New York City is the traditional habitat of the neurotic Jewish screen hero. The latest is Dr. Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg), who discovers one day that his ex-wife Rachel (Claire Danes) has disappeared. She has left their two children, Hanna (Meara Mahoney Gross) and Solly (Maxim Jasper Swinton), with Toby and can't be reached by any means. This leads to Toby's life being sent into a tailspin as he tries to juggle work and parenting commitments, while still grappling with the fallout of the recent divorce. Dating, friendships, and existential terror are also in the mix as Toby tries to find a way forward.
"Fleishman is in Trouble," created by Taffy Brodesser-Akner for FX, based on her own book, is an eight episode miniseries about trying to survive the tumult of being in your forties. This includes confronting failing relationships, stagnant careers, living with unappealing life choices, and being lonely. As someone who is the same age as the major characters, and who can't help noticing how much some of these familiar actors have aged since I saw them last, the show feels a bit therapeutic. It's nice when a piece of media affirms your worries and concerns about the state of your own life. Toby and friends are a passel of very privileged Upper East Side overachievers, and their problems are problems that they're lucky to have. However, that doesn't mean the show isn't relatable, or that its characters aren't sympathetic.
With a very talented cast, and the veteran directing teams of Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton, and Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini handling nearly all the episodes, a talky dramedy about uncomfortable subjects is kept very watchable and occasionally manages to be awfully touching and insightful. The show starts with Toby, and devotes the bulk of the story to the various stages of his crisis, but an equally important character is his college friend Libby (Lizzie Caplan), who serves as the narrator and a source of friendly support. There are some interesting narrative conceits going on, involving flashbacks, POV shifts, and doubling back on events in different contexts. It takes a while before it becomes clear how Libby figures into the show's big picture and the impact of Toby's crisis on her own life. However, the incremental nature of the storytelling is the point, showing how the characters have a very narrow understanding of their issues and avoid hard truths about themselves, despite their self obsession. It's a very grown-up approach with little hand-holding and sugar coating.
There are some rougher patches here, and I almost gave up after two episodes, when it seemed like "Fleishman" was going to spend a lot of time in the world of modern dating. This is not the case, as examining Toby's love life is only one piece of a much larger and more complicated exploration of his psyche. Also, I didn't enjoy watching Toby initially - he seemed far more self-involved and selfish than he was willing to admit to himself, and it was very satisfying when it turned out that the show's creators agreed with me. The payoff just took a little longer than I was expecting. Fans of Danes and Caplan might be unhappy to discover that they have relatively little screen time compared to Eisenberg, but boy do they make it count. Danes gets an entire episode focused on Rachel late in the series that is one of the best hours of television of 2022.
In short, this is a show that needs patience, but it's worth the trouble to see all the way through. I've watched a lot of movies about the encroachment of middle age, and the guilt of not being able to enjoy your own success. I think the reason why "Fleishman" struck such a chord with me is because it's so specifically about my generation and my cohort - the older Millennials who thought their luck and privilege could shield them from unhappiness. Having Eisenberg and Danes in the lead roles, who I've been watching onscreen since they were playing angsty teenagers, hammers it home especially hard. Getting old and dealing with inevitable disappointment is something everyone will have to face, and the angst never goes away completely.
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