Anatomy of a Divorce is the feminist and satirical series that we were waiting for

Toby Fleishman is a 40-something, white, New Yorker, doctor in a large hospital, straight and married for 15 years. In short, he is a man who has succeeded in everything (or almost) since his earliest childhood. His world of privileges changes when he decides to start a divorce with his wife, Rachel. Until then, it’s a rather mundane stage of life.

But everything falls apart even more when Rachel disappears overnight, dropping off their children aged 9 and 11, in the middle of the night, at Toby’s… You think you’re dealing with the beginning of a great thriller type Gone Girl ? Mistake, you have just landed in a dramatic comedy full of cynicism and humor: Anatomy of a Divorce (Or Fleishman is in Trouble), available on Disney+ from this Wednesday, February 22, 2023.

From Jesse Eisenberg to Lizzy Caplan, a golden cast

Let’s start with the most obvious: with a cast made up of, among others, Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Claire Danes (Homeland), Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex), Adam Brody (Newport Beach) and Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother), as much to tell you that the mini-series was already leaving with a major advantage. The chemistry between this band of actors is palpable at all times, allowing Anatomy of a Divorce to simply move forward like clockwork. Everything is fluid, believable and we really believe we are with them, in this drifting marriage story.

In the main roles of Toby and Rachel, Jesse Eisenberg and Claire Danes compose characters filled with neuroses, sometimes totally frightening and sometimes truly endearing. By their side, Lizzy Caplan shines brightly in the guise of Libby, an old friend of Toby’s who will become passionate about the case. It is she who takes the story and who guides the forty-year-old in the meanders of his memories, to understand how he arrived at the divorce. Along the way, she resolves some of her own existential crises, as in the magnificent episode 6, in which she sinks into nostalgia.

The voice-over: the best character

Adapted from the best-selling book by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, by her own care, Anatomy of a Divorce thus benefits from a fine writing, where each word is weighed to perfection to obtain impeccable comic or dramatic timing. Led by a cynical and brilliant female voice-over, the 8 episodes make us go from laughter to tears in an instant. The chronology of the story is however totally disjointed, giving us the familiar impression that a friend is telling us the story, over a coffee.

The voice-over surprisingly gives this mess an unexpected precision, allowing us to navigate the narration without hindrance. It must be said that the particularly ingenious production and editing plunge us into the lives of these characters as if we were observing a neighbor from our window, thus capturing a slice of life. There is nothing surprising in that since it is the iconic duo made up of Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine) who directed several episodes of this first season. We find there their benevolent touch towards their characters, in each shot.

Yes, Toby deserves a slap

And yet, let’s say it clearly: the character of Toby deserves huge slaps and, bad luck, it is he who we will mainly follow in these 8 episodes. From her discovery of dating apps after her divorce to her professional career, it’s all there. But that’s the whole genius ofAnatomy of a Divorce. Little by little, we understand that we are served the version of the story made in Toby from every angle, to better tell us the one that women never have the opportunity to tell: theirs.

This subtle bias culminates in episodes 6 and 7, which tackle themes that are still too rare on television. Obstetrical violence, burnout and postpartum depression are thus frontally highlighted with always a common characteristic: men’s control over the body and women’s decisions. Anatomy of a Divorce is thus a deeply feminist mini-series, which aptly deals with how men think that nothing bad can happen to them… until the day they divorce.

Hello the ultra-rich

Imbued with a great melancholy mixed with the traditional midlife crisis, Anatomy of a Divorce thus exposes how an initially perfect love turned into a disaster. We are told how youth flies away and gives way to regrets, how we can sometimes get lost on the path of life, and how we project our own fears and desires on those around us. Divorce is thus probed in all its breadth, becoming a “earthquake for those who experience it and a chronic problem for the children who survive it”as a character explains in the final episode.

And the mini-series, like the original book, has the good idea to situate this plot in the middle of the ultra-rich, widely mocked, between two yoga classes and other secondary houses with swimming pools. If we would have liked this aspect to be even more sarcastically dissected, the 8 episodes remain above all an honest, a little jaded, and feminist analysis of heterosexual romantic relationships. In short, forget Woody Allen for good and go enjoy this little gem, you won’t regret it.

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