as a prostitute and a kept man and wants to change it. He reveals to Eleanor that he was a starving 12 year old on the streets when an older gentleman took him in and "perverted" him...the same man who brought him to the Thrift...and the same man Frederick was running from when he was struck down, Charles Sheldon. Eleanor goes to chew him out for his "unnatural friendship" with Frederick, but Sheldon defends his behaviour with the Oscar Wilde spiel about the love that dare not speak it's name: the student-and-teacher sexual relationship between a man and a boy that the Greeks considered beautiful and rewarding.  Here's the problem: while modern audiences often see nothing wrong with a homosexual relationship in any time period, we usually see something wrong with any kind sexual relationship with children. Oscar Wilde may have enjoyed pretty young men, but so far as we know they weren't anywhere near as young as 12. These are the kind of arguments NAMBLA and others use that hurts the cause of gay acceptance when they claim that children have a right to their sexuality and need a guiding hand (literally) to help them along with it. The idea that we have to have different standards for all orientations so we don't seem homophobic is ridiculous, like being fine with a different culture that condones having sex with children in order not to appear racist. Sheldon isn't a gay man in love with a younger man and hated by a puritanical society - he's a pederast who groomed and raped a 12 year old boy and sneeringly claimed he merely awakened urges his victim already had, a song sung by child rapists everywhere. Under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 the age of consent for girls was raised from 13 to 16 (I haven't found anything about boys, but then there was rarely legislation like that, particularly concerning same-sex acts) and it was certainly illegal for a male to rape another male, no matter what age. It's not uncommon of for survivors of sexual abuse to defend their abuser, even claim they were in love. While it's understandable that Eleanor is entirely inexperienced when it comes to this kind of situation, were the writers of this episode expecting the viewers to congratulate themselves on how far we've come as a tolerant society and see the relationship as healthy, or were we meant to think both sides of the argument were wrong for different reasons? If Sheldon had started a relationship with Frederick when Frederick was at least 16 we might see it as a love story, but even then, keep these facts in mind: Sheldon made his "lover" wear women's clothes when he didn't want to; Frederick said Sheldon was fanatically jealous, constantly checking on his behaviour; Sheldon was angry with Frederick earning money as a rent boy, as though he expected the boy he kept as a near prisoner to want to remain monogamous and dependent, and this might have been what sparked the argument that made Frederick run blindly into the street. Bad relationships between people of the opposite gender are treated as bad relationships on the show, not as misunderstood star-cross'd lovers, except for this one, which happens to feature two men. This show doesn't give easy resolutions: patients frequently die or will die later or will live unhappy lives due to medical knowledge and societal attitudes of the time, and there's nothing Eleanor can do about it but try again with someone else. This episode ends with her thinking seriously about the possibility same-sex love, but her example of this "love" is clearly a tragedy of exploitation, not "nature made them this way so maybe I should accept them for who they are". Eleanor certainly wouldn't be feeling sorry for a "gentleman" she discovered was keeping a mistress from the time she was 12 to the time she was 18. She was horrified by the treatment of 12 year old GIRL prostitute a few episodes before, so why was this any different? Again, it's not saying she as a character sucks, it's the writers who suck for not casting a darker light on the character of Sheldon instead of leaving him looking like a grieving widower at the end.