Apple TV+ tends to make up for its relatively slim streaming offerings by emphasizing shows and movies with big-name stars—with the company presumably hoping that this will convince the 62 percent of Apple TV+ users on trial subscriptions to actually pay for it the service at some point—and now it looks to be continuing that trend with a new drama series starring Brie Larson called Lessons In Chemistry. This comes from Variety, which says the series will be based on the not-yet-published debut novel from Bonnie Garmus and that it centers on a woman named Elizabeth Zott in the 1960s who dreams of being a scientist but is forced into the “domestic sphere” after getting pregnant. That all seems like it could carry a story on its own, but there’s more: After getting fired from her science job, Elizabeth Zott takes a gig as the host of a cooking show on TV and uses that as a stealth opportunity to teach other ‘60s women about science.
This will be Larson’s first TV role since she was on Community in 2014 and her first regular TV role since she was on The United States Of Tara a few years before that, but she was actually supposed to make her Apple debut before this: Back in 2019, she was attached to star in an adaptation of Amaryllis Fox’s memoir Undercover: Coming Of Age In The CIA, but Variety says that “stalled in the writing phase” and then got sidelined by COVID-19, and now with Larson needing to keep room in her schedule for Captain Marvel 2, it has been put “on hold.” It’s unclear if that’ll still happen, but Apple would most likely appreciate having two original dramas starring a Marvel superhero/Oscar winner (both of which are equally prestigious).
No word on when this might be premiere, but you should pick up a new iPhone and see if you can stack Apple TV+ free trials just in case.