Lessons in What Makes a Good Story

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“All tales, then, are at some level a journey into the woods to find the missing part of us, to retrieve it and make ourselves whole. Storytelling is as simple – and complex – as that. That’s the pattern. That’s how we tell stories.” ~ John Yorke, Into the Woods: A Five Act Journey Into Story

I love a good story anytime, but winter seems to be the best time to hunker down under a warm throw and catch up on movies and TV shows that I’ve been wanting to watch. Barry and I love binge watching TV series and a few nights ago we started watching Lessons in Chemistry. Monday night we watched two episodes, but Tuesday evenings, Barry has a standing date to join a live MacVoices chat. However, since he only needed to work half a day on Wednesday, he and I sat down in the late afternoon to watch a few more episodes. The show was so engaging that we stayed up late and finished watching the remaining 6 episodes. Barry and I were so impressed with the show that we now want to read the book by Bonnie Garmus the TV show is based upon.

In my opinion, Apple+ has some of the best stories on television and I’m so happy they sponsored Lessons in Chemistry. It’s a story that leaves you feeling good at the end, all about love on lots of different levels. Brie Larson is the star and executive producer. One critic indicated that this story, both the book and the TV series are a kind of a fairy tale about the roles of women in the 1950s and 60s and how the women, both black and white, are idealized in a way that makes us want to be like them. They are extremely intelligent but living in a man’s world and making their dreams come true is quite challenging as any woman knows. The women in the story are the kind of ordinary heroines many women aspire to be. And that’s one thing I like about the show. The characters don’t back down from trying to make their lives and the world a better place. 

Brie’s character, Elizabeth Zott, is a chemist with a Master’s Degree from UCLA, working at Hastings lab. She’s one of the smartest chemists there, but because she doesn’t have a PhD and she’s a woman, she’s a lab assistant making coffee for men who have mediocre talent. The reason she didn’t get her PhD is one of the more disturbing episodes in the series. She’s interested in proving that abiogenesis (DNA) is the building block of life. Deciding she’s not going to let her lack of a PhD stop her, she works after hours on her research, but, of course, when her boss finds out, he belittles her, telling her she’s not a real chemist. Which, of course, is not true. He’s one of the mediocre scientists she works with and he knows it. But working at the lab is Calvin Evans. He is a Nobel Prize nominated chemist, and eventually the two end up working together. And, of course, they fall in love.

One of the things I love about Elizabeth’s character, is that she’s highly logical. When men try to put her in her place, she doesn’t get emotional, she comes back with a logical response that is hard for them to refute, but of course, they are men with the power, so most of the time they get their way.

As the story goes along, her life takes turns that she was not planning on or expecting. She suffers grief, the hardships of being a new mother, who didn’t want to have children in the first place. She struggles with finding a way to make a living after being fired from her job. Eventually, she unexpectedly get’s offered her own cooking show, which highlights her talent for cooking, which she treats as chemistry experiments. She takes a common sense approach to the show using the chemical names as well as the common names for the ingredients for the recipe of the day. The women who attend the live episode, come armed with notebooks and pencils eager to learn. Occasionally during the Q & A segment of the show, Elizabeth has the opportunity to encourage a woman who wants more out of life than to be just a wife and mother. Those moments make her extremely popular.

Another great thing about the show is how Elizabeth’s awareness expands. When she falls in love with Calvin, he introduces her to hobbies not related to chemistry, like rowing and swimming. It’s also interesting that he’s the only white person living in his neighborhood. He moved there because it was just enough miles from work that he could run there every day and get a good workout. He, and eventually Elizabeth develop deeply satisfying relationships with their neighbors. Eventually, Elizabeth learns to be an ally to them in their attempts to save their neighborhood from being turned into a freeway. 

The last endearing thing I want to point out about the show is Elizabeth’s relationship with her 7 year old daughter, Mad. She names her that because when the nurse asks the name of the baby, she says, “I hadn’t thought of a name.” The nurse says, “Just name her what you feel,” to which Elizabeth says, “Mad.” Of course her official name is Madeline, but Elizabeth and even some of their friends call her “Mad” for short. Even though Elizabeth didn’t want to become a mother, and has an extremely rough first few months or even years learning how to take care of her daughter, she becomes a wonderful mother. She pays attention to the things Madeline loves, and how her growing TV fame is affecting her. The one thing she can’t do, though, is talk about Calvin who died before Madeline was born. But Mad tells someone that she misses her father even though she never knew him. 

When Madeline is given the school assignment to build a family tree, she goes on a secret quest to find out as much as she can about her father. Elizabeth has a difficult time talking about him. Her grief is still so present. But when Elizabeth finds out what Mad is doing, her search brings them closer together. Surprising things about his childhood and why he grew up in an orphanage are revealed. The story ends when Elizabeth chooses to take her own advice and go back to her first love and get her PhD in chemistry supported by a large group of loving friends and family. 

This series, like so many I’ve seen on Apple+ left me feeling hopeful about the future. It’s an example of how to deal with the ups and downs of life and one of the vital things we need when we’re faced with really difficult challenges is a strong support system of loving people who encourage us not to settle for anything less than what we really want.

Thanks for reading, liking and commenting. I hope you are enjoying the change of seasons wherever you live in the world.

Blessings,

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2023

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