His memory of the marriage paints Rachel as a money-and-status-obsessed, callous, ladder climber. But, given he’s a highly dedicated hepatologist who himself has just been offered a promotion, over time it begins to feel like his view of Rachel might not be 100 per cent accurate and perhaps the dizzying frame rotation is alluding to a different kind of perspective shift, relating to the way Fleishman sees the world.
The series is immediately compelling but not necessarily immediately likeable. It tosses you into the middle of a messy divorce in the most despicable of family environments - New York City, a place you could be forgiven for assuming is where selfish people choose to raise their children. It’s a juicy world to set a story in, full of people we love to hate, and it’s possible though not yet clear that Fleishman, our put-upon do-gooder doctor, might be one of them.
There’s a female narrator who turns out to be Toby’s friend from college, Libby (Lizzy Caplan), but four episodes in I haven’t made sense of why she’s the voice of god and the way the series is holding back information like that is teetering on annoying. The mystery of Rachel’s whereabouts compels you into the next episode effectively for the first couple but the show’s failure to land that plane is beginning to get tedious.
That said, when Greg suggested abandoning Fleishman I railed against it and asked why he can’t ever just watch something because I want to watch it. Either I’m a contrarian intent on making my husband suffer or - and more likely, I hope - the show has hooked me in despite its flaws. While frustrated by its vagaries and self-absorbed protagonist, I get the sense - based on its general competence - that the show is doing something interesting that is going to reveal itself soon. If it doesn’t, the series will be a huge disappointment and Greg will have been right to suggest dropping out - and that will be an even bigger disappointment.
HE SAW
Because Fleishman is in Trouble is based on a much-buzzed-about book, I was lightly hopeful it might help fill the gap in my prestige viewing schedule soon to be created by the end of the second season of The White Lotus.
The first episode was vaguely promising. It had two good actors in the lead roles – actors who typically excel in prestige productions – and I was kind of into its premise. But, fairly quickly, I started to find Jesse Eisenberg’s affectations as Fleishman annoying, particularly his distracting and stupid nervous stammering and jiggling. Partly this was because it was so repetitive, but mostly I think it was because it didn’t seem to fit the character, who was otherwise self-assured and confident.
I also found Claire Danes annoying as Fleishman’s wife. While we’re at it, I didn’t especially love the know-it-all narrator, who’s one of Fleishman’s best friends, nor Fleishman’s cocky other best friend. That means I found every one of the core cast annoying.
I liked the setting, because it’s New York, but I didn’t like the fact it’s a place where making US$300,000 a year is only enough to earn you pity from the uber-rich who make up Fleishman’s peers, who, despite being only minor characters in the series, are also annoying.
For all that, some part of me understands the show is not terrible. I can see it’s diverting and occasionally funny and has a vaguely appealing mystery at its centre. There’s some depth to the annoying characters and a sense of real jeopardy for Fleishman. If I squint, I can see a world in which I might enjoy this series.
The show’s creator, writer and executive producer, Taffy Brodesser Akner, who is roughly my age and is, like me, a staff writer for a newspaper (The New York Times) and has, like me, recently written her first book. Unlike mine, hers has been wildly successful, critically acclaimed and has now been adapted for television.
As reviewers, we’re continually engaged in the process of denying the fact of our subjectivity, of trying to summon “facts” to justify our feelings about a show. Sometimes we just have to admit defeat and say we don’t know why something is not nearly as good as it could have been if we weren’t so racked with jealousy.
Fleishman is in Trouble is now streaming on Disney+.
