In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast host Mike DeAngelo falls in love with, divorces, and falls in love again with FX and Hulu’s new modern divorce drama, “Fleishman is in Trouble.” The show, which premieres today only on Hulu, follows Toby and Rachel Fleishman (played by Jesse Eisenberg & Claire Danes, respectively) as they navigate the murky waters of divorce in their ’40s when it comes to dating apps, sharing custody of their children, old returning friendships, and their professional lives. However, things get complicated when suddenly, one of them goes missing. The eight-episode limited series stars Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzy Caplan, Adam Brody, Josh Radnor, and more.
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Joining our host to discuss the show are principal cast members Claire Danes, Jesse Eisenberg, Adam Brody, Lizzy Caplan, and showrunner/creator Taffy Brodesser-Akner. During the chat, Jesse Eisenberg talked about what drew him to this very particular story.
“I just thought it was so unusually specific,” Eisenberg shared. “I had seen that it was going to be a TV series, and I guess I assumed that there might be something kind of generic about these very specific people because it’s being put into a medium that can sometimes neuter something specific from the novel and that was just not the case. The show was written by the author, Taffy [Brodesser-Akner], so it just had this incredibly specific quality on a daily basis, like what’s in the character’s refrigerator. And this was her first series, so probably all of the shortcuts people make while making a television show from another source, she just didn’t take.”
“The book originated when I was about forty, and a bunch of my friends started telling me they were getting divorced.” Brodesser-Akner said. “And they were showing me how they were dating, and they were telling me their stories, and I guess I’m a journalist enough still that those stories were so compelling to me. This new kind of way of dating — that was the origin of it. That you didn’t have to show up anywhere like you did when we were all dating for the first time. And also, my parents are divorced. There’s a lot of divorce in my family, and you realize that you never really examine how a divorce happens or what I would always think, which was everyone that I know that got divorced was as happy on the day of their wedding as I was on mine. It was a moment. Though, now, if I were to read the book or when I re-read sections to adapt it, I felt very bad for its author. I thought, ‘Wow, you must have been really going through something.’”
The first two episodes of “Fleishman is in Trouble” are now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes premiering each week through the last week of December. You can listen to the full interviews below.
Bingeworthy is part of The Playlist Podcast Network, which includes The Playlist Podcast, Yellowstoners, The Rogue Ones, Deep Focus, The Fourth Wall, The Discourse & more. We can be heard on Apple Podcasts, AnchorFM, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, and most places where podcasts are found. You can stream the podcast via the embed within the article or click on the lead image at the top page. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we greatly appreciate it. Thank you for listening.
