Hulu Little beautiful things It lives up to its title, revealing beauty in everything from a purple balloon on a bus to glow-in-the-dark stars attached to a bedroom ceiling. But the most beautiful thing about the series is Kathryn Hahn’s groundbreaking performance, which offers a poignant look at how we deal with life’s chaos, big and small.
Hahn plays Claire Pierce, a woman whose life is mere inches from the gutter. Her husband Danny (Quentin Blair) and daughter Ray (Tanzin Crawford) have kicked her out and want nothing to do with her, and she’s on thin ice at her retirement home job. She is also still grieving the loss of her mother, Frankie (Merritt Weaver), who passed away during Claire’s final year of college. (In flashbacks, young Claire is played by Sarah Pidgeon.)
The chance to improve her circumstances comes from the most unexpected of places: the “Dear Sugar” advice column. No, Claire does not receive any advice from Sugar. She’s actually writing the column for an old friend. Turns out, listening to and responding to other people’s struggles may be exactly what Claire needs to begin healing.
‘Up Here’ Review: A Sweet Musical from the Minds of ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Frozen’
Little beautiful things Adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s book of essays of the same name.
Kathryn Hahn and Tanzin Crawford in Tiny Beautiful Things.
Credit: Jassica Brooks/Hulu
You may know author Cheryl Strayed from her memoirs Wild, about her experience hiking the Pacific Coast Trail. She also wrote the “Dear Sugar” advice column for the online literary magazine The Rumpus from 2010 to 2012. Her articles, “Dear Sugar,” were then published in book form, on which Little beautiful things shall – somewhat.
Little beautiful things Do not attempt to adapt the articles themselves. Instead, the show weaves its material through a fictional version of Strayed’s life. Some elements of Claire’s experience align with Strayed’s, such as her rural upbringing and her mother’s death. However, the show in no way functions as a biopic for the misguided.
As Sugar, Claire receives letters asking about how to handle marital problems, sharing concerns about children, and more — all issues that plague Claire herself. The sugar role allows Claire to work through her own experiences and empathize with others, which is practical Little beautiful things He exits through the copious voiceovers of the messages to Sugar as well as Clare’s responses. These lyrics are roughly lifted from the columns of the original “Dear Sugar,” so each episode delivers a fresh dose of deeply poignant personal writing.
There are times when the voiceovers veer into very bland, traditional life advice territory, while the dialogue throughout tends to be melodramatic. but, Little beautiful things It’s course-corrected with some devastatingly funny moments, including a rant about Chick-fil-A with Clare’s permission and a subsequent send-up of writing retreats.
Kathryn Hahn and Merritt Wever starred Little beautiful things.
Merritt Wever and Sarah Pidgeon in Tiny Beautiful Things.
Credit: Elizabeth Morris/Hulu
Little beautiful thingsThe combination of humor and sentiment would not have been possible without Han at the helm. She plays out the chaos of Claire’s life with startling clarity, making her an open book we can’t tear our eyes from — even when she does something that makes us cringe, like an ill-advised hook-up or a sweaty meltdown in front of her daughter’s friend.
Pidgeon does a great job as a young Clare, too, with a performance that mirrors Hahn and establishes the key emotional connection between Clare and her mother. Like Frankie, Weaver is the picture of kindness and patience – almost to the point of being also Perfect in some episodes. However, some of the show’s most tragic moments occur in flashes of emotion on her face, such as when Claire doesn’t like a coat Frankie bought for Christmas. Nowadays, moments like this keep Claire apart, which is reflected in her scenes with Ray. She clearly doesn’t want her daughter to repeat her mistakes, but given their strained relationship, how could Claire make amends?
Mother-daughter relationships, those between Frankie, Claire, and Ray, form the core Little beautiful things. Episodes often draw parallels between these pairs through flashbacks. Flashbacks can be frustrating at times, because we don’t always get a firm idea of where we were in the past. However, given Little beautiful thingsFocusing on remembering, this lack of anchor time makes sense. Memory isn’t linear: it’s messy and heartbreaking, but it can also be cathartic. “Dear Sugar” gives Claire some much-needed reprieve, and through its epilogue, Little beautiful thingswith its relentless exploration of grief and love, ends up achieving the same effect.
all episodes Little beautiful things Streaming on Hulu April 7.(Opens in a new tab)