Our life is filled with ups and downs, highs and lows. And no matter how old we are, there is always going to be a new set of challenges waiting for us everyday. Sure, as we get older, we will gather so many experiences and wisdom that’ll help us process said challenges more easily. But it doesn’t mean that our life is just going to get easier once we’re in our 40s or 50s. In fact, for some people, this period of life can even be scarier and more challenging. The thought of having less time left with our family, for instance, is one of the reasons why our second half of life can be a lot more burdensome.
In Mrs. Fletcher, HBO’s newest miniseries adapted from Tom Perrotta’s book of the same name that just ended on December 8, the challenges come specifically from the titular character Eve Fletcher (played compellingly by the Emmy-worthy Kathryn Hahn) as she deals with a major transition that happens after she sends her only son Brendan (Jackson White, in a breakthrough performance) off to college. And for 30-minutes, seven episodes, we are given an exclusive look into how Eve discovers and rediscovers herself in a new phase of life where she can just focus on herself. While it may seem like what the show offers here is just a portrait of a mother dealing with an empty nest syndrome — something that’s been done plenty of time in movies and TV — Mrs. Fletcher manages to break into new ground by also digging deep into desire, sexuality, and toxic masculinity. The result is a thoughtful and charming character study with plenty of reflective moments.
The Beginning of Eve’s Sexual Awakening
When we first meet Eve, a mid-40s single mother who lives in a New England suburb, in the series premiere, she’s about to drive her son off to college and unreadily start a new chapter in her life. She helps him pack his stuff and plans to have one last night out with him before he leaves. But unlike Eve, Brendan is so eager to leave his mother that he obliviously keeps ignoring her in their last night together. The next morning, after Eve sweatily carries Brendan’s stuff to the van by herself, she overhears him shouting some misogynistic names while he’s receiving oral sex from an ex-girlfriend.
This certainly shocks her right to her core. But knowing that the only time she has left with him is on their way to his campus, she tries to have an initial talk to him about the importance of respecting women while driving. “I think one of the most important things for you to always remember, especially now, you know, in this day and age,” she stutters, “I mean, in life, really is, that you have to be nice to women.” But knowing how ignorant he really is right from the get go, it’s not even a surprise to see him tune her out by instead turning the radio volume up.
As the two are separated, Eve begins to realise that she has spent way too much time forgetting who she really is: a woman who has a life outside of just raising her son. So in an attempt to fill that hole, she takes a local creative writing class, assuming that it can help her fulfill whatever it is that’s been missing in her life. While it’s true that the class provides her something new to look forward to, Eve still does not get the satisfaction that she desperately needs. This constant feeling of unfulfillment is what eventually leads her to discover herself through online pornography, allowing her to explore her sexuality in ways she never reckoned before. Though at first it looks like the show will head toward a direction where Eve will break bad into the world of porn like Walter White does into the world of meth in Breaking Bad, Mrs. Fletcher instead gives us something much more nuance and empathetic.
Finding Liberation Through Porn
The online porn is not just an entrance that awakens Eve’s sexuality, but also a gateway that allows her to find liberation, confidence, and sexual desire that have been repressed ever since she was hit by motherhood. So much of the story revolves around Eve’s journey of trying to understand this sexual awakening, but Tom Perrotta’s approach remains thoughtful and never exploitative. In fact, what Mrs. Fletcher does best through this sexual adventure is challenging Eve to begin owning parts that are fully hers, not Brendan’s or someone else’s. The show also understands that Eve’s journey of rediscovering herself is not an easy one. If anything, it’s messy, sloppy, and even questionable. But that messiness is what actually gives Mrs. Fletcher more sense of thoughtfulness and universality.
While seeing Eve exploring her curiosity through porn and a series of flirtations with Julian (Owen Teague), one of her classmates, remains exciting throughout, what’s really engaging about the show has always been about its observation on the growth that Eve makes along the way. In the fifth episode “Invisible Fence”, we finally see Eve put her curiosity beyond masturbating — she’s having sex with a random guy whom she meets at a party. And even though things do not go as how Eve has always imagined, she still gains liberation from it.
