Brie Larson has a couple of heroes in her docket for later this year: Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, in The Marvels and research chemistry-turned-TV-chef Elizabeth Zott in Apple TV’s new series, Lessons in Chemistry.
An adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’s 2022 bestseller (68 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list), Lessons in Chemistry is set in early 1960s New York where Elizabeth sees her career as a scientist torn down by sexist academia. She reinvents herself as a TV chef and uses it as a platform to share ideas that were, for the time at least, completely radical.
When does Lessons in Chemistry come out?
The first two episodes of the eight-episode run land on Apple TV+ on October 13, with new episodes arriving every Friday until November 24.
Is there a trailer for Lessons in Chemistry
There’s a new trailer, fresh in from the Apple TV labs, and you can watch it below.
What happens in Lessons in Chemistry?
Larson’s Zott is a brilliant and highly qualified research chemist who is dumped on, patronised and finally fired by her stuffy male seniors at Hastings Research Institute.
Enter the producers of TV cooking show ‘Supper at Six’ with an offer: she can swap the lab for the kitchen and an audience of women – mainly housewives – to impress with her skills (‘I like to cook,’ Zott says in the trailer. ‘It’s just chemistry’). Job accepted, she starts to win over with her power for female empowerment, to the dismay of a whole new bunch of stuffy men.
With Bad Teacher and Good Boys’ co-writer Lee Eisenberg as showrunner, it promises an enticing mix of Mad Men, Julie & Julia, Hidden Figures, and maybe a dash of WandaVision in its depiction of regressive social mores being taken down – as well as plenty of sly laughs.
‘I stand proudly with the overlooked workhorse of the kitchen,’ deadpans Zott on live TV, ‘women… and baked potatoes.’
‘As the story begins, Elizabeth is siloed,’ Eisenberg tells Vanity Fair. ‘When you are alone, you don’t experience loss. You also don’t experience love, you don’t experience friendship. So you kind of protect yourself from all of these things, from heartache.’
Who else is starring in the series?
Co-starring as Elizabeth’s fellow chemist and soulmate, Calvin Evans, is Lewis Pullman – aka Bob from Top Gun: Maverick. Larson’s Kong: Skull Island co-star Thomas Mann plays her colleague Dr Boryweitz, and Aja Naomi King (How to Get Away with Murder) is Harriet Slone, Elizabeth’s neighbour. The Flight Attendant’s Stephanie Koenig is her friend and co-worker Fran.
Where was Lessons in Chemistry filmed?
The series was filmed at LA’s Ace Mission Studios, with production designer Cat Smith (Yellowjackets) recreating the distinctive ’60s aesthetic of the TV kitchen in painstaking detail. ‘The first time I stepped onto it, it kinda took my breath away,’ showrunner Eisenberg recalls.
Lessons in Chemistry streams on Apple TV+ from Oct 13.