Anyone who spends a considerable amount of time browsing OTT platforms would be happy to come across a show like “Baby Fever.” It is exactly what one would be looking for today—a wacky premise, a tight-knit story with very entertaining characters, all of which fits into a short 6-episode length. A show like that is an easy answer to,’ what should we watch next?’ It follows a fertility doctor, who artificially inseminates herself while extremely drunk, and the hilarious consequences that follow her recklessness. “Baby Fever” can very well be described as a romantic comedy, but it stands in a league of its own, owing to the fresh and inventive writing and imperfect characters who have layers to them and don’t exist to serve just some purpose for the main protagonist. “Baby Fever” is a masterful commentary on the desire for motherhood and the ethics involved in wanting children of one’s own. Let us see how it goes before we give more of our opinions.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Does Nana Artificially Inseminate Herself?
The first episode of “Baby Fever” opens with Nana drunkenly inseminating herself at the hospital. As we recover from the shock of it, the storyline goes back three days. She is a successful fertility doctor with a messy personal life. At work, while her success rates are high, she is also known for how well she puts her clients at ease during their consultations, often by fabricating stories of her struggles with motherhood. Nobody seems to mind her questionable morals, though everyone knows about it. She is shown to be somewhat scared of relationships and commitment. Nana keeps avoiding a guy named Soren, who she went on a date with and claimed to have had a good time. She and her friend Simone call him “Fit Physio” for most of the show. Nana makes an excuse, saying he is boring and she can’t stand the thought of going ‘mushroom picking’ with him, but it is clear to the viewer that there is more than that. Nana also crosses paths with another ex-boyfriend of hers, Matthias. It turns out, they broke up six months ago when he said he was leaving for Guatemala. He had asked Nana to come with him, but she had not shown up at the airport.
In the office, Helle, Nana’s boss, tells her that she wants her to be the one to carry out the artificial insemination procedure on her girlfriend, Marie. Nana agrees, although she is awkward about it. But that day, while testing out some equipment, she comes to know that she has just 5–6 months left if she ever wants to get pregnant in her life. This is a startling revelation, one that forces her to rethink her life and how she actually wants to live it.
While she is going through this crisis, we can’t help but think about how most women think of motherhood. Nana is a 37-year-old woman who clearly has a lot going for her. She says that she doesn’t know how to feel about this news since she isn’t even sure if she wants to have children. But knowing she won’t be able to soon enough, sends her into a frenzy. Nana doesn’t know if she wants children, but there is a certain loneliness in her life that she struggles with. The person she loved, Matthias, is on the brink of flying away to another country. She doesn’t get along well with her mother, and the only person she can talk to is her best friend, Simone. The conditioning runs deep in cultures and society that motherhood completes a woman’, meaning that your life would be incomplete and lonely if you didn’t have children. We don’t blame her for clutching at the possibility of motherhood, for wanting to find what is missing in her life, for wanting to be happy again. This is why people should go to therapy. The day she comes to know of this news, she goes partying with Simone and gets drunk enough to break into the hospital and artificially inseminate herself, as a last-ditch effort to get pregnant.
The Consequences Of Nana’s Actions
It’s chaos at the hospital the next day. There are signs of a break-in, and several samples are damaged. It is a matter of possible loss of reputation for the hospital, especially since one of the samples was from a person who had cancer.
Simone is fired from her job as it was her responsibility to have properly locked the place. Unknown to them all Simone included, it was Nana who had taken her keys to do what she did when drunk. Now, she is left pondering who could be the father of her child. She tries to imagine that it could be Soren but also thinks a lot about Matthias, knowing that neither could be a possibility. Nana goes on a date with Matthias but comes to understand that she does not want him to be the father as he is always traveling. Coming back from the date, she meets Soren and spends the night with him. However, while coming back, she meets Matthias, who informs her that he will leave in a week.
The events that follow are a pure comedy of errors. Soren joins their hospital team full-time right when Nana starts experiencing signs of morning sickness. A pregnancy test confirms that she is, in fact, pregnant. She tells Simone and hints that Soren might be the father. Simone is excited for her, and she approves of Soren as he seems good with kids. While Nana asks her to keep this a secret, Simone is not sure if she can do it. When she meets Soren, he is excited about the birth of a dog. Simone, not quite following what he is saying, thinks that Nana has told him about her child, and ends up revealing the pregnancy.
