The series premiered on FX on Hulu on November 17, 2022.
Premise
Toby Fleishman is a recently divorced hepatologist in his early forties using dating apps for the first time. As he begins to find romantic success he never achieved in his youth, his ex-wife Rachel disappears without trace, leaving him with their children, Hannah, 12, and Solly, 9. While Toby juggles looking after his children, possible promotion at the hospital where he works, and all the potential sexual partners in Manhattan, he realizes that he will never be able to figure out what happened to his wife until he can be more honest about what happened to their marriage in the first place.
In the summer of 2016, Toby Fleishman, a Jewishhepatologist in his early-40s living in New York City, signs up for a dating app following his recent divorce from Rachel, a talent agent and his spouse of 15 years, and begins having frequent, casual sex. On advice from his therapist, he reconnects with his old college friends Libby and Seth, whom he met in a study abroad program in Jerusalem and had not seen since the first years of his marriage. Rachel drops their children - Hannah, who resents Toby for the divorce, and Solly, who conversely idolizes Toby and seeks his help on his science fair project - off at Toby's apartment a day early, compelling him to leave them with their babysitter Mona while he goes on a date and has sex with a woman named Tess. The next day, Rachel does not show up to pick up the kids or respond to any of Toby's calls. Tess arrives to again have sex with Toby but believes she is being put on when she sees his children, and storms out. Libby, happily married, realizes she is envious of Toby rediscovering himself in the wake of his separation.
Toby fires Mona after he realizes that Solly used his computer to look up pornography, and takes them to Rachel's house in the Hamptons when she does not show up to take them. He is ejected from the property when the new housekeeper does not recognize him, causing him to have an epiphany about moving on in the wake of his divorce. He finally gets Hannah a cell phone and sends the kids to summer camp, taking his time off to get lunch with Libby and Seth. While talking about Rachel, Libby inadvertently plants an idea in his head that the reason for her silence could be that she is in danger, and leaves in a panic, only to encounter her friends at a grocery store, who tell him that they saw her sleeping in the park.
3
"Free Pass"
Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton
Mike Goldbach
November 24, 2022 (2022-11-24)
In flashbacks, Toby and Rachel meet at a college party and quickly fall in love and get married, although their successes in their respective industries slowly drive a wedge between them. This increases when, during Rachel's pregnancy with Hannah, the doctor breaks her water without her consent. Believing that she was sexually assaulted, Rachel quickly suffers from postpartum depression and becomes withdrawn until Toby encourages her to go to a support group and hires a nanny, inspiring her to start her own theatre talent agency. Rachel's new profession makes her a wealthy socialite, causing her to miss significant time with her family and become increasingly avaricious. Toby soon comes to resent Rachel's ambitious lifestyle, as she begins cutting Toby off from his social life and forbidding activities they used to love sharing together while spending more time with Rachel's social group, all of whom are wealthy and treat Toby's job with condescension. Their marriage continues to deteriorate, culminating on a night when they fight over Toby's suggestion of moving to Philadelphia. Later, they have a dinner with Rachel's friends, where during a question about "free passes", she says Sam Rothberg, the alpha male of Rachel's friend group's husbands and an incredibly wealthy head of a pharmaceutical company whom Toby despises for his selling placebos to unsuspecting patients. In the present, Toby remembers this incident and looks up Rothberg on Facebook, realizing that Rachel's last known location is a short drive from where Rothberg is.
Toby storms over to his former apartment and finds evidence that Rothberg had been there, leaving him feeling emasculated and angry, which increases when Nahid, a regular hookup of his, turns down an offer for a date. He compulsively goes to visit Libby and her family, but finds that he feels awkward around her husband. He snaps at Libby and leaves to go get dinner with Seth, who is being investigated for being involved in insider trading. Toby realizes, looking around the restaurant, that Rachel was attracted to Rothberg because of his confident, forwardly wealthy attitude. He gets a call from the hospital and learns that his patient, Karen Cooper, a woman around his age with previously undiagnosed Wilson's Disease, has been approved for a liver transplant, and he sleeps in the hospital overnight while she has the surgery, having a sexual dream about her. He wakes to see that Karen has recovered and is rejoicing with her husband, causing him to finally accept that Rachel is seeing someone else.
