I last wore a white lab coat in high school chemistry class [redacted] years ago. Suffice it to say, I didn’t consider the shapeless, heavy-duty, bunsen burner-singed garment a future fashion staple. Enter Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott in Apple TV+’s Lessons in Chemistry to change my mind. The humble protective clothing receives a long-overdue, dazzling TV makeover courtesy of the cooking show-within-the-show.
Adapted from Bonnie Garmus’ monster smash novel, the series begins in the 1950s. Fledgling chemist Elizabeth has gone from working at the prestigious (and male-dominated) Hastings Research Institute alongside the love of her life to a grieving single mother struggling to pay her bills. The week prior, Elizabeth’s career took an unexpected turn when local TV producer Walter (Kevin Sussman) offered her a hosting gig on a new cooking show, Supper at Six. However, she is not ready to trade her knitwear, plaids, and pants for a cinched-waist, TV-ready wardrobe to teach homemakers how to expand their dinner options—while giving husbands someone to lust over.
The bright studio lights of local television don’t fit her plan to continue the work she started with the now-deceased Dr. Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman), so she initially turns Walter down. Picture-perfect housewife frocks are not in her future. For one, she isn’t a housewife; Elizabeth’s aesthetic, personal, and ambition don’t tick the stereotypical boxes of the era. Who says a lab coat can’t replace the cutesy half-apron? Why can’t that look be injected with a little glamor?