Later that day, Nana and Matthias meet up, where he confesses to her that he has cancer and he now wants to settle down in life and stop wandering. It is at this point that Soren comes to meet Nana and asks her if she is pregnant with his child. Nana, caught by surprise, denies it. Nana’s mother comes back to town, and though they have always had a rocky relationship, Nana confides in her mother about how she feels scared and lonely. Her mother comforts her and tells her that her childhood was a great source of inspiration for her musical journey. It was not the start of a new relationship for the mother-daughter duo, but a bonding moment, which, had it come a little earlier, would have made Nana less reckless with her choices.
‘Baby Fever’ Season 1: Ending Explained- Who Is The Father Of Nana’s Baby? Does Nana Raise The Baby Alone?
In one of the scenes, while Simone is taking care of Nana, she goes through some of her belongings and finds the tube with the label M.Dahl, making it clear to Simone that Nana was the one to break into the hospital and the father of her child is Matthias. Turns out, before all this happened, when Nana met Matthias outside the hospital, she knew he was there to donate his sperm. While the meeting doesn’t amount to much, she is left curious. Nana has always had strong feelings for Matthias, and seeing him again brought it back. That fateful night, her drunken haze coupled with feelings of loneliness and loss, made her decide that getting pregnant was her best option, and Matthias was the best candidate. Of course, she disapproved of her own actions once she sobered up, but the damage was done.
At the end of “Baby Fever,” Season 1, we see Nana preparing herself for an abortion. She has taken the day off for it when she gets a message from one of her patients saying that despite her and her partner splitting up, they want to be parents and don’t want an abortion. The news makes Nana think about why she got pregnant and why she wanted an abortion following that.
After spending a day distracted at work and scaring off a client in the process, she pulls herself up and goes to her boss to fight for Simone. Nana tells her that it was she who did not set up the alarm on the sperm bank, and Simone shouldn’t be punished for it. Helle tells her that it wasn’t hers’ but Simone’s job to do so. At that moment, Marie comes into the room, declaring that she is pregnant, and it is a cause for celebration.
But Nana returns the next day and confesses to Helle that it was her who broke into the hospital and tells her about everything that happened. Helle is shocked but agrees to give Simone her job back. Nana goes to Simone’s house and apologizes to her, saying that what she did was insane and wrong, and she feels like the worst person for it. Simone and Nana make up, with the former telling her that she must tell Matthias about him being the father. “Baby Fever” ends with Nana outside Matthias’s building and him looking at her through his window, both acknowledging each other.
We assume that Nana must have told him about him being the father. Considering that he would leave for Guatemala in a few days, Nana would probably end up raising the child alone. But if he changes his mind and decides to stay back for the child, they would probably co-parent instead of getting into a relationship again. And all of this would only be after Matthias gets over the absolute betrayal and disappointment brought on by Nana’s actions. She and Soren have some tension between them after she denied that he was the father of her child, but seeing as he is still in the hospital, something could happen in the future.
Final Thoughts: Why ‘Baby Fever’ Is Such A Great Show?
It is really about the execution of it. Motivation for motherhood is quite a sensitive topic, and it was handled rather well by the makers of this show. When we read the premise of “Baby Fever,” we knew that we were looking forward to this. It is something refreshingly different and has a strangely rewatchable quality. That is rather rare in today’s age of an assembly line of great shows. In a way, “Baby Fever” works because it is somewhat practical, mixed with the wild. Nana is not a delusional character. She made a mistake, a horrible one, but a mistake nonetheless, and she is fully aware of the ramifications. However, she is only human and can’t help being selfish, considering the consequences. It is the way this has been depicted that makes the audience connect with her character and forgive her transgressions. This show could do well with a second season, but we are not sure we want it, simply because the first season is pure perfection. “Baby Fever” Season 2 will have to either show more of the consequences or will follow her life after she has the baby, and that would definitely be overkill. But it would do us well to be wrong and get served more great content, should the writers attempt it.
Despite our misgivings, “Baby Fever” Season 2 should be able to maintain the quality of Season 1, and that would be extremely welcome. Until then, we will watch the show again because we simply did not get enough of it.
“Baby Fever” is a 2022 Drama Comedy series created by Nikolaj Feifer and Amalie Næsby Fick.
