''Julia'' is an American television series created by Daniel Goldfarb that premiered on
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
on March 31, 2022. It is based on the life of television chef
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a second season.
Cast and characters
Main
*
Sarah Lancashire
Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire (born 10 October 1964) is an English actress from Oldham, England. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986 and began her career in local theatre, whilst teaching drama classes at the Sal ...
as
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
*
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor and director of stage, film and television. He starred as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Frasier'' from 1993 to 2004, and won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen ...
as
Paul Child
*
Bebe Neuwirth
Beatrice "Bebe" Jane Neuwirth ( ; born December 31, 1958) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. On television, she played Dr. Lilith Sternin, Frasier Crane's wife, on both the TV sitcom ''Cheers'' (in a starring role) and its spin-off ''F ...
as
Avis DeVoto
Avis is Latin for bird and may refer to:
Aviation
*Auster Avis, a 1940s four-seat light aircraft developed from the Auster Autocrat (abandoned project)
*Avro Avis, a two-seat biplane
*Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate Avis, an early aircraft built by ...
*
Fran Kranz
Francis Elliott Kranz (born July 13, 1981) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his portrayal of Topher Brink in the science fiction drama series ''Dollhouse''. He had prominent roles in the films ''The Cabin in the Woods'' an ...
as
Russell Morash
Russell Morash (born February 11, 1936) is an American television producer and television director, director. Morash's many television programs are produced through WGBH-TV, WGBH and airing on Public Broadcasting Service, PBS.
Early life
Morash ...
*
Fiona Glascott
Fiona Glascott (born 22 November 1982) is an Irish actress. She is best known for portraying a young Minerva McGonagall in the ''Fantastic Beasts'' franchise, a spin-off of the ''Harry Potter'' film series.
Early life
Glascott was born in Wate ...
as
Judith Jones
Judith Jones (née Bailey; March 10, 1924 – August 2, 2017) was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued '' The Diary of Anne Frank'' from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's ''Mastering the Art of French ...
*Brittany Bradford as Alice Naman
Recurring
*
Jefferson Mays
Lewis Jefferson Mays (born June 8, 1965) is an American actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards and three Obie A ...
as P. Albert Duhamel
*
Robert Joy
Robert Joy (born August 17, 1951) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as medical examiner Sid Hammerback on the police procedural series ''CSI: NY'', and his appearances in the films ''Atlantic City'' (1980), ''Ragtime'' (1981), ' ...
as Hunter Fox
*
Judith Light
Judith Ellen Light (born February 9, 1949) is an American actress. She made her professional stage debut in 1970, before making her Broadway debut in the 1975 revival of ''A Doll's House''. Her breakthrough role was in the ABC daytime soap opera ...
as
Blanche Knopf
Blanche Wolf Knopf (July 30, 1894 – June 4, 1966) was the president of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., and wife of publisher Alfred A. Knopf Sr., with whom she established the firm in 1915. Blanche traveled the world seeking new authors and was especia ...
*
Adriane Lenox
Adriane Lenox is an American actress, best known for her performances in Broadway theatre. Her performance in the play ''Doubt: A Parable'' garnered her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2005. She received another Tony Award ...
as Virginia Naman
*Tosin Morohunfolo as Isaac
Guest
*
Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...
as
Simone Beck
Simone "Simca" Beck (7 July 1904 – 20 December 1991) was a French cookbook writer and cooking teacher who, along with colleagues Julia Child and Louisette Bertholle, played a significant role in the introduction of French cooking technique a ...
*Erin Neufer as Marian Morash
*
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940) is an American actor and activist. Some of his best-known films include ''Babe'' (1995), '' Star Trek: First Contact'' (1996), ''L.A. Confidential'' (1997), '' The Green Mile'' (1999), ''The Queen'' ...
as John McWilliams
*
Bryce Pinkham
Bryce Allen Pinkham (born October 19, 1982) is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in the PBS period drama ''Mercy Street''. On Broadway, he played Monty Navarro in '' A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder''. For the latter role, he rec ...
as
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth ...
