| Fleishman Is in Trouble | |
|---|---|
.png) Promotional poster | |
| Genre | Drama |
| Created by | Taffy Brodesser-Akner |
| Based on | Fleishman Is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner |
| Written by |
|
| Directed by | |
| Starring |
|
| Narrated by | Lizzy Caplan |
| Composer | Caroline Shaw |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers |
|
| Producer | Anne M. Uemura |
| Production location | New York City |
| Cinematography |
|
| Editors |
|
| Running time | 43–67 minutes |
| Production companies |
|
| Original release | |
| Network | FX on Hulu |
| Release | November 17 (2022-11-17) – December 29, 2022 (2022-12-29) |
Fleishman Is in Trouble is an Americandrama televisionminiseries created byTaffy Brodesser-Akner, based on her2019 novel of the same name. It starsJesse Eisenberg,Claire Danes,Lizzy Caplan,Adam Brody, Meara Mahoney Gross, and Maxim Swinton. The series follows a recently divorced Manhattanhepatologist trying to navigate his new single life when his ex-wife suddenly disappears, leaving him to care for their two children.
The series aired onFX on Hulu from November 17 to December 29, 2022, consisting of eight episodes. It was met with positive reviews from critics and received seven nominations at the75th Primetime Emmy Awards, includingOutstanding Limited or Anthology Series and acting nominations for Danes and Caplan.
Toby Fleishman is a recently divorcedhepatologist in his early 40s usingdating apps for the first time. As he begins to find romantic success he never achieved in his youth, his ex-wife Rachel disappears without a trace after leaving him with their children, Hannah and Solly. While Toby juggles looking after his children, a possible job promotion, and all the potential sexual partners inManhattan, he realizes that he will never be able to figure out what happened to his wife until he can be more honest about what happened to their marriage in the first place.
| No. | Title | Directed by | Teleplay by | Original release date [1] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Summon Your Witnesses" | Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | November 17, 2022 (2022-11-17) | |
In the summer of 2016, Toby Fleishman, aJewishhepatologist in his early 40s living in Manhattan, signs up for adating app following his recent divorce from Rachel, atalent agent and his spouse of 15 years, and begins having frequent, casual sex. On advice from his therapist, he reconnects with his old college friends Libby and Seth, whom he met in astudy abroad program inJerusalem and had not seen since the first years of his marriage. Rachel drops off their children—Hannah, who resents Toby for the divorce, and Solly, who conversely idolizes Toby and seeks his help on hisscience fair project—at Toby's apartment a day early, compelling him to leave them with their babysitter Mona while he goes on a date and has sex with a woman named Tess. The next day, Rachel does not show up to pick up the children or respond to any of Toby's calls. Tess arrives to again have sex with Toby but believes she is being put on when she sees his children, and storms out. Libby, happily married, realizes she is envious of Toby rediscovering himself in the wake of his separation. | |||||
| 2 | "Welcome to Paniquil" | Alice Wu | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | November 17, 2022 (2022-11-17) | |
Toby fires Mona after he realizes that Solly used his computer to look up pornography, and takes them to Rachel's house inthe Hamptons when she does not show up to take them. He is ejected from the property when the new housekeeper does not recognize him, causing him to have an epiphany about moving on in the wake of his divorce. He finally gets Hannah a cell phone and sends the children to summer camp, taking his time off to meet with Libby and Seth inCentral Park. While talking about Rachel, Libby inadvertently plants an idea in his head that the reason for her silence could be that she is in danger, and leaves in a panic, only to encounter her friends at a grocery store, who tell him that they saw her napping in the park. | |||||
| 3 | "Free Pass" | Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton | Mike Goldbach | November 24, 2022 (2022-11-24) | |
In flashbacks, after meeting at a college party, Toby and Rachel fall in love and get married, although their respective professional successes and contrasting worldviews slowly drive a wedge between them. As Rachel gives birth to Hannah, the substitute doctor breaks her water without her consent. Believing that she was sexually assaulted, Rachel developspostpartum depression until Toby hires a nanny. As she starts her own theater talent agency, Rachel becomes increasingly driven by success and wealth, causing her to miss significant time with her family. Their marriage continues to deteriorate, and Toby comes to resent Rachel's ambitious lifestyle, as well as her wealthy friends, who treat Toby's job with condescension. At a dinner with Rachel's friends, when asked to name a person she would like to have sex with outside her marriage, she mentions Sam Rothberg, thealpha male of Rachel's friend group's husbands and the wealthy head of apharmaceutical company whom Toby despises for sellingplacebos to unsuspecting patients. In the present, Toby remembers this incident and looks up Sam onFacebook, realizing that Rachel's last known location is a short drive from where Sam is. | |||||
