The best thing streaming right now? Fleishman is in Trouble. The eight-part adaptation of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s 2019 bestseller has got everyone talking: about class, motherhood, ambition and marriage. It’s the sort of show you want to, have to, debate and dissect with anyone who’s watched.
At the centre of the story is doctor Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg) and his ex-wife, theatre agent Rachel (Claire Danes). They’re part of New York’s Upper East Side elite: rich, privileged, connected. Lizzy Caplan plays Toby’s old friend Libby – a former journalist now a stay-at-home mum living in New Jersey – who is the show’s acerbic narrator.
When Rachel disappears unexpectedly, Toby is left to look after their two preteen kids. Like the novel, at first we see things from Toby’s point of view. Our glimpses of Rachel – via flashbacks of their marriage and eventual divorce - paint her as a permanently furious, money-obsessed WASP-y workaholic, an overly pushy parent, an ‘ambition monster’.
Meanwhile, Toby is the sensitive do-gooding doctor, who wants to make a difference to the world. He is the hapless good guy picking up the pieces, juggling dating app hook-ups, saving lives at work, and figuring out what has happened to Rachel, all while trying to entertain and reassure his ‘abandoned’ kids during the summer holidays.
This one-sided narrative continues – and while as a viewer, you’re aware that you’re not getting both sides of the story, and Toby definitely starts to gives douchebag vibes - it’s not until episode seven of eight that we finally get Rachel’s side of the story.
Without giving away too much of the ending, Rachel’s version of events shows the true extent of the mental load and emotional trauma she’s been carrying. We get to understand some of the motivations and desires that fuel her determination to succeed. We witness her traumatic birth experience, including a horrifying violation by a male doctor, and her ensuing postpartum crisis – events we’ve only seen from Toby’s viewpoint. Rachel is no saint, but only now do we get the full, devastating picture.
The structuring of the novel and the TV show reflects the automatic sympathy we often extend to men over women – aka ‘himpathy’. It’s that peculiar and enduring ethical double standard – where men are often forgiven, given more moral leeway, or at the very least the benefit of the doubt, in a way that women rarely are.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Jesse Eisenberg reflected: ‘The trick of the book is so satisfying. You’re involved in this man’s story, he’s this heroic, sympathetic guy, and then you realize that not only is this a one-sided perspective on a tragic marriage but also a long-standing trope in stories, that we feel bad for the man.
‘We have different expectations for what a man should shoulder than what we think a woman should shoulder. And when it comes to issues around domestic challenges, family and marriage, we expect more from a woman.’
Fleishman doesn’t necessarily offer an answer to how we might change this, but it does highlight (thanks to a particularly powerful, awards-worthy performance from Claire Danes) the devastating emotional toll this double standard can have on women.
In the voiceover narration, Libby muses: ‘There are no real villains in life.. and no real heroes in life either; everyone is great, everyone is terrible, and everyone is flawed – and there are no exceptions to that.’ Fleishman forces us to question why it’s so easy to fall in line with Toby’s narrative, to see him as the hero and Rachel as the villain. It also makes you reflect on your own relationship dynamics, past and present, in a way that can even get a little uncomfortable. And that’s the power of a really brilliant TV show.
All episodes of Fleishman is in Trouble are streaming now on Disney+