Literary Binges: The Other Black Girl & Lessons in Chemistry

I recently caught up on two adaptations of books I absolutely loved. I exhort you to actually read these books, but if you can't be bothered, these eight-episode adaptations have done a pretty great job of bring the world of these novels to life on the small screen.

The Other Black Girl: Based on the novel by Zakiyah Delilah Harris, who serves as co-creator of this show with the formidable Rashida Jones, this is an incisive and surprisingly hilarious thriller about a Black woman trying to make it in the very white world of publishing. Sinclair Daniel stars as Nella, a Black woman who works at Wagner Books as an editorial assistant and is keen to become an editor. When a new editorial assistant, Hazel (Ashleigh Murray), joins the firm, Nella is excited that she will finally have one other Black colleague. 

However, things start to take a disquieting turn - Hazel seems to be very supportive of the sisterhood, but then also quietly undermines Nella at key moments, and things just feel a little bit off. And then a mysterious stranger approaches Nella and tells her to watch out for Hazel. Which leads to a whole investigation of who this woman is and how exactly her story is intertwined with that of a Black author from the 80s who served as Nella's inspiration for getting into this business in the first place.

This is a fantastic adaptation that captures the essence of the novel in every scene and walks that tightrope between horror and hilarity with every step. The book was like a literary answer to Get Out, and the TV adaptation is a worthy successor to that film, fully capturing the many facets of the Black experience, and how a person can be too Black for the white world, but then not Black enough for the Black world. The story takes some wild and outrageous twists, but you just have to hang on for dear life and go on this ride. It is funny, it is ridiculous, it is sublime. 

Lessons in Chemistry: Based on the novel by Bonnie Garmus, this adaptation was created by Lee Eisenberg and stars Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott, a female chemist in the 1950s who faces misogyny at every step in her career but then finds an unexpected partnership and romance with fellow chemist, Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman). 

Of course, the course of true love never did run smooth, and the film is mostly focused on what happens with Elizabeth and her daughter Mad (people mistakenly think that stands for Madeline, but it's just Mad) as they try to build a life for themselves and also learn more about Calvin's origins. While a lot of this show is about Elizabeth's struggles in the scientific community, there's also the crossover when she becomes the host of a popular cooking show, that turns into a feminist rallying cry for women all over the country who have stifled dreams and ambitions.

This is a decent adaptation and is certainly well-acted, with impeccable production design and costumes that beautifully capture that 50s aesthetic. But the show also inserts additional plotlines that weren't in the original novel and takes away other elements, so your mileage may vary if you were a big fan of the book. I can certainly understand why they made these changes and the show stands well on its own, but I did feel like it paled a little bit in comparison to the novel. It's still a wonderful story though, and if television is your preferred medium for storytelling, this is certainly a delicious story to treat yourself to for eight hours.