| 4 | "God, What an Idiot He Was!" | Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | December 1, 2022 (2022-12-01) | |
Toby storms over to his former apartment and finds evidence that Sam had been there, leaving him feeling emasculated and angry, which increases when Nahid, a regular hookup of his, rejects an offer for a date. He impulsively visits Libby and her family in suburban New Jersey, but feels awkward around her husband, Adam. When Libby learns of Toby's dinner plans with Seth, she insists on joining them, but Toby rebuffs her and leaves. At the restaurant, Seth introduces Toby to his girlfriend, Vanessa, and reveals that he has lost his job due to his boss being investigated forinsider trading. Toby realizes, looking around the restaurant, that Rachel was attracted to Sam because of his confident, forwardly wealthy attitude. He receives a call from the hospital and learns that his patient, Karen Cooper, a woman around his age with previously undiagnosedWilson's disease, has been approved for aliver transplant. He sleeps in the hospital overnight while she has the surgery, having an erotic dream about her. He wakes to see that Karen has recovered and is rejoicing with her husband, prompting him to finally accept that Rachel is seeing someone else. | |||||
| 5 | "Vantablack" | Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | December 8, 2022 (2022-12-08) | |
Two years prior, Libby, a writer for a men's magazine, becomes frustrated that she has not reached the same level of recognition as her male co-workers. In the present, she goes on a vacation toWalt Disney World with her family that increases tensions between her and Adam. Toby has a wild night out with Seth and later buys thedachshund puppy his children have always wanted. He again asks Nahid out on a date, but she explains that she is legally married to her husband, aconservative news anchor andcloseted homosexual, who finances her lifestyle under the agreement that she occasionally accompanies him to public events. He is called to pick up Hannah from camp after she sent a suggestive photograph to a male camper, who showed it to his friends but goes unpunished. Revolted, Toby takes Hannah and Solly with him, before telling them about Rachel's choice to abandon them. He considers confronting Rachel when he learns she is in her apartment, but decides not to. He takes the children to theAmerican Museum of Natural History to see aVantablack exhibit that he visited alone earlier. | |||||
| 6 | "This Is My Enjoyment" | Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | December 15, 2022 (2022-12-15) | |
Toby ends things with Nahid, realizing he needs a more conventional relationship. He gets passed over for a promotion at work due to the many personal days he has been taking. When Karen suffers a post-surgery cerebral hemorrhage that leaves her brain-dead, her husband further upsets Toby by demanding to speak to his boss. Toby attends the annual reunion of his college trip to Israel for the first time in 15 years and enjoys himself. After Adam leaves the party following an argument with Libby, Toby confronts her about how she treats her husband. Libby retorts that Toby only talks about himself, while Seth complains that Toby and Libby both dismiss him for being unmarried and childless. When Toby returns home, Libby tags along and asks to use his bathroom. Libby then laments about how much she misses her past before realizing Toby has fallen asleep; she falls asleep on his bed. The next morning, after Toby angrily asks Libby to leave, she wanders the city and ends up sitting on a park bench across from Rachel. | |||||
| 7 | "Me-Time" | Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | December 22, 2022 (2022-12-22) | |
Libby takes a disoriented Rachel back to her apartment, and Rachel explains her situation to Libby. Following the trauma she endured during Hannah's birth, Rachel refused to be a victim and started her own agency, which drove her away from Toby and the children. Shortly after her divorce, Rachel began an affair with Sam. When she announced plans to move to Los Angeles with the children to expand her business, Toby angrily protested. After Rachel dropped the children off at Toby's apartment, Sam took her to awellness resort inupstate New York, but he abruptly left her alone after growing bored with her, triggering herabandonment issues. Rachel returned home and, unable to sleep, consumed anedible that Sam had given her. She subsequently spent weeks inside her apartment, experiencingdrug-induced hallucinations and losing track of time. Eventually leaving her apartment, she fell asleep in Central Park and later discovered that her most important client had dropped her after weeks of no communication. She wandered the city until she encountered Libby. Having heard Rachel's story, Libby puts her to bed and realizes the moral ambiguity of Toby's situation. | |||||