5
"Vantablack"
Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
December 8, 2022 (2022-12-08)
Two years prior, Libby, a writer for a men's magazine, becomes disillusioned after seeing the successes of men who have been hired long after her and a veteran, misogynist writer that is frequently coddled by the magazine. She resolves to write a novel but never does, and in the present, goes on a vacation to Walt Disney World with her family that increases tensions between her and her husband, Adam. Toby goes out for a night with Seth, who has lost his job, and is inspired to buy the dachshund puppy his children have always wanted. He again asks Nahid out on a date, but she explains her husband is a conservative news anchor that she never sees but is still obliged to be wed to. He is called to pick up Hannah from camp, learning that she sent a suggestive photograph to a male camper who showed his friends, and takes Solly with him when he finds himself disgusted with the lack of punishment on the boy's end. He tells the kids about Rachel's choice to abandon them. As the kids return home, he considers going to confront Rachel when he learns she is in her apartment, but decides not to and takes the kids to the American Museum of Natural History to see a vantablack exhibit that he visited alone earlier. Solly becomes frightened while inside and hurries off, but Toby and Hannah follow him and the three sit together outside.
6
"This Is My Enjoyment"
Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
December 15, 2022 (2022-12-15)
Toby breaks things off with Nahid when he realizes he needs to have a more normal approach to relationships. He gets passed over for a promotion at work due to how many personal days he has been taking, and compulsively asks out one of the students he has been mentoring when she tries to reassure him, which she awkwardly turns down. In frustration, he chastises Karen's husband, with Karen having been readmitted due to a post-surgery fatal development. Toby goes to an annual meetup for his college trip to Israel that he has not been to since he married Rachel and has a great time, although after observing an argument between Libby and her husband that reminds him of how Rachel once spoke to him, gets in an argument with her and Seth. She stops by his apartment on the way back to her house to use the bathroom, and ends up lamenting about how much she misses her past before realizing Toby has fallen asleep. She falls asleep in his bed, and delays going home by wandering through the city, where she ends up sitting across from Rachel.
7
"Me-Time"
Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
December 22, 2022 (2022-12-22)
Libby takes Rachel back to her apartment after she proves to be delirious and speaking in riddles. On Libby's advice, Rachel talks about her situation. Having lost her mother at a young age, Rachel was sent by her grandmother to a Catholic boarding school, where she immediately craved the luxury afforded by her peers. She became attracted to Toby because he did not care about her lack of wealth, as well as hoping to be part of his family. Following her traumatic birthing of Hannah, she began seeing support groups, but left after an encounter with the doctor in the elevator and decided to pick her life back up, leading to her agency. Unbeknownst to Toby, she secretly knew her friends were vain stay-at-home moms and only latched onto them for fear of abandonment. Shortly before her divorce, Rachel began having an affair with Rothberg, which became more frequent after Toby moved out. He took her to a wellness resort near his house, where she underwent a meditation procedure meant to purge all her stressors and traumas. While there, Rothberg abruptly left her after deeming the wellness activities too demanding. Loving the resort, Rachel got rid of her phone and spent the rest of her reserved time there before returning home. Experiencing withdrawal from the lack of the procedures, she took an experimental marijuana pill that Rothberg gave her. The drug turned out to be a hallucinogen, and she ended up staying in her apartment for weeks on end while under the influence. Eventually becoming sober, she got a new phone and went to see her oldest and most important client, but discovered that she has been dropped after weeks of no communication. She wandered the city until she encounters Libby. Having heard her story, Libby puts her to bed and realizes the moral ambiguity of Toby's situation.
