''Fleishman Is in Trouble'' is an American

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aer ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

created by

Taffy Brodesser-Akner Taffy Brodesser-Akner (born Stephanie Akner) is an American journalist and author. She has worked freelance and as a contributor for '' GQ'' and ''The New York Times'', where she is now a staff writer. Her profiles of celebrities have won her th ...

based on her 2019 novel of the same name. The series premiered on

FX on Hulu FX Networks, LLC, is a company consisting of a network of cable channels plus a production company and a subsidiary of the Disney General Entertainment Content segment of The Walt Disney Company. Originally a part of 21st Century Fox, the comp ...

on November 17, 2022.

Premise

Toby Fleishman, the protagonist, is a recently divorced man in his 40's using dating apps for the first time. As he begins to find successes he never found in his youth, his ex-wife Rachel disappears without a trace, leaving him with their kids. As he balances looking after his children, a promotion at the hospital where he works, and all the women in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, he realizes that he'll never be able to figure out what happened to his wife until he can be more honest about what happened to their marriage in the first place.

Cast and characters

Main

Jesse Eisenberg Jesse Adam Eisenberg (; born October 5, 1983) is an American actor, writer, and director. He has received various accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awar ...

as Dr. Toby Fleishman *

Lizzy Caplan Elizabeth Anne Caplan (born June 30, 1982) is an American actress. Her first acting role was on the television series ''Freaks and Geeks'' (1999–2000). She received wider recognition with roles in the films ''Mean Girls'' (2004) and ''Cloverfi ...

as Libby, one of Toby's best friends, who also serves as narrator of the story *

Claire Danes Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influentia ...

as Rachel, Toby's ex-wife * Maxim Jasper Swinton as Solly, Toby's son * Meara Mahoney Gross as Hannah, Toby's daughter *

Adam Brody Adam Jared Brody (born December 15, 1979) is an American actor, writer, musician, and producer. He is known for his breakthrough role as Seth Cohen on the Fox television series ''The O.C.'', which premiered in 2003. Subsequently, Brody appeared ...

as Seth, one of Toby's best friends

Recurring

Josh Stamberg Joshua Collins Stamberg (born January 4, 1970) is an American actor. He was regular cast member in the Lifetime comedy-drama series ''Drop Dead Diva'' from 2009 to 2012, and later had recurring roles on '' Parenthood'', '' The Affair,'' and ''Wand ...

as Sam Rothberg *

Joy Suprano Joy Suprano is an American actress best known for her lead role in the Apple+ show ''Best Foot Forward'' as well as her role in Hulu's ''Fleishman Is in Trouble''. Early life and education Suprano was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania a ...

as Cyndi Leffer *

Michael Gaston Michael Gaston is an American film and television actor. He played agent Quinn on the show ''Prison Break'', Gray Anderson on the CBS drama series ''Jericho'', and appeared in the first episode of ''The Sopranos'' as Alex Mahaffey, a compulsive g ...

as Dr. Bartuck * Juani Feliz as Alejandra Lopez, Broadway star and Rachel's client * Ava Yaghmaie as Joanie, resident doctor at Toby's hospital * Ralph Adriel Johnson as Phillip * Brian Miskell as Clay *

Christian Slater Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He made his film debut with a leading role in ''The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakthrough role as Jason "J.D." D ...

as Archer Sylvan, author at a magazine *

Josh Radnor Joshua Thomas Radnor (born July 29, 1974) is an American actor, filmmaker, author, and musician. He is best known for portraying Ted Mosby on the popular and Emmy Award–winning CBS sitcom ''How I Met Your Mother''. He made his writing and dir ...

as Adam, Libby's husband *

Mozhan Marnò Mozhan Marnò (born May 3, 1980) is an Iranian-American film and television actress. She is known for her roles in ''The Blacklist'' and ''House of Cards''. Early life and education Marnò was born in Los Angeles. Her parents are from Iran an ...

as Nahid

Episodes

Production

Development

On September 12, 2019, it was announced that

ABC Signature ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. T ...

had won a 10-studio bidding war for the rights to the novel '' Fleishman Is in Trouble'', with the project being developed for FX.

, the author of the original novel, was attached to write the adaptation as well as executive produce the project alongside

Susannah Grant Susannah Grant (born January 4, 1963) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. Life and career Grant was born in New York City. She studied at Amherst College and attended the AFI Conservatory. From 1994 to 1997 she worked on televi ...

, Carl Beverly, and Sarah Timberman. On March 11, 2021, it was announced that the project was given a

limited series Limited series may refer to: *Limited series, individual storylines within an anthology series *Limited series, a particular run of collectables, usually individually numbered *Limited series (comics), a comics series with a predetermined number of ...

order consisting of nine episodes, with the series now set to premiere exclusively on

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

as part of

. Upon the series order announcement, Brodesser-Akner said: On August 13, 2021, during

FX Networks FX Networks, LLC, is a company consisting of a network of cable channels plus a production company and a subsidiary of the Disney General Entertainment Content segment of The Walt Disney Company. Originally a part of 21st Century Fox, the compan ...

' Summer 2021

TCA Press Tour The Television Critics Association (TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian television critics, journalists and columnists who cover television programming for newspapers, magazines and web publications. The TCA accepts a ...

panel, it was announced that ''

Little Miss Sunshine ''Little Miss Sunshine'' is a 2006 American tragicomedy road film and the feature film directorial debut of the husband–wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The film sta ...

'' filmmaking duo

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Jonathan Dayton (born July 7, 1957) and Valerie Faris (born October 20, 1958) are a team of American film and music video directors who received critical acclaim for their feature film directorial debut, ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006). Later the ...

were attached to direct multiple episodes of the series. The limited series was released on November 17, 2022, with the first two episodes available immediately and the rest debuting on a weekly basis.

Casting

In November 2021,

and

joined the cast of the series in series regular roles, marking their second collaboration together after ''

Now You See Me 2 ''Now You See Me 2'' (also known as ''Now You See Me: The Second Act'') is a 2016 American heist thriller film directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Ed Solomon and a story by Solomon and Peter Chiarelli. It serves as a sequel to 2013's '' ...

''. In January 2022,

and

joined the cast in series regular roles, while Maxim Jasper Swinton and Meara Mahoney Gross joined the cast in recurring roles. In February 2022,

joined the cast in a recurring role. In March 2022,

, Ralph Adriel Johnson and Brian Miskell joined in recurring roles. In April 2022,

and

joined the cast in recurring roles.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

began by February 2022, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an 83% approval rating with an average rating of 8.2/10, based on 36 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "The characters ''Fleishman Is in Trouble'' spends time with aren't the most likable bunch, but the series examines their foibles with compelling insight—and they're brought to life by a terrific trio of stars."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 79 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Annie Berke of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the series an A− and said, "These eight episodes and the characters in them are doing their best, and Fleishman's best is far better than most."

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

of ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' gave the series 3 out of 4 stars and wrote, "This is an exceedingly well-cast show, with Eisenberg, Danes, Caplan and Brody all playing to their strengths and hitting notes we've seen them master in previous roles."

Accolades

References

External links

* {{Hulu 2020s American drama television miniseries 2022 American television series debuts 2022 American television series endings English-language television shows FX on Hulu original programming Television series about marriage Television series based on American novels Television series by ABC Signature Studios Television shows set in Manhattan