Harry Styles Soundtracks Brie Larson’s 1950s Feminist Breakthrough in ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Trailer
“Politics and Potatoes” would have been a better name for the cooking show at the center of the Apple TV+ limited series Lessons in Chemistry. Set in the early 1950s, the eight-episode series stars Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott, a chemist who ends up cooking in front of the nation after being fired from her lab. But while she’s mixing ingredients, she’s also shaking the table.
If patriarchal norms were going to perpetuate the narrative that women belong in the kitchen, Zott was going to make misogynists wish she had never stepped foot near one. “Politics don’t belong in the kitchen,” a television executive played by Rainn Wilson tells the scientist-turned-chef. “A man wants his wife to make him a drink after a long day at work.”
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The confidence in his stance waivers when she doesn’t shrink down as he expected. Instead, Zott hits back: “Why do you assume that his day is longer than hers? Why don’t you make the drink?”
This is the ideology Zott weaves into her series, Supper at Six, delivering recipes for existing in the world as a woman and standing with marginalized communities. “Your ability to change everything starts here,” she tells her audience.
The trailer also features the most fitting use of the Harry Styles single “Sign of the Times,” splicing his isolated vocals with haunting orchestral production. The last time the singer was involved in a movie centered in the 1950s, as he was holding Florence Pugh hostage in an experimental simulation that relied on these same narratives in Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling — so the placement is a welcome change of pace.
Lessons in Chemistry is based on the best-selling novel from author and science editor Bonnie Garmus. The first two episodes of the series will premiere on Friday, Oct. 13, on Apple TV+, with new episodes arriving weekly through Nov. 24. The series also stars Lewis Pullman, Aja Naomi King, Stephanie Koenig, Kevin Sussman, Patrick Walker, and Thomas Mann.
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