Post review Fleishman in Trouble – An unusual divorce drama proudly debuted on Ready Steady Cut.
This review of Fleishman Is in Trouble Season 1 is spoiler-free.
Divorce drama is nothing new the new Interpreting divorce drama is a welcome respite from miserable, painful things like Marriage story And the Scenes from marriage. Fleischmann is in troublenew FX Hulu Series adapted from A book of the same title by Taffy Brodesser-Akneris refreshingly modern and proudly unusual on the formula, fusing a crisp contemporary dating scene and a remarkably lopsided perspective into a familiar tale of life that has to restart awkwardly in middle age.
The series is named after Toby Fleischmann.Jesse Eisenberg), a New York doctor who has just emerged from a nightmare 15-year marriage to his wife, Rachel (Claire Danes), who is depicted, at least in the first two episodes, as being so horrible that she makes her children Sully (Maxim Jasper Swinton) and Hannah (Myra Mahoney Gross) – the latter in particular – is equally awful by sheer osmosis. Rachel, you see, is successful enough that Toby’s $300,000-a-year medical career seems like poverty, and the squalid post-breakup apartment he lives in is, to them, indistinguishable from a cardboard box under an overpass.
Toby specializes in human livers, and what he likes most about him is his flexibility; Her ability to adapt and heal under so much pressure and, perhaps most importantly, to finally forget how much she was hurt in the first place. You don’t need me to draw parallels here. But Toby — unusually for an Eisenberg character — is also a ladies’ man, and one of the first things he realizes after discovering the world of app-based dating is that he’s seen as a particularly good catch from the central New York-aged singles scene.
When we meet Toby, he seems fine. He recently called up some old friends, Libby (Lizzy Caplan) and Seth (Adam Brody), and is visibly excited by his new romantic possibilities, which are presented mostly in montages of sex scenes with different and very exotic – at least in their appetites – women. But crucially, Toby has remained the same the entire time. At work, while dating, and with his friends, he can be recognized as the same person, even as his personal life continues to upend dramatically and is peppered with new or at least new experiences. I think this is vital.
Which is vital because Toby seems like a nice guy. He takes care of his patients at work. He has voluntarily mentioned that he wants to date older women, so he doesn’t inadvertently waste anyone’s time hoping to start a family. He seems respectful to the women he dates, and they in turn seem to respect him. This stands in deliberately stark contrast to what we see and hear about Rachel. What we see in flashbacks is malice and superficiality. Toby was so used to her pointless theatrics that when she left the kids for a weekend and he couldn’t contact her, it took him several days to realize that she had apparently disappeared.
What may have happened to Rachel is a mystery, but the show doesn’t dwell on it. What seems most pressing is how her sudden absence sparks Toby’s new dating life and career prospects. He is seen to be so patient and understanding with his awful children that, on some level, he has become prone to throwing money at them and quietly resenting their presence. This is not so much to discredit Toby as it is to make a point that is variously repeated elsewhere about how even people with seemingly perfect, impressive lives can view them as personal prisons.
Take Libby, for example, a former journalist who never made her dreams come true and instead became a stay-at-home mom. She loves her husband and children, but it is no coincidence that she actually tells Toby’s story, seeing in him a wealth of erotic potential and personal fulfillment that she believes her outwardly happy family life has closed off. Seth is the same. He is one free spirit, but while the other characters see the positive side in that, he senses the lack of the authentic human bonds they both share with their significant others and children. For the other two, Seth looks free. But for Seth, he’s just lonely.
Thanks to Brodesser-Akner, who created the show and wrote seven of the eight episodes, these nuanced performances pair perfectly with complex writing. This is a deeply introspective and contemplative story that thankfully doesn’t fall into the trap of being dull and tedious, as we explore how we fit together and fall apart in an honest, funny, and maybe even hopeful way.
You can stream Fleishman Is in Trouble Season 1 with a Hulu subscription.
Post review Fleishman in Trouble – An unusual divorce drama proudly debuted on Ready Steady Cut.
