Fleishman is in trouble
The beautiful truth of parenthood, career, friendship and what it means to live in between the sandwich of almost mid-life.
Disney has been sourcing the most beautiful TV Series I’ve seen in a long time. The nuance of what makes great storytelling has been laced all over, from ‘Atlanta’ to ‘The Bear’. Disney is no longer the children’s Chanel it once was and it’s proven that with so many amazing stories under its belt, including this special one ‘Fleishman is in trouble’. I have not cried this so much at a TV Series since ‘This Is Us’. This series is not what I expected it to be. Without watching the trailer and delving too much into the story prior to watching, this series did exactly what I’ve been wanting a series to do - it healed me and bridged the gap between the overproduced coming of ages stories and the sometimey lonely love stories of the pensioners (respectfully).
How can a piece of narrative be so exact, so relatable to where I am and who I am currently in my life? How does art be so true to a moment, so vulnerable to an experience that it pulls you into a mirror filled void of reflection? I’ve been yearning for stories that delves into the truths of friendships and relationships and how sometimes they overlap and sometimes they exist separately. How romantic love is not always enough and how friendship can often be more important, but how also friendship is never enough to fill the void of loneliness and no matter what we do, we will always be destined to find love in some form.
The story explores the life of a man (Toby) in his late 30s to early 40s, who is battling the woes of life, his friendships (Libby and Seth), his career as a doctor and his biggest one being his divorce and effects of that on him and his two children. As the show unravels, we learn about more about his Marriage to his ex-wife (Rachel) and the multiple layers of what caused the ripple effects of brokenness between them. The Series is narrated by a woman and at first I thought it was Rachel, but I later realised it was his close friend (Libby), who is battling her own marital issues, motherhood and career. Libby is a writer who’s spent most of her years working in the shadows of her successful pears. When she got married and became a mother, everything changed and she’s been quietly battling her identity and purpose ever since. Being a writer and mother myself, I connected with her so much. Balancing motherhood and my career (which ultimately doesn’t exist until you write it) is a pressure that one can’t quite prepare for. I love how Rachel’s story intertwined with Toby’s and how everyone ultimately is going through the same thing in just different ways. Even Seth, the light hearted comedic hot friend who no one takes serious, is challenged when he finally decides that he wants to settle down. Trying to change the identity of being someone who is notoriously known for womanising to actually wanting to commit to someone you love, is a hard mark to scrub off.
The thing I loved about this show was the exploration into the women of this story, openly breaking down the multiple layers of what it is to be an ageing woman passed 30. How to navigate life as a mother and some of the horrible realities some mothers face. I cried at this. I cried so hard that I fell into my husband’s arms and asked if he understand how I was feeling. This show made me feel seen like no therapy session has ever done before. It revealed the commonality in the hardship of connecting with yourself after having a child and the sacrifices that getting married actually comes with. No one really talks about these things, we mostly get the gentrified happy perspective of these versions of life.
My most grateful moment in the series is its wonderful way of highlighting the beauty of friendship and the heartbreak in the change of it. When we grow we don’t expect our friends not to be there, in our minds they’re a timeless piece of art inked into our skin, they don’t move, they just stick to us forever. ‘Fleishman is in trouble’ does an honest job of that, it opens the door wide and leaves it open.
I recommend anyone who loves story and pure honest characters (who are all flawed beautiful nuances in their own right), should go and watch this series. I implore any humans out there to just give this a watch and digest it, there’s something in this for you, even if it’s small.