| 8 | "The Liver" | Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | December 29, 2022 (2022-12-29) | |
Libby returns to Toby's apartment to update him, but he coldly dismisses Rachel's nervous breakdown and asks her to leave. After taking Karen off life support at her husband's request, however, he begins to regret the way he has treated people recently, and consoles Karen's husband. After finally returning home, Libby attempts to explain to Adam that she has been experiencing an existential crisis due to her dissatisfaction with suburban life, but he berates her for neglecting her family lately. At a party thrown by Seth, he proposes to Vanessa, while Toby and Libby make up with Seth and each other. As Libby discusses her idea for a book based on Toby's divorce, she reflects on the choices she made after she got married and her lost youth; this time, Toby listens and consoles her, and they share an emotional moment. Finally at peace, Libby returns home and joins Adam in their bed, where they reconcile. Shortly after Toby returns to his apartment, Rachel opens the door behind him, exactly how Libby said she would end her book. | |||||
On September 12, 2019, it was announced thatABC Signature had won a 10-studio bidding war for the rights to the novelFleishman Is in Trouble, with the project being developed forFX.Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the author of the original novel, was attached to write the adaptation as well as executive produce the project alongsideSusannah Grant, Carl Beverly, and Sarah Timberman.[2] On March 11, 2021, it was announced that the project was given alimited series order consisting of nine episodes, with the series now set to premiere exclusively onHulu as part ofFX on Hulu.[3] Upon the series order announcement, Brodesser-Akner said:
I'm thrilled to be extending Fleishman's life onto the screen with such smart, thoughtful and courageous partners. When I was writing this book, my aim was to resolve for myself the mystifying dynamics and politics of marriage and middle age. Writing the book didn't help much, so I'm hoping that making this show does the trick.
On August 13, 2021, duringFX Networks' Summer 2021TCA Press Tour panel, it was announced thatLittle Miss Sunshine filmmaking duoJonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris were attached to direct multiple episodes of the series.[4]
The limited series was released on November 17, 2022. The first two episodes were available immediately and the rest debuted weekly.[5]
In November 2021,Lizzy Caplan andJesse Eisenberg joined the cast of the series in series regular roles, marking their second collaboration together afterNow You See Me 2.[6][7] In January 2022,Claire Danes andAdam Brody joined the cast in series regular roles, while Maxim Jasper Swinton and Meara Mahoney Gross joined the cast in recurring roles.[8][9] In February 2022,Joy Suprano joined the cast in a recurring role.[10] In March 2022,Michael Gaston, Ralph Adriel Johnson and Brian Miskell joined in recurring roles.[11][12] In April 2022,Christian Slater andJosh Radnor joined the cast in recurring roles.[13][14]
Principal photography began by February 2022 in New York City.[15]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 87% of 54 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "The charactersFleishman Is in Trouble spends time with aren't the most likable bunch, but the series examines their foibles with compelling insight—and they're brought to life by a terrific trio of stars."[16]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17]
Annie Berke ofThe A.V. Club gave the miniseries an A− and said, "These eight episodes and the characters in them are doing their best, and Fleishman's best is far better than most."[18]Richard Roeper ofChicago Sun-Times gave the miniseries 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "This is an exceedingly well-cast show, with Eisenberg, Danes, Caplan and Brody all playing to their strengths and hitting notes we've seen them master in previous roles."[19]
According toRoss Douthat, writing forThe New York Times, the show highlights the fine class gradations within the modernmeritocracy, the psychology of meritocratic ambition, and the crucial, stressful role that marriage plays as a mechanism of social advancement. The show portrays the "privileged angst" faced by those who make hundreds of thousands of dollars annually but face lifestyle inflation and the demands of wealth without its promised security and ease.[20] Similar analysis was presented by Caitlin Moscatello, writing forThe Cut.[21]
