Monday, October 3, 2022

Dickinson (2019-2021)

It took me a little while to get into the rhythm of this Apple TV original, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. A neat series inspired by what pieces we know about the life of a great American poet.

Emily Dickinson is a ravenous woman. She hungers for the opportunities denied her by her sex, the love given to her by her best friend (and brother’s fiancĂ©e--#complicated!), the glory of nature, the changing world, and above all, the written word. She chases greatness, not necessarily through acclaim, but through creation, all the while fostering a fascination for death, the other side of the coin of life.

That’s more a description of how the series feels than what it’s about, but I still think it’s fitting. The stories range from narrative and/or thematic arcs to episodic larks and/or tragic turns. Emily always remains at the center of things, even as the turn of her life causes her to withdraw increasingly from society, but the show’s net is wider than that. It also encompasses her family and the complex relationships therein, her best friend/lover Sue, her community of Amherst, and the larger movements of the country around her.

Anyone who knows pretty much anything about Emily Dickinson knows that she had an obsession with death, but the series gives a lot of context as to why that might be. Even before the Civil War breaks out, stealing the lives of so many young men, she lives in a world where a woman risks her life every time she bears a child, where so many children fail to reach adulthood, and where any illness can bring someone to their end. Death haunts every corner, and it’s only natural that her thoughts and poems would be preoccupied with it. The personification of Death in his carriage is only one of numerous fantasies woven through the ongoing story.

Unsurprisingly, the story deals a lot with the place of women in America in the 19th century and Emily’s defiance of that. We see her taking in the sight of her dutiful mother, who’s done everything society has asked of her without thanks, as well as her complicated relationship with the father who indulges her in the same breath that he essentially considers her his property. We also explore race in America at this time (there are BIPOC cast members who are important to the story, whose casting is not colorblind,) sexuality and sexual exploration, and other aspects of history, particularly those that resonant with the present day. It can be a little on the nose at time, like when a character says that seceding Southerners are experiencing “economic anxiety,” but that’s very much the point.

Even though this isn’t a musical, I’m reminded a little of Hamilton in sensibility. Both stories are far from the only period pieces that are infused with modern influences and flourishes, but I also think both do it very successfully in their own ways. I like Dickinson’s 21st century soundtrack and winking references, like when Emily’s brother says he’s “binging” the latest Charles Dickens serial that everyone is obsessed with. In addition to further emphasizing the social and political parallels between Emily’s time and ours, it makes the characters’ circumstances feel immediate and urgent to modern viewers, erasing the sense of distance that’s sometimes created by period settings.

Hailee Steinfeld is fantastic as Emily (in her case, the casting is colorblind—most characters she plays are white.) She’s fierce, rebellious, and intelligent, while also romantic, lonely, and weird, and Steinfeld navigates the shifts in tone throughout the series with skillful delicacy. Toby Huss (Bos from Halt and Catch Fire) gives a nuanced performance as Emily’s father, while Jane Krakowski is by turns funny and sympathetic as her mother. I’m not familiar with most of the other main cast, but all of them turn in nice work, especially Ella Hunt as Sue and Adrian Enscoe as Emily’s brother Austin. We also get plenty of fun cameos sending up various historical figures from the period, such as John Mulaney as Henry David Thoreau and Billy Eichner as Walt Whitman.

Warnings

Sexual content, violence, language, drinking/smoking/drug use, and thematic elements.

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