Spoilers for Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry and the novel it's based on are ahead. If you haven’t seen the first two episodes yet, you can stream them with an Apple TV+ subscription.
Obviously, with any book-to-screen adaptation, modifications and tweaks will likely be made to the source material. Sometimes, they go past that though, and make drastic changes. That is what happened in Lessons in Chemistry, specifically with one major character – Harriet Sloane. While people may be a bit wary about such a major difference between the source material and the Brie Larson-led show, I actually think it works extremely well, and I love it.
In Bonnie Garmus’ novel, Harriet Sloane is an old housewife who lives across the street from Elizabeth Zott. When Calvin dies, and Elizabeth is grieving the loss and dealing with her pregnancy, that’s when she meets her neighbor. In the show, Harriet is a young Black woman, who has two young kids and is an aspiring lawyer. She is also Calvin's longtime neighbor and was friends with him before he met Elizabeth. This major change in the Lessons in Chemistry cast was surprising, and it’s a surprise I’m so thrilled about.
Harriet Is Younger And An Aspiring Lawyer
In the book, Harriet is described as “a large gray-haired woman in a rayon dress and thick brown socks,” when we first meet her. She also has four kids who are grown up and moved out, and a husband who is abusive. Throughout the book, because she does not have an office job, Harriet is able to help Elizabeth raise her daughter Madeline, and she almost acts as a second parent to Mad.
This isn’t the case in the show. When we meet Harriet, we quickly learn that she is a younger Black woman, her husband is away in the military, and she has two very young kids. She’s also a lawyer in training, and she’s very involved in her community and activism. It becomes clear right away that one of Harriet’s big passions is making sure a freeway doesn’t get built through the predominantly Black neighborhood her family and Calvin and Elizabeth live in.
Obviously, these are massive changes, and with the first two episodes out, we don’t know exactly what Elizabeth and Harriet’s relationship will look like, because it only begins after Calvin dies. However, with what we’ve seen so far, I love it.
The TV show version of Harriet has a lot more agency than book Harriet. While I love and adore her in the novel, I really appreciate just how driven and independent the Harriet played by Aja Naomi King is. It gives us another example of a strong, young woman, and it shows how intersectionality impacted women during the ‘50s, making the picture of society painted in Lessons in Chemistry more nuanced and representative.
Harriet Knew Calvin Before Meeting Elizabeth
Another major change in Harriet’s character in the show comes when we learn that she was actually really good friends with Calvin. In the book, she knows the chemist, I mean they’re neighbors, of course, they know each other. However, their relationship is by no means important in the novel. The primary relationship Harriet has in the show’s source material is with Elizabeth and Mad.
In the show, Harriet has a lot more going on, and we see her life outside of Elizabeth’s purview. We learn that she and Calvin were really good friends because of their shared love of jazz, we also learn about her kids, and how Elizabeth’s future partner helped babysit them. It's also made abundantly clear that Calvin cares a lot about the Sloanes they have a rich history together, this creates a deeper bond between the Sloane household and the Evans-Zott household.
Overall, I think all of these changes give us more insight into Harriet's past, and they show us another version of a young independent mother during this time, making King’s character more three-dimensional.
As the show continues to air on the 2023 TV schedule, we’ll get to see how this new version of Harriet’s story unfolds, and I can’t wait for it! New episodes of Lessons in Chemistry come out every Friday on Apple TV+.
