Apple TV+ is doing its part to corner the market on coveted adaptations these days, and the streamer managed to pull off a swift adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling novel, Lessons In Chemistry, for a limited series starring Brie Larson. Garmus became an overnight “a literary rock star” at age 66 and has been hailed as not only penning an impressive debut novel but also the biggest debut novel of 2022, so there’s certainly a built-in audience waiting to stream the subversive story when it arrives in October.
Larson portrays Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist who’s on the verge of a major breakthrough when she ends up being fired for a double standard. She makes an unexpected career change and finds herself with a high-profile new platform, where she can not only host a cooking show but sandwich in other nuggets of wisdom as well. From the synopsis:
Set in the early 1950s, “Lessons in Chemistry” follows Elizabeth Zott (played by Brie Larson), whose dream of being a scientist is put on hold in a patriarchal society. When Elizabeth finds herself fired from her lab, she accepts a job as a host on a TV cooking show, and sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives — and the men who are suddenly listening — a lot more than recipes.
Apple TV+’s Lessons In Chemistry co-stars Lewis Pullman, Aja Naomi King, Kevin Sussman, Stephanie Koenig, Thomas Mann, and Patrick Walker. The limited series debuts with two episodes on October 13 and weekly Friday episodes to follow.