Lessons in Chemistry
Over the long holiday weekend (Thanksgiving) we watched the final episode of Lessons In Chemistry on Apple TV+.
LIC is a period miniseries adapted by film writer and producer Lee Eisenberg from a novel by Bonnie Garmus.
The plot is based around a fictional female chemist Elizabeth Zott (played by Brie Larson), who, after being fired from her job as a lab tech, uses her new job hosting a 1960s television cooking show called Supper at Six to educate housewives on scientific topics.
LIC uses fiction to explore real social issues, first among them gender equality. The reason this resonates with me is that my own mother was a math teacher, and I know about how unfairly limiting the opportunities for women in STEM were in those days. My mom’s options were to teach in high school or do bookkeeping.
Beyond this point of attachment, the coastal California scenes reminded me of my college days in Santa Barbara. It felt familiar, although I was there long after the days of longboards and Packards.
My (lovely) European wife did not connect with the series the way I did. She felt the show's handling of sexism and racism were overplayed, heavy handed and particularly American (moralizing through narratives of "good people” vs “bad people" without reference to conditions or acknowledgment that all people do good and bad things).
To some degree, I agree. To take it a little further, the world’s largest corporation selling these stories as entertainment in some ways diminishes it. But this IS television drama, made for large audiences. So the tensions need to be obvious in order to be effective. And I'd still recommend an episode or two if you haven't seen it so you can decide for yourself.
This was a breakout role for Brie Larson as EZ. And she has an excellent cast of supporting characters around her, including a talking dog named “six thirty”.
A few media business observations before signing off:
Apple TV+ scheduled the final episode to fall on the holiday weekend, dropping it on Wednesday instead of the usual Friday (the first seven episodes were released on Fridays) to maximize weekend viewing and potential audience for the entire series.
Apple TV+ increased their subscription price right after the show ended, from $6.99 to $8.99. Coincidence? Yes, a planned one. But still worth it.
Before moving to novels, Bonnie Garmus was a copywriter in an advertising agency. It was after a pitch for a technology client in which a colleague (male) tried to pass her ideas off as his own that she sat down and wrote the first chapter of LIC.
Ars imitatur vitam.
