November 2, 2024

Fleishman is in Trouble: FX is unfortunately giving this brilliant program the “Atlanta” treatment

Giving FX a good television show is like hanging a beautiful painting in a rural storage locker. It will still be beautiful, but almost no one will see it.

The beautiful painting in this case is “Fleishman is in Trouble”, the wonderful mini series that is streaming on FX on Hulu. It deals with Toby Fleishman, played by Jesse Eisenberg, as he navigates a divorce from his seemingly perfect wife (Claire Danes in her best work since Homeland started) who leaves him with the equally emotionally suffering kids. His friends Libby (Lizzy Caplan) and Seth (Adam Brody) are also going through similar life troubles.

My problem is that no one is talking about it. Instead, they’re off watching something else.

Its frustrating. “Atlanta” frustrating.

Atlanta, the Donald Glover anthology dramedy, satire, and sometimes horror program, put out genuinely unique programming for years. And no one talked about it. There was a brilliant creativity at work here, and when the show ended, getting the “big four” stars, which also included Lakeith Stanfield, Brian Tyree Henry, and Zazie Beets together seemed like a TV treat. But it went out quietly. Just like it came in.

That falls on the networks and streamers.

And its troubling here because the window for “Fleishman” is so small.

The show garnered one Golden Globe nomination for Claire Danes. And she should win. But I fear that The White Lotus bookends of Aubrey Plaza and Jennifer Coolidge (who already has an Emmy) could be too much. For what it’s worth, they’re great too.

Its also running during the holidays. The excellent relationship episode ran during Thanksgiving weekend. The next episode is dropping just before Christmas weekend. That’s no good.

I don’t know. I just think if more people watched this program instead of the dozens of other time wasters being thrown at us, viewers might enjoy their TV time a little more.

The same with Atlanta. But it’s looking like this beautiful painting is going to be resting right next to that portrait of Mr. Chocolate for all of TV eternity.

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