*
Christian Clemenson
Christian Dayton Clemenson (born March 17, 1958) is an American film and television actor. He is well known for his portrayal of Jerry "Hands" Espenson in the television series ''Boston Legal'', for which he was nominated for three Emmy Awards a ...
as
James Beard
James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...
* A.J. Shively as Chef
André Soltner
André Soltner (born 1932 in Alsace, France) is an internationally recognized French chef and author working in the United States. He may be one of America's first superstar chefs.
Background
Soltner started his career at the age of 15 at the ...
*
Tracee Chimo
Tracee Chimo Pallero is an American stage, television and film actress who became an arts critic favorite after her 2012 breakout role as Daphna Feygenbaum, the antagonist in Joshua Harmon’s hit dark comedy ''Bad Jews''.
In 2018 she married C ...
as
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...
*
Rob McClure
Rob McClure (born June 15, 1982) is an American actor and singer, best known for his work on the Broadway stage.
McClure made his Broadway debut in 2002 as an understudy in ''I'm Not Rappaport''. From 2006 to 2009, he went on to play several ...
as
Fred Rogers
Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), commonly known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television se ...
* Sam Brackley as Coco Van
Episodes
Production
The series entered development at
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
in September 2019 after being greenlit for a pilot order, with
Chris Keyser showrunning
A showrunner (or colloquially a helmer) is the top-level executive producer of a television series production who has creative and management authority through combining the responsibilities of employer and, in comedy or dramas, typically also the ...
, and
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack (; born October 11, 1962) is an American actress. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the comedy-drama ''Working Girl'' (1988) and the romantic comedy '' In & Out'' (1997) ...
nearing a deal to star in the titular role. By March 2020, Cusack had exited the series, and
Sarah Lancashire
Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire (born 10 October 1964) is an English actress from Oldham, England. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986 and began her career in local theatre, whilst teaching drama classes at the Sal ...
was cast as Julia.
Tom Hollander
Thomas Anthony Hollander (; born 25 August 1967) is an English actor. As a child Hollander trained with the National Youth Theatre and was later involved in stage productions as a member of the Footlights and was president of the Marlowe Soci ...
, Brittany Bradford,
Bebe Neuwirth
Beatrice "Bebe" Jane Neuwirth ( ; born December 31, 1958) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. On television, she played Dr. Lilith Sternin, Frasier Crane's wife, on both the TV sitcom ''Cheers'' (in a starring role) and its spin-off ''F ...
and
Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...
were added in supporting roles. In March 2020, three days into initial filming of the pilot, production was suspended due to the
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
pandemic.
In September 2020,
David Hyde Pierce
David Hyde Pierce (born April 3, 1959) is an American actor and director of stage, film and television. He starred as psychiatrist Dr. Niles Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Frasier'' from 1993 to 2004, and won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen ...
was cast to replace Hollander, who exited the project. In July 2021,
Robert Joy
Robert Joy (born August 17, 1951) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his role as medical examiner Sid Hammerback on the police procedural series ''CSI: NY'', and his appearances in the films ''Atlantic City'' (1980), ''Ragtime'' (1981), ' ...
, Erin Neufer,
James Cromwell
James Oliver Cromwell (born January 27, 1940) is an American actor and activist. Some of his best-known films include ''Babe'' (1995), '' Star Trek: First Contact'' (1996), ''L.A. Confidential'' (1997), '' The Green Mile'' (1999), ''The Queen'' ...
and
Adriane Lenox
Adriane Lenox is an American actress, best known for her performances in Broadway theatre. Her performance in the play ''Doubt: A Parable'' garnered her the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2005. She received another Tony Award ...
were added to the cast.
