2023-11-09 22:45:54
Brie Larson is the protagonist of a story with attention to detail, available on Apple TV+
If you want to thoroughly enjoy the series «Chemistry Lessons» with Brie Larson (Apple TV+), take «Mad Man» (2007-2015) and «The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel» (2017-2023) as references. One for the ability to explore the human soul in the “golden” world of advertising in New York in the 60s, the other for the reflections on how to escape from loneliness and unhappiness, finding in passions and the search for self-esteem the strength to overcome one’s limits. Now, however, forget them and think only of Elizabeth Zott.
We are in 1952, and Elizabeth is a young chemist working at the Hastings Research Institute in California, a fiercely chauvinistic environment where her undeniable talent is mostly silenced, sabotaged, or used for the prestige of others. I won’t go into too much detail (it’s a very beautiful story, taken from the book by Bonnie Garmus): when Elizabeth is fired from the laboratory where she works, she agrees to host a television cooking program: “Dinner at six”. Her revolutionary approach to cooking, filled with scientific digressions, aims not only at preparing stews, but also at opening our eyes to the female universe.
Preparing a coffee is chemistry, lemon juice on fruit is chemistry, bringing a food to the boil is chemistry. Without knowing it, when we cook or season food, we start complex chemical processes which, as Elizabeth explains well, do not mean altering the raw material but improving it (the extreme will be reached by Ferran Adrià’s “deconstructions” and molecular cuisine).
The goodness of a story is measured starting from the details: the period reconstruction, where there is not a single object out of place; the houses surrounding the university, all the same, with adjoining gardens; the perfect description of the power dynamics of the academic world; the nascent world of television made up of improvisations and genius ideas; recipes for emancipation.
The series revolves around Brie Larson and the other protagonists find meaning when they combine chemically with her, with the necessary slowness of good writing.
November 9, 2023 (modified November 9, 2023 | 9.45pm)
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