Yes, she may have had a terrible one-night stand, but at least she does something new, something she never thought she would do. Putting herself out there without having to be afraid of being judged is not an easy thing to do. Yet she does it anyway. She translates her curiosity and desire into real action, then brings home a sense of fulfillment from it. And in the end, she finally discovers herself in a new way regardless of how dissatisfying the experience might get. Although it takes almost one full season to see Eve achieve this little baby step, she finally jumps over the invisible fence that’s been limiting her life.
I totally get why most people will find it frustrating that the show does not seem like it wants to make a huge progress for the first half of the season, but the baby steps that Eve takes along the way is what eventually matters the most. The show knows that reinventing our life and finding ourselves are not a process that we can just accelerate anyway we want it. Rather, it’s a journey that not only requires patience, but also reflection. No one, including Eve, can actualise herself over night or over one sexual encounter, but that’s the beauty of it. And that is also what Mrs. Fletcher captures beautifully, the messiness that happens along the way of our self-actualisation process.
The Behavioural Impact of Absent Father
Though Eve’s journey remains the show’s front and centre until the end, Tom Perrotta also extends his sharp observation to Brendan as he navigates his new life as a college freshman. When we see Brendan in the first episode, we immediately know that he’s a typical popular jock who assumes that his birthright as a cis straight male allow him to get away with anything and treat people anyway he wants, including bullying people that are “below” him or treating girls as if they’re just properties to his sex life. To put it simply, Brendan is an alpha male who used to have everything handed to him by his mother but still takes her, or everyone, for granted just because he can. But soon, he realises that in college, things are different. He can’t just use his privilege as a straight white dude to control people. Women begin to shun him out for the first time in his life, his roommate keeps abandoning him. Worse, his academic advisor warns him more than once about his failing grade.
This awakening begins to torture him in ways he never thought of before. And as he keeps stumbling down in this new, liberal environment that does not tolerate his old douchey behaviour, the show allows us to access him even deeper beneath the toughness that he so proudly displays. But in doing so, never once does the show ask us to condone or excuse his behaviour. Rather, what Tom Perrotta shows here is just an accurate portrait of the harmful impact that an absent father can give to his son. In episode four “Parents’ Weekend”, it becomes even more obvious why Brendan embodies such terrible behaviour: the lack of father figure in his life that can teach him how to be a proper gentleman.
Sure, Brendan still has a father Ted (Josh Hamilton). But because he’s already divorced with his mother, for most parts of his life, Ted is not there to tell him about stuff or give him directions that he should’ve gotten. So as a result, it gives him an easy route to do anything that he wants without having the fear of being told no or punished by the consequences. Worse, even when Ted is around, he’s actually an unreliable, selfish father who assumes that Brendan is doing just fine without him. “The thing is, you’re good,” Ted says, “I don’t have to worry about you. You’re so smart, you’re good at sports. People love you. You’re good, yeah?” But instead of opening up to his father, Brendan chooses to not tell him that he’s actually not doing okay. Not because he plainly wants it, but rather because he wants to maintain Ted’s perception of him as a son who his father need not worry about.
The show does not portray Ted simply as a jerk, but rather gives him a reason why he couldn’t put his focus and love entirely to Brendan — he has a new son that is on the spectrum. While it’s true that Brendan does not have the same urgent needs that his step brother does, Ted shouldn’t just neglect him or refuse to make room for him like that. He’s, after all, still a father of two sons who both need his attention and help. It’s through Brendan that Mrs. Fletcher manages to drill home its examination on how toxic masculinity can be shaped by a hole that a father creates to his son.
A Wholesome Experience
While the show’s dual explorations on both Eve and Brendan’s awakening work well as two standalone stories, Mrs. Fletcher successfully converges them in the last episode that puts them in different positions than the one they began. They may not entirely find what it is that they’re looking for when the show reaches its finish line, but in the end, both of them have learned something new about themselves and their position in the world. And mostly, what Eve and Brendan gained throughout this journey is much more impactful: how difficult it is to reinvent ourselves in a world that keeps changing at every turn. Funny, absorbing, and thought-provoking without being heavy-handed, Mrs. Fletcher is a wholesome experience that provides an empowering journey about the complexity of being human.
So have you seen this show? What do you think of the ending? Let us know in the comments below!
Mrs. Fletcher is now streaming on HBO Go and HBO Now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQfCp5bHmSE
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