TV Review: Dickinson

October 29th 2019, 1:05pm

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Plot: Set during Emily Dickinson’s era with a modern sensibility and tone. It takes viewers into the world of Emily, audaciously exploring the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of a budding writer who doesn’t fit in to her own time through her imaginative point of view.

Review: With the next phase of the Streaming Wars kicking into gear, Apple TV+ has to convince subscribers that their product is better than all of the rest. With four series launching on November 1st, the odds were always that one of them would be a stinker. That honor falls to the lone comedy debuting on the service, the anachronistic Dickinson. Starring Hailee Steinfeld, Dickinson wants to be a nineteenth century version of CLUELESS but ends up more as an episode of Comedy Central's Drunk History that overstays it's welcome. It is a shame considering all of the talent involved in front of and behind the camera.

The life of Emily Dickinson is one full of tragedy and depression as well as startling genius, so it was a daring risk to turn her life into a comedy. While I firmly believe that there was a way to tell this story that would have been respectful to Dickinson's legacy as well as bring her tale to a new generation, this is just not it. Creator and showrunner Alena Smith, who worked on Showtime's The Affair and HBO's The Newsroom, wildly misses the mark by using contemporary dialogue in what is otherwise a meticulously realized period setting. From the costumes to the production design, Dickinson looks like 19th century Massachussets come to life, but when you hear characters say things like "sup, bro?" and "just chillin", it feels ridiculous.

What good there is in Dickinson comes in fleeting moments and scenes that work, but they are few and far between. The relationship between Emily and her sister-in-law Sue Gilbert (ANNA AND THE APOCALYPSE star Ella Hunt) is the most intriguing, especially since it mines rumors ant theories regarding Dickinson's sexuality. There is also a great turn by character actor Toby Huss (Halt and Catch Fire) as Emily's father, Edward as well as Jane Krakowski (30 Rock, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) as her mother. They all have moments of drama as well as humor, but it is undermined by the over-the-top jokes that feel out of place.

Of the three episodes made available for review, each is titled after a different Dickinson poem. Through the events of each story, we see how the poems formulate in Emily's experiences as the lines are shown superimposed on the screen. It is a unique way of diving into the eloquent work of the poet and tying the subject matter to the series itself. but it feels almost cheap to explain Dickinson's masterpieces as being inspired by a basic house party and other similar scenarios. I am still at a loss as to who this series is really for as adults and fans of Dickinson's writing are likely to be confused by the teen-centric nature of the show whereas teens are going to need more than Hailee Steinfeld to draw them into giving this show a try.

With two episodes helmed by David Gordon Green (PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, HALLOWEEN) and one by Lynn Shelton (HUMPDAY, Netflix's GLOW), neither director manages to find a way to grasp the tone or concept of this series. Green has had enourmous success with dark and strange comedy with his HBO collaborations with Danny McBride like Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, but he never manages to find a consistent sense of humor here. Shelton's episode is the most balanced of the three I watched but that isn't saying much. Part of me almost wishes Danny McBride had been involved somehow as either a writer or actor as his sensibility may have been the attitude this series needed to push it from curiosity to binge-worthy.

Both of the trailers for Dickinson, which you can see embedded above and below, give no indication just how broad the comedy is in this series. In fact, they are downright misleading as both barely hint at just how out of place the dialogue is. Minor roles from John Mulaney as Henry David Thoreau and Wiz Khalifa as Death aside, this is a series that is just too silly to be taken as anything more than filler for Apple TV+. I am sure some will find it entertaining, but I found it difficult to get through much of it even though the talent is all right there. A great story about Emily Dickinson is waiting to be told and Hailee Steinfeld is well suited for the challenge. This, unfortunately, is not that story.

Dickinson premieres November 1st on Apple TV+.