Lessons in Chemistry

Brie Larson is sooo stylish and I initially loved this series. However, the whole thing very gradually fell off a cliff half way through the series as its potential as an inspiring feminist re-imagining of the 1950s was squandered and diluted by incomprehensibly schmaltzy rightwing evangelical panderings to Hallmarkian concepts of 'destiny' and 'sentimentality'. Shame really.

A stylized fairy tale. Diverting and fun but ultimately hollow and empty.

It was kind of a mixed bag at times for me, but mostly on the positive. The film does a great job of setting up a feminist conflict in the beginning era of TV and those scenes are undoubtedly the strongest. Brie Larson provides a lot of heart and her character's growth arc gives the series its strongest center. I did feel like a secondary subplot involving civil rights and some diving into the past of its leads were a little shoehorned, but with a strong final episode, all is forgiven.

It was alright. The core plot was fine, but the side plots got so bland preachy that I wasn't sure what I was watching anymore. If you expect a legitimately cute romance, you'll like it. If you expect anything more, I'm sorry to say this ain't it.

Surprisingly bad show. With good reviews I expected more, but it's pretty bad. Dialogue is really stiff. Plot meanders a lot with a few pretty unrelated storylines. Is it a science show? A cooking show? A civil rights show? It tries to be those and more and falls short at all of them. Overall, feels like a grab bag of issues the writers want to make a point on that get shoe horned into the show. And feels unrealistically progressive for a show set in this era.

Brie Larson is great, and especially Alice Halsey is fantastic. I do think the show wanders a bit in its story, but I like the general style and character building they have.