The highly anticipated adaptation of Lessons in Chemistry, which is based on Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling novel, has officially hit streaming. And you know what that means, the critics have shared their thoughts on this Brie Larson-led miniseries. Overall, it seems like many reviewers have mixed feelings about this new drama, noting an overstuffed plot and sidelined stories as a primary concern. However, they also pointed out high points, specifically highlighting Brie Larson’s performance. With that being said, let’s see what the critics think about Apple TV+’s latest book-to-screen adaptation.
For Time critic Judy Berman, the show felt like “a remedial course in feminist history.” She explained that the primary reason the show worked sometimes was “because Larson so thoroughly inhabits Elizabeth.” However, to her, the big reason the series wasn’t incredible was because:
Chemistry clearly wants to wrestle with big, important ideas. But if Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was Feminism 101, this adult-oriented drama is teaching lessons about social justice better suited to middle school. Unlike the fascinatingly flawed heroine of The Queen’s Gambit, another exceptional-woman saga set in the mid-20th century, Elizabeth comes across as too perfect, too good, too pure.
Addressing similar issues she had with the show, Variety’s Alison Herman took a more optimistic route with her review, pointing to how Lessons in Chemistry really highlights Brie Larson’s ability as an actress. She wrote:
Larson’s work here is distinctive and committed without being self-consciously quirky, and a much better use of her oddball, theater-kid energy than when she’s playing a cool, quippy superhero. (Peruse her YouTube channel or Instagram dispatches about dance and see what I mean.) And when paired with Lewis Pullman as Elizabeth’s scientific soul mate Calvin Evans, the result is a romance affecting enough to power the show and transcend the inevitable wordplay about chemists having chemistry.
Jen Chaney used one of the major character changes in the series as a primary example in her review for Vulture about why the Apple TV+ project doesn’t work too well as a book-to-screen adaption. In the book, Harriet is an older housewife, and in the show, she's a young Black woman who aspires to be a lawyer. I liked this change in Lessons in Chemistry, and she appreciated the show trying to add a story about a young Black woman in the ‘50s. However, it was the treatment of said arc where the problem arose. She wrote that the show “introduces a marginalized character, then marginalizes her story.”
This switch-up is emblematic of the good intentions showrunner Lee Eisenberg (writer for The Office and co-creator of Jury Duty) and his writers bring to this material, as well as Lessons in Chemistry’s chief shortcoming: an inability to adapt its source material in startling or illuminating ways.
However, the critic also praised the Lessons in Chemistry cast for their performances – specifically Larson. She said the Oscar-winner plays Elizabeth “with a firm jaw, a stern demeanor, and an inability to suffer fools that animates every clipped sentence and brisk exit from a frustrating conversation.”
Having similar critiques as Chaney about the show trying to do too much, and putting important storylines on the backburner, Peter Travers of ABC News pointed to Brie Larson’s performance as the brightest element of the show. He wrote:
Luckily, Larson consistently plays against the sentimentality wired into the script and lets us see Elizabeth in the exhilarating act of inventing herself as a woman who smiles only when she feels like it, refuses to ingratiate herself for fools and never lets up on her drive to pursue her goals against the prevailing notion of the time that a woman's place is in the home.
To close things out, Sophie Butcher wrote in her review for Empire that this “is not a show that will shock you, grip you, stir your soul.” She posited that it’s a series that is simply a “comfortable watch.” However, she also noted that this series allowed Larson to really thrive as an actress. She wrote:
It does work as a chance for Brie Larson to show impressive range within one character, the angles of her face transforming from the stern aloofness of a frustrated lab tech, to the doe-eyed wonder of someone falling in love, to the ragged desperation of a woman whose future has been shaken to the core.
Overall, the general consensus among critics who have seen Lessons in Chemistry is that it tries to do too much, and that’s its downfall. However, as they all noted, it also serves as a showcase of Brie Larson’s talents. So, now it’s up to you to decide how you feel about the adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ book.
You can stream the first two episodes of Lessons in Chemistry with an Apple TV+ subscription, and new episodes will drop every Friday on the 2023 TV schedule moving forward.
