"Let's begin, shall we?"
"In science, you endeavor to control every variable of your experiment. The temperature in your lab, the number of contaminants, the correct calibration for each piece of equipment. Sometimes you can't count on a formula. Sometimes you can't control each variable. Sometimes... Many times... things just turn out messy."
— Elizabeth Zott
Lessons in Chemistry is a 2023 historical fiction miniseries by Lee Eisenberg for Apple TV+. It is adapted from the novel of the same name.
Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) is a chemist at the fictional Hastings Research Institute whose research aspirations are repeatedly dogged by 1950s sexism. She eventually utilizes her chemistry expertise as the host of the beloved cooking show, Supper at Six.
The show's main cast also includes Lewis Pullman as Calvin Evans, Aja Naomi King as Harriet Sloane, Stephanie Koenig as Fran Frask, and Patrick Walker as Mr. Wakely. Its first two episodes of eight premiered on October 13, 2023, with subsequent episodes being released weekly.
Tropes:
- The '50s: As opposed to the book, the show takes place in the 50’s.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: In the book, Calvin is described as not at all conventionally good-looking. That is obviously not the case in the show.
- Birds of a Feather: Calvin and Elizabeth are both socially awkward genius chemists, and so they bond and fall in love quickly after the misunderstanding of their first meeting is cleared up.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- The fourth episode shows flashforwards of an ostracized, lonely young girl at school, heavily implied to be Elizabeth's daughter Madeline, but it's later revealed to be Madeline's friend Amanda.
- The final episodes show a seemingly kindly old man expressing interest in adopting Calvin, only for this opportunity to be taken from him. The last episode shows that he's not Calvin's dad or interested in adopting Calvin himself — but he works for Calvin's mother, who does.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Boryweitz says he's not going to write Elizabeth a good recommendation for the job hunt — because he wants to hire her.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Dr. Calvin Evans is brilliant enough at chemistry to be considered a Nobel Prize finalist, but he takes showers in the lab, appears to subsist on nuts, and never talks to his coworkers. He bonds with Elizabeth due to both of them being brilliant misfits. Though his coworkers both admire and resent him for this, he's explicitly only tolerated by his boss because he brings in big grants.
- Contrived Coincidence: Elizabeth, upon learning that her Madeline's friend Amanda has been eating the lunches she makes for her daughter, confronts Amanda's father over this. Amanda's father happens to be a television producer looking for a timeslot to fill, leading to him offering her a job as the host of a new cooking show.
- Ditzy Genius: Both Calvin and Elizabeth are gifted at chemistry, but lacking in much social graces: Calvin innocently and sincerely asks why anyone would discriminate on the basis of gender, while Elizabeth takes a nurse's recommendation to name her newborn daughter whatever she's feeling at the moment literally, leading her to naming her "Mad".
- Executive Meddling: Attempted in-universe, but finally defied. The station owner, Phil, hates Elizabeth's no-nonsense and scientific manner on air and tries to force her to be more feminine to appeal to a male demographic. Elizabeth stands her ground and the show is a hit with women.
- Family Versus Career:
- Elizabeth wants to remain childfree because she knows it will derail her career. After Calvin dies and she learns she is pregnant with his child, she finds it difficult to continue being a scientist.
- Harriet points out to her husband that she's repeatedly put her aspirations of becoming a lawyer on hold for his medical career and their children. Seven years later, she's a lawyer, but the kinks still haven't been fully ironed out.
- How We Got Here: The show opens on a taping of Supper at Six and displays Elizabeth as a poised and respected celebrity. It then jumps back seven years to show the events that led up to it.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: How Elizabeth figures out that Mad is lying about eating her lunch and is instead giving it to one of the other kids at school. She asks if Mad enjoyed the food, and when Mad simply says yes, Elizabeth points out that she didn't pack that, but made something else instead.
- It Will Never Catch On: The Hastings highers-up reject Elizabeth and Calvin's grant proposal because it is based on the notion (then not yet proven) that DNA, not protein, is the building block of life. As anyone with a passing knowledge of biology knows, Calvin and Elizabeth will eventually be vindicated.
- Karma Houdini: The priest who runs St. Luke's is never shown to be punished for forcing the orphans in his care to operate an illegal distillery nor for deliberately obstructing the efforts of Calvin's birth mother to locate her son.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Elizabeth forgoes the apron for a lab coat while hosting her cooking show to emphasize that cooking is essentially applied chemistry.
- Look Both Ways: How Calvin dies. His back was to the street as he was coaxing the leashed dog to get up and cross the street. He steps into the street and gets fatally hit by an oncoming bus.