8
"The Liver"
Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
December 29, 2022 (2022-12-29)
Libby goes back to Toby's apartment to update him, but he dismisses Rachel's nervous breakdown and asks her to leave. After taking Karen off life support at her husband's request, however, he slowly realizes that he may have had blame in other's lives and resolves to make amends. He becomes content with not getting the promotion, helps Solly finish his school project, and begins finalizing the details of Hannah's bat mitzvah. She reveals that she does not want to go through with it, and Toby, understanding the importance forming her own tradition holds to her, indulges her and gives her a private coming of age ceremony. He takes his children to the vantablack exhibit again, and this time, they stay inside. As Toby rebuilds his life, however, Libby's falls apart; when she finally returns to her family, she finds them angry and continues to fight with Adam, who retaliates to Libby's apparent social life by developing one of his own despite her frequent attempts to apologize. Eventually, Libby attends a party Seth invites her and Toby to. As they realize the party is a front for Seth to propose to his girlfriend, Toby and Libby make up with him and each other before discussing her idea for a book based on Toby's divorce. The conversation soon transitions into her thoughts on how her life changed after she got married; this time Toby listens, and he consoles her by saying that even if life may not seem worth it, she herself is. Finally at peace, Libby returns home to her family and gets in bed with Adam, where they reconcile. Toby returns to his apartment and looks out over the city, finally seeing the people beyond him. Just then, a seemingly-recovered Rachel opens the door behind him and enters, exactly how Libby said she would end her book.
Production
Development
On September 12, 2019, it was announced that ABC Signature had won a 10-studio bidding war for the rights to the novel Fleishman Is in Trouble, with the project being developed for FX. Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the author of the original novel, was attached to write the adaptation as well as executive produce the project alongside Susannah Grant, Carl Beverly, and Sarah Timberman.[2] On March 11, 2021, it was announced that the project was given a limited series order consisting of nine episodes, with the series now set to premiere exclusively on Hulu as part of FX on Hulu.[3] Upon the series order announcement, Brodesser-Akner said:
I'm thrilled to be extending Fleishman's life onto the screen with such smart, thoughtful and courageous partners. When I was writing this book, my aim was to resolve for myself the mystifying dynamics and politics of marriage and middle age. Writing the book didn't help much, so I'm hoping that making this show does the trick.
The limited series was released on November 17, 2022. The first two episodes were available immediately and the rest debuted weekly.[5]
Casting
In November 2021, Lizzy Caplan and Jesse Eisenberg joined the cast of the series in series regular roles, marking their second collaboration together after Now You See Me 2.[6][7] In January 2022, Claire Danes and Adam Brody joined the cast in series regular roles, while Maxim Jasper Swinton and Meara Mahoney Gross joined the cast in recurring roles.[8][9] In February 2022, Joy Suprano joined the cast in a recurring role.[10] In March 2022, Michael Gaston, Ralph Adriel Johnson and Brian Miskell joined in recurring roles.[11][12] In April 2022, Christian Slater and Josh Radnor joined the cast in recurring roles.[13][14]
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 8.2/10, based on 50 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The characters Fleishman Is in Trouble spends time with aren't the most likable bunch, but the series examines their foibles with compelling insight—and they're brought to life by a terrific trio of stars."[16]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 79 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17]
Annie Berke of The A.V. Club gave the series an A− and said, "These eight episodes and the characters in them are doing their best, and Fleishman's best is far better than most."[18]Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times gave the series 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "This is an exceedingly well-cast show, with Eisenberg, Danes, Caplan and Brody all playing to their strengths and hitting notes we've seen them master in previous roles."[19]
According to Ross Douthat, writing for The New York Times, the show highlights the fine class gradations within the modern meritocracy, the psychology of meritocratic ambition, and the crucial, stressful role that marriage plays as a mechanism of social advancement. The show portrays the "privileged angst" faced by those who make hundreds of thousands of dollars annually but face lifestyle inflation and the demands of wealth without its promised security and ease.[20] Similar analysis was presented by Caitlin Moscatello in The Cut.[21]
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