The biggest complaint I see against Brie Larson’s latest limited series Lessons in Chemistry is that it’s too feminist for its own good.
The Apple TV Plus adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ New York Times bestselling novel has been advertised as “feminist comfort food” by The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets, yet the complaints against it are of the mind that it needs to tone it down. Lighten up. Don’t be so serious. You know, smile a bit.
The various instances of injustice against Larson’s character Elizabeth Zott are enough to make anybody’s blood boil, and indeed they are steeped in sexist tropes we’ve come to view as outdated or stereotypical. Elizabeth is repeatedly urged to smile more, ordered to make coffee for her male colleagues, told she isn’t smart enough, talked over, shunned, and sexually assaulted; just about every awful sexist thing that can happen in a woman’s life happens to Elizabeth, and because it’s condensed into an eight-episode limited series, it’s been deemed unbelievable by some. “It’s unrealistic,” detractors say. “It doesn’t happen like that.”
These rebuttals, while not necessarily false (fiction is an exaggerated form of fact, after all) seem to forget that Laron’s history in front of the public eye bears such a striking resemblance to Elizabeth Zott’s that one would be forgiven for assuming the Academy Award-winning actress took the role as a response to her very own sexist hate.
For anyone who’s conveniently forgotten, Larson was dragged through the mud before, during, and after starring as Carol Danvers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s record-breaking film Captain Marvel. The year was 2019, not 1950, but like Elizabeth, Larson was told — among many other condescending things — to smile more.
She was accused of hating men, told she came across as arrogant on (and off) camera, and deemed generally unlikeable, as if every actress needs to be demur and have the comforting agreeableness that simplifies their personalities into acceptable boxes.
Larson has taken every bit of unjustified flack on the chin, soldiered on, and on Nov. 10 will continue her legacy in the Captain Marvel sequel The Marvels. Like before, Larson is expected to receive heat, but unlike last time she will have two additional weeks of Lessons in Chemistry to clap back at her haters the best way possible: through her work. Lessons in Chemistry will air its series finale on Nov. 24.