Filming of the pilot resumed in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
in October 2020. In January 2021, it was announced that the pilot - written by Daniel Goldfarb and directed by
Charles McDougall
Charles McDougall is a Great Britain, British Emmy Award and BAFTA-winning television director, director.
Biography
McDougall has directed for popular television series which include the pilot episode of American Broadcasting Company, ABC's ''De ...
- had been picked up to series, with an 8-episode order.
Filming wrapped in September 2021.
The series premiered on March 31, 2022, with the first three episodes available immediately and the rest debuting on a weekly basis until May 5. On May 4, 2022, HBO Max renewed the series for a second season. In September 2022, it was reported that
Rachel Bloom
Rachel Leah Bloom (born April 3, 1987) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She is best known for co-creating and starring as Rebecca Bunch in The CW musical comedy-drama series ''Crazy Ex-Girlfriend'' (2015– ...
joined the cast for the second season.
Reception
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 a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 8.0/10, based on 44 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "
Sarah Lancashire
Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire (born 10 October 1964) is an English actress from Oldham, England. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986 and began her career in local theatre, whilst teaching drama classes at the Sal ...
inhabits
Julia Child
Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...
with infectious joie de vivre in this appetizing valentine to the iconic chef."
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 76 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Amy Amatangelo, for ''
Paste'', wrote that the "series is billed as a comedy and there are definitely funny moments—notably when people are literally on the floor assisting Julia in the filming of her show—but ''Julia'' explores not just how pioneering Child was in showing cooking on TV, but how pioneering she was for television production in general.
..Ultimately, the series hinges on Lancashire’s transformative performance.
..The series thrives through its strong female characters".
David Cote, for ''
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 ''Julia'' a B+ and wrote that "each 45-ish-minute episode walks a line between sentimental period drama and high-toned sitcom.
..Lancashire carries the season on sturdy shoulders".
Cote commented that the "season arc is fairly standard" and that "the nearest ''Julia'' has to a villain is ''Feminine Mystique'' author Betty Friedan (Tracee Chimo), who chides Child at a public television gala for setting back the cause. It's a powerful moment that shakes Julia and complicates her status as female liberator".
Kathryn VanArendonk, for ''
Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
'', called the show a "bracing, comforting hit of competence porn: people who care, doing their jobs well". VanArendonk highlighted that "the effort to loop Child into the cultural and historical context of her time makes ''Julia'' a better show than it could otherwise have been.
..''Julia'' has some flaws, but its good qualities outweigh the missteps".
Caroline Framke, for ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', compared ''Julia'' to ''
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'' is an American period comedy-drama television series, created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, that premiered on March 17, 2017, on Amazon Prime Video. Set in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it stars Rachel Brosnahan as ...
'' as both shows share the producer Daniel Goldfarb; the show "does a remarkable job recreating a specific slice of upper middle class life as anchored by a white woman whose outsized personality comes with similarly notable talent".
Framke wrote that "even as the series (from showrunner Chris Keyser) identifies more complex themes at play — Julia's heartbreak at hitting menopause before having a child, her Black producer Alice (Brittany Bradford) struggling to gain the respect she deserves — it's mostly happy to skip along the (admittedly very charming) surface".
Both Framke and VanArendonk praised Bradford's performance as Alice, a fictional character based on the actual producer Ruth Lockwood, but criticized Alice's storyline in the show.
Framke commented that "by making her a Black woman, ''Julia'' tries to be more inclusive than the reality without fully reckoning with what it would mean for a Black woman to be producing a show made by and catering to well-off white women who might fancy themselves more progressive than they truly are".
VanArendonk wrote that while ''Julia'' shows Alice experiencing workplace harassment, it does not force the audience "to think about racism all that much.
..Alice is an invention who feels too neatly invented".
References
External links
*
{{HBO Max
HBO Max original programming
2020s American comedy-drama television series
2022 American television series debuts
American biographical series
Television series by 3 Arts Entertainment
Television series by Lionsgate Television
English-language television shows
Cultural depictions of cooks
Works about chefs