Hulu streams ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’
The challenges of translating “serious” modern fiction to the screen are on display in the ambitious and brilliantly cast limited series “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” streaming exclusively on Hulu.
Toby Fleishman (Jesse Eisenberg) is the man on the spot. His soon-to-be ex-wife Rachel (Claire Danes) has not only left him —she’s vanished. Over the course of the series. the story bounces all over Fleishman’s past to see how he and Rachel met, married, had kids and grew estranged.
Confronted with her departure, Toby confides in some trusted old friends, including Libby (Lizzy Caplan), a down-to-earth woman he hasn’t seen in years.
What Fleishman does not do is tell his children about Rachel’s disappearance, call the police or confide in any mutual friends or frenemies. These contrivances lead to the complications that propel this increasingly awkward and contrived story.
The opening episode makes comic grist from Eisenberg’s suddenly single status. A dedicated cancer specialist who got into medical school by being a nerdy grind, he’s shocked to discover how desirable he has become as an unattached doctor on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in the era of dating apps and instant consequence-free hookups.
Flashbacks reveal how some of the friction between Toby and Rachel stems from her status as a successful theatrical agent who rubs elbows with the ultra-wealthy. Only in the land of the 1% can a doctor earning $300,000 per year be considered a “loser.” Rachel continually nags at him to cash in and work for a big pharma firm or something more lucrative. She’s joined by Hannah (Meara Mahoney-Gross), their 11-year-old status-obsessed daughter, who finds her father’s social position embarrassing.
With its emphasis on marriage, sex, infidelity, class, caste and midlife angst, “Fleishman” may remind some readers of the novels of John Updike, Philip Roth, Richard Ford and others. Toby can also project the neuroses of more than a few Woody Allen characters as well as their propensity for vocalizing moral judgements about social acquaintances and society in general. As in that director’s films, there’s a fine line between self-importance and self-absorption.
Many of Toby’s more annoying qualities are mitigated by the voiceover narration from Libby’s perspective, the voice of an old college pal who probably wants to be more than a friend.
› Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) returns in the 2022 sequel to a 1982 holiday favorite “A Christmas Story Christmas,” streaming on HBO Max. Vince Vaughn co-stars in this nostalgia-fest. This is not the first return to Cleveland Street. Daniel Stern starred in “A Christmas Story 2” in 2012.