- The Lost Lenore: Calvin dies in episode 2. Moving past his death and raising their daughter alone, and later figuring out how to best honor his memory, is a big part of Elizabeth's character arc in the succeeding episodes.
- Maternally Challenged: Played with. Aspiring scientist Elizabeth is a loner genius, and when circumstances force her to care for her new baby alone, she despairs that little Mad doesn't seem to be taking to her and that she's unfit for motherhood. However, Harriet and her friends, despite their more traditional family structures, assure her that these feelings are completely normal. Seven years later, Mad and Elizabeth adore each other.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Elizabeth is a brainy chemist. Despite her aloof nature, initial refusal to beautify herself, and lack of social graces, several characters remark on her attractiveness. And when asked to find a lifestyle show host who is both "maternal and fuckable", Walter evidently thinks Elizabeth fits that description as he offers her a job on the spot.
- Patchwork Kids: Mad has her mother's curly blonde hair and her father's blue eyes, which is lampshaded.
- Product Placement: Defied. Asked to shill some canned beans on her show, Elizabeth instead derides them as full of a deadly amount of chemicals and dumps them into the trash on air. She is similarly resistant to hyping up a sponsoring shortening, because it's not actually all that effective or healthy. When tasked to find a new sponsor in the finale, Elizabeth finally agrees to feature...Tampax.
- Race Lift: Harriet Sloane, Elizabeth's grandmotherly white neighbor in the book, is reimagined as an politically-minded younger black mother.
- Rape as Backstory: Elizabeth never went on to do a PhD because she was assaulted by her master's thesis adviser. Simply being in an enclosed space with her boss causes uncomfortable memories to arise.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Walter, the network executive who sees that Elizabeth has the it factor, lets her have full control of her show and goes to bat for her against the sexist station owner. It's a stark contrast to her misogynistic colleagues at Hastings.
- Screwed by the Network: Supper at Six goes on two weeks ahead of schedule while the kinks have not been ironed out. Walter suspects this is Phil's attempt to tank the show, but Elizabeth proves to be a hit with the female demographic.
- Shout-Out: Some of the posters in Walter's office includes one for Our Miss Brooks.
- Signing Off Catchphrase: Invoked. When faced with the prospect of leading her own show, Elizabeth notes that hosts tend to say something pithy at the end of every episode, and tries to think of what she might use for Supper at Six. She eventually settles on, "Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself."
- Someone to Remember Him By: After Calvin's death, Elizabeth finds out that she's pregnant; despite not wanting to ever have children, she decides to nonetheless keep it and raise their child as a single mother.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The series' tone is established with Elizabeth's boss dismissing her research grant aspirations for being "just" a lab tech with no PhD and instead suggesting that she join the company pageant.
- Straw Misogynist: Phil, the cartoonishly sexist station owner who hates Elizabeth's practical manner and would prefer her to act like a sexy housewife on air, is promptly proven wrong when female audiences who love Elizabeth begin tuning into the show in droves.
- Struggling Single Mother: After Elizabeth's lover Calvin dies while she is pregnant, Elizabeth finds herself jobless and with no emotional support as she raises baby Mad. She gets better, eventually becoming a TV star with a social circle in her neighbors and rowing group.
- Supreme Chef: Elizabeth is a great cook in part because she uses her chemistry expertise in the kitchen. She treats cooking like experiments, for example keeping extensive organic chemistry research notes as she tries to perfect melting cheese for lasagna.
- Spock Speak: Elizabeth's style of hosting her cooking show is dry, straight-to-the-point, and scientific, setting her apart from other television show cooking hosts. Whenever she does include humor, it's deadpan and matter-of-fact.
- Tell Me About My Father: Madeline's research about her father.
- Trauma Button: Elizabeth prefers working with the door open because closed doors remind her of her past assault.
- Unconventional Learning Experience: In-Universe; Elizabeth's usage of scientific terms and processes in her show makes Supper at Six a great introduction to the basics of chemistry as well as a good cooking show on its own.
- Underwater Kiss: Calvin helps Elizabeth get used to blowing bubbles underwater by kissing her so she calms down while underwater.
- Viewers Are Morons: Subverted. Part of what makes Supper at Six a hit is that Elizabeth never talks down to her audience, instead respecting them and their capacity for understanding as she teaches them new things.
- Wham Episode: The second episode ends with Calvin suddenly getting hit by a bus and dying after the show had spent the past two episodes developing his and Elizabeth's romance.
