Fleishman Is in Trouble

“Fleishman” ultimately, deceptively, has the depth of a great novel that needs to be read to the last page. Every episode is better than the one that came before.

Not just a sterling adaptation of a novel—in this case, Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s 2019 bestseller, which the author herself expands over the course of eight episodes—but a great work of art about middle age, as rich in complexity and detail as it is in emotion.

The series doesn’t end with answers or cures to the problems it deals with, just as it doesn’t fall into the trap of categorizing different characters as heroes or villains. It does, however, end with a truly human portrayal of life’s hardest moments, beckoning viewers to remain empathetic even with those who have caused them their greatest pain.

Some will never get past the sense that these are spoiled, privileged people complaining about having too much sex, money, and opportunities that they blow. That’s understandable, but there is still heartbreak and relatable, universal drama beneath that privileged veneer. In fact, it’s when people start to question the value of all of those hollow things that are supposed to produce happiness that truth can be found. Even if they have to go through trouble first.

Fleishman Is In Trouble is a sharp, fierce, and funny adaptation of a truly great novel.

Fleishman Is in Trouble is a fascinating and contemplative show that hits on some hard truths with an exceptional cast that brings Brodesser-Akner’s story to life with grace and specificity.

By the end of the seventh and final episode, I found myself quite unexpectedly moved. Not by Toby’s adventures in the carnal world, but by the show’s poignant murmuring on time and regret and self. ... Perhaps especially those of us (ahem) who are teetering into 40 and have begun to wonder what shape all of our time in the world has taken. When the series really gets thinking on those matters—of irretrievable youth, of life’s narrowing options—it comes close to profound.

The acting is substantial. The chemistry from all four of the leads is inspiring. The way Danes and Eisenberg are able to overlap dialogue until their fights are at a crescendo would make Noah Baumbach pause and take notice.

Hulu’s Fleishman Is in Trouble is funny, sad and relatable. If it isn’t surprising on top of that, it hardly matters because the ensemble is so superb. ... This is a series about understanding instead of indicting in a way that’s poignant and probing at once.

If you’re willing to put in the effort, Fleishman Is in Trouble is a rewarding, intentionally maddening, often sweet experience that asks you to reexamine your own relationship with nostalgia. But in order to get to those depths, you need to watch more than a couple of episodes.

“Fleishman is in Trouble” is a saga across time, relationships, and even bounds of empathy that offers the best kind of whiplash. When this FX adaptation’s excellent cast and storytelling are truly in sync, its wisdom can be inescapable.

The narration is sharp and there are countless good lines – “Toby liked to say that the end of his marriage happened like the fall of Rome – slowly, then all at once” – but it keeps the audience at a certain remove. But maybe that’s a good thing: best not to get totally immersed in these awful lives.

While it’s not perfect and has too many episodes (eight), they have done a pretty damn good job [of adapting the novel for TV].

Boasting a strong, committed central trio, this is a compelling, confronting examination of getting older, and of life’s big choices. An excellent, faithful adaptation by first-time screenwriter Taffy Brodesser-Akner.

The show, because it has to hew strictly to an eight-episode format and the conventions of TV, sometimes feels like it’s indulging old patterns more than upending them. But its cast is so compelling, and its truths so sharp when they stick you, that it doesn’t really matter. There’s enough packed into it that you’re bound to find something that resonates.

Caplan’s narration guides the journey and makes the trip rewarding. When she and Brody get a minute to size up their friend, “Fleishman” does more to capture the value of friendship than any number of episodes of “Friends.”

Fleishman Is in Trouble front-loads divorce, but is ultimately and most unnervingly about ageing. It’s strongest, particularly in the two episodes before a finale too corny for the thicket of complications before it, when depicting the feeling of being farther down the pinball course of life than you imagined, no longer young but still you.

It’s about middle age and divorce, but it’s also about storytelling and subjectivity. ... Eisenberg is just right in the role, easily making the swing between being a super dad who’s intensely aware of his kids’ sensitivities and being an intellectual whose snide comments can cast a pall over a room full of people. Libby narrates the series in a warm, wry voice-over that holds everything together nicely.

For fans of the novel who were concerned that its spark would get lost in translation, worry not: Fleishman Is in Trouble is in no trouble at all.

Even with some wayward storytelling, “Fleishman” remains appealing for viewers whose primary interest is in complex characters (nobody is black or white, they’re all shades of gray) rather than plot. And while several characters make questionable choices, the ending defies expectations in a way that seems true-to-life.

This is an exceedingly well-cast show, with Eisenberg, Danes, Caplan and Brody all playing to their strengths and hitting notes we’ve seen them master in previous roles. Even though Toby, Rachel, Libby and Seth can all be insufferable narcissists at times, we believe them as three-dimensional, feeling human beings, and we find ourselves rooting for them. Well, most of them. Well, maybe all of them.

A marriage made in Manhattan hell ends in ambivalence and mystery in Taffy Brodesser-Akner's unsparing adaptation of her 2019 novel. [21 Nov - 4 Dec 2022, p.5]

Not funny enough to be standalone satire and with a lead so self-involved he restricts a stronger emotional connection, “Fleishman Is in Trouble” ultimately only works as a thought exercise. Thankfully, there is a lot to think about — if you’re willing to give the time.

Marriage is not simple or easy, and neither is watching "Fleishman," a contradictory series that's addictively watchable in one moment and difficult to get through in another. At points the dialogue is too pretentious, at others it is riveting. The acting is Emmy-worthy, but the characters are often tiresome.

There are problems beyond the endlessly yapping voiceover. I don’t recall the Toby of the novel being such a tiresome, self-righteous whinger. Unlike in the book, his dating app escapades appear dated and sleazy. Ultimately, Fleishman Is in Trouble is strongest when viewed as a fortysomething New York cautionary tale.

The series is forced to condense that writing into Libby’s animated narration, narrowly avoiding an overreliance on it. Though Caplan commits to the task with impeccable comedic timing, her character’s insights don’t do much to temper the smugness Eisenberg is so great at exuding, but which the series deploys too often. That “Fleishman” is front-loaded with Toby becomes even more unfortunate upon reaching the standout episode exploring Rachel’s side.

If you find yourself disliking everyone in Hulu’s too precious “Fleishman is in Trouble,” don’t worry, because it’s not clear they like themselves. Author Taffy Brodesser-Akner has adapted her book into a limited series with its literary conventions intact, but the result is a frustrating showcase for very good actors as very whiny characters, including Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan and Claire Danes.

When Fleishman works as a novel, it’s thanks to Brodesser-Akner’s skill at using the conventions of literature to explore a perspective male writers rarely bother to imagine. When it falls apart as TV, it’s because the medium no longer mirrors the message.