On Oct. 27, HBO released the first episode of “Mrs. Fletcher.” The miniseries, based on the 2017 novel by Tom Perrotta, stars “Bad Moms” actress Kathryn Hahn as Eve Fletcher, a divorced mother to 18-year-old Brendan (Jackson White). “Mrs. Fletcher” is about new beginnings. In the show, Eve and Brendan both struggle to adjust to their new lives and in the process face challenges that will hit close to home for anyone who has begun their own new chapter. The characters in “Mrs. Fletcher” evolve emotionally, spiritually and sexually as the show progresses.
The novel is a bit different from the series because in the book Brendan is the one telling the story, while Eve’s story is told in third person. This was most likely because the author is a man and therefore felt more comfortable structuring the story this way. On the other hand, the production team for the TV series included many women, which allowed Eve’s perspective to play a more prominent role as it switched off with Brendan’s.
Perrotta adapted the novel himself for the screen in collaboration with Hahn; I think the change in perspective along with the production worked extremely well and provided for entertaining and insightful television.
The miniseries begins the night before Brendan leaves for college when Eve is stuck at home packing his things while he goes out partying with his friends. But instead of getting upset, Eve fears what her life will be like when she no longer has to take care of Brendan. Meanwhile, we get the opportunity to see Brendan in action at the party and are clued into the fact that he is not the nice boy his mother believes he is. The truth is that his father not being in the picture has caused him to act out and treat every girl he meets with little respect.
In the second episode of “Mrs. Fletcher,” Brendan struggles to assimilate to a college environment where he can no longer bully his way to popularity. Instead, he barely gets noticed by anyone until he attends a mandatory seminar on sexual consent and uses it as an opportunity to meet a hot blonde to take back to his room. Meanwhile, Eve tries internet porn for the first time and discovers something new about her sexuality: She finds that she is sexually attracted to both men and women.
Eve also enrolls in a writing class at the local community college in order to fill her time and try something new. In the class, she meets a much younger boy, Julian (Owen Teague), who her son Brendan attended high school with. Julian seems to take an interest in Eve, and she considers what it would be like to be with a younger man.
In the following episode, Brendan’s father, Ted (Josh Hamilton), comes to visit him for parents weekend but unexpectedly brings his new family along. Eve is left to deal with her disappointment that Brendan didn’t want her to attend the event and decides to go on a date to appease her loneliness. Even though the man is polite and appears to have it all together, Eve feels uninterested. Meanwhile, Brendan has a breakdown when his father leaves.
The next weekend Eve attends a wild party in Brooklyn and has sex for the first time since she and Ted got divorced, all while Brendan goes to an anything-but-clothes party on campus with a girl named Chloe (Jasmine Cephas Jones). At the end of the night, Eve invites her coworker Amanda (Katie Kershaw) to come over and she kisses her. Eve then gets closer with Julian while remaining interested in Amanda, and Brendan gets into trouble for mistreating Chloe.
Finally, in the last episode of the miniseries, Eve celebrates her birthday by throwing a party where she invites both Amanda and Julian to attend. Brendan decides that same evening to leave school and returns home and is surprised to find out what his mother has been up to while he’s been gone. The episode concludes with Brendan walking in on Eve having a threesome with her coworker and his former classmate.
Ever since finishing that last scene, I have been itching to know what happened. “Mrs. Fletcher” was originally intended to be a miniseries, however the finale’s unresolved nature left things open for another season. Eve and Brendan also have much more room to grow and change before things are settled. Although the show was advertised as a miniseries, the network might do what they did with other shows like “Big Little Lies” and restructure the plot to allow for more seasons.
In an Indiewire interview, Hahn was asked if she would return for another season and answered, “Oh my god, of course, of course, of course. I think that there’s clearly so much more story to be told.” Then when Perrotta was asked the same question he responded by saying, “This is an ending of an arc, not an ending of a life.” It appears that the crew is on board for another season, but is HBO?
As someone who enjoyed all seven episodes and wants their remaining questions answered, I certainly hope the network makes the decision to continue the series. “Mrs. Fletcher” is a brilliant show and I believe viewers would gain much more from it should it continue beyond a miniseries. In order to check out “Mrs. Fletcher” go to Hulu or HBO.com.
