Sometimes a TV miniseries mixes all of the right ingredients and does it so artfully that it feels right down to a science.
That’s the case with the new Apple TV+ miniseries “Lessons in Chemistry,” which drops Episode 5 this Friday with three more heading into Thanksgiving. I’ve already binged all eight episodes and think it’s one of the best novel adaptations in recent years. Just bring the tissues — there are some heavy emotions baked into this cake.
Based on author Bonnie Garmus’ novel of the same name that was heralded as Barnes & Noble’s book of the year in 2022, the story follows chemist Elizabeth Zott, who is fired from her job as a lab technician by her misogynistic male colleagues at the Hastings Research Institute. Soon, she gets the last laugh by hosting a TV cooking show titled “Supper at Six,” transcending the kitchen to teach housewives scientific concepts in 1960s America.
The role reminds us just how great of an actress Brie Larson can be, recalling her early genius in the South By Southwest champ “Short Term 12” (2013), the indie gem “The Spectacular Now” (2013), the raunchy comedy “Trainwreck” (2015) and her Oscar-winning masterpiece “Room” (2015) before getting bogged down in blockbusters like “Kong: Skull Island” (2017), “Captain Marvel” (2019) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019).
In “Lessons in Chemistry,” she flips a switch in her acting brain to show a different side. Her well-regulated facial expressions mirror the character’s clinical understanding of the world, while her intentionally robotic line delivery recalls Alicia Vikander’s A.I. in “Ex Machina” (2015), only this time without the “male gaze.” Quite the opposite, she’s Marie Curie in a world of Betty Drapers, talking up (not down) to the largely female live studio audience.
She overcomes her own past trauma by forging an eternal romance with fellow chemist Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman, son of Bill Pullman). He listens to jazz for a free-flowing approach to research, clearing his head by rowing and running with his dog Six-Thirty (voiced by B.J. Novak). Their love transcends time and traditional marriage, birthing a precocious daughter Madeline (Alice Halsey), who wants to find her paternal grandfather.
Rounding out the cast are Aja Naomi King as her friend Harriet Sloane, who leads civil rights protests against highway construction in a Black neighborhood; Patrick Walker as Reverend Wakely, who becomes Calvin’s pen pal debating science vs. faith; Stephanie Koenig as the busy Hastings secretary Fran Frask; Kevin Sussman as TV producer and feminist ally Walter Pine; and Rainn Wilson as the pigheaded TV executive Phil Lebensmal.
Viewers shouldn’t be surprised to see Dwight Schrute; the miniseries is developed by Lee Eisenberg, who wrote and directed episodes of NBC’s “The Office” before creating Amazon’s “Jury Duty” earlier this year. While those were laugh-out-loud comedies filmed in a mockumentary style, “Lessons in Chemistry” proves Eisenberg’s versatility, creating a period-piece drama with more traditional structure but effective camera placement.
Unlike Larson’s previous film adaptation “The Glass Castle” (2017), which added an unnecessary framing device to the bestselling 2005 novel, “Lessons in Chemistry” is relatively easy to follow, never sacrificing accessibility for artistry — and vice versa. The episodes deliver plenty of shocking twists without losing sight of the narrative or the thematic core of the story, one of resilient feminism in a male-dominated world that still exists today.
Some critics might find it a little by the book, following the exact instructions of a tried-and-true cookbook, but to me, a good recipe is a good recipe, and when this show comes out of the oven, it’s satisfying in all the right ways. We laugh, we cry, we learn about humanity, we see how the nation’s past echoes into our present and we are inspired to become better people ourselves. If that’s not a successful television show, then I don’t know what is.
