Drama
Doctor Who
The good Doctor’s been flitting around time, space and the BBC since 1963. Now he’s also a fixture in the US, toting his curiously British brand of sci-fi in his highly mobile TARDIS. Just how safe is this contraption?
Supper is at six, dear.
A sentence Elizabeth Zott uses frequently, now that she’s a host of an award-winning television show called Supper At Six, but one she didn’t think she’d ever have the time for when she was younger.
Elizabeth graduated at the top of her class at UCLA in 1951 with her Masters in Chemistry. She aimed and aims to pursue a career dealing with the very thing she’s studied: cellular metabolism of nucleic acids.
She dreams of doing so at her current place of employment, Hastings Laboratory. But her status as lab technician essentially makes her a secretary, at least in the eyes of the male chemists with whom she works.
Sure, some of them know she’s brilliant, and others quietly ask for her help, but the majority of the men she’s around prefer that she clean up after them and keep the coffee coming. Stat.
And the women are no better. Elizabeth is constantly pressured to “fit in” with the other women at Hastings; women who want to gossip about who’s the most attractive man in the building and discuss their preferred perfume. Neither of which interest her.
That leaves Elizabeth in a difficult spot. She’ll never appeal to the women who want to indulge in meaningless conversation. And she’ll certainly never gain the praise of her male counterparts.
Or so she thinks, until she meets Dr. Calvin Evans.
Dr. Evans arrogantly assumes Elizabeth is a mindless workerbee when they first meet. But he’s quickly proved wrong by a quick-witted secretary who speaks to Elizabeth’s degree and an overheard conversation of Elizabeth’s mind at work.
Dr. Evans is fascinated. Enthralled. Infatuated.
Dr. Evans secures a spot for her as his lab-mate. The two are quite different, but opposites attract, they say.
But not even their meticulously proven chemistry, or their love for one another, can sway the staff at Hastings into believing that a woman deserves to be heard.
I tend to rewatch the same shows over and over again. I think it’s out of comfort. I think that I like predictability. So I was thrown off when I finished the first episode of Apple TV+s Lessons in Chemistry and wanted to see what might happen, instead of fall back on one of my rotational choices.
This series, the episodes of which toggle between TV-14 and TV MA ratings (something that’s common for Apple TV), is not one that I’m encouraging others to watch, just because I think it has a solid storyline. It’s certainly not something an entire family can sit down and watch together. Moms and dads, that’s a lot more likely. Still, I think this series has a lot of positive elements (get it?). It’s also one that pulls from the past while following a storyline in the present.
First, both Brie Larson (Elizabeth Zott) and Lewis Pullman (Dr. Evans) are outstanding in their roles, and their chemistry, appropriately enough, is tangible. Second, both main characters, although they have their quirks and personal preferences, are kind-hearted. They fight racial injustice and sex-based discrimination in the workplace, and they show one another a tremendous amount of kindness and respect. And, so far, they do so in a way that is relevant to the storyline and doesn’t feel as if the writers are forcing it into a modernized story. And while the book on which the series is based (a bestseller written by Bonnie Garmus) contains some pretty strong disparaging comments about Christianity, I haven’t seen that in the show so far.
Like I said before, I wanted to keep watching.
However, we cannot forget that this show comes with a TV-14, and occasionally TV-MA rating, or that people like to drink occasionally and use profanity.
Elizabeth makes it clear that she does not want to get married or have children, believing that having children in the 1950s means sacrificing your career. She is also intimate with Dr. Evans as the two kiss and eventually move in together. And although we don’t see them having sex in the first couple of episodes, it’s insinuated that’s happening behind closed doors. There is also a short scene that includes Dr. Evans showering, and audiences see him completely naked from behind.
We also witness Elizabeth being raped by a superior, and later being asked to apologize to the tenured professor after she stabs him with a pencil in self-defense (this is the TV-MA episode). The scene isn’t as graphic as it could be, and no one takes their clothes off, but the point is certainly made. This also explains her anxiety throughout each episode.
This series won’t be for everyone. But for those who may give it a try, they’ll find some problematic issues weaved in with a whole lot of chemistry.
In the present, Elizabeth Zott makes a name for herself on television; In the past, Elizabeth Zott meets an arrogant chemist, Dr. Calvin Evans, and finds the two have more in common than ever imagined.
Elizabeth tells Dr. Evans that she is not respected in her field and could never be because she is a woman. Dr. Evans is baffled by this and works to get Elizabeth a place in his lab so that she can be treated as a colleague and not just a lab technician.
Elizabeth wrestles with a traumatic incident that is not revealed in the first episode. We see her standing alone in a room while a man locks the door, and we often see the fear on her face as Dr. Evans (or any man), gets close to her. The scene indicates that she was sexually assaulted.
Dr. Evans showers in his lab and we see the side of his naked body, cut off at his hips. We also see his naked backside.
Elizabeth’s boss tells her that she is “just not smart enough.”
Christ’s name is misused once and Elizabeth exclaims “oh god” and “dear god” once each as Dr. Evans vomits all over her. The s-word is used four times and “h—” is heard once. Men and women talk about consuming alcohol.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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