DICKINSON | WE’VE BEEN WATCHING
Recent cinematic depictions of American poet Emily Dickinson have drastically varied. Take A Quiet Passion, a film so content with the buttoned-up persona the writer has usually been associated with; or Wild Nights With Emily, a carpet-pulling piece which showcases Emily’s queer tendencies. This revelation in her life is now given full flight thanks to Apple TV’s big show, now in its second season.
Creator Alena Smith has thrust the poet and her people into our own age of fake news, political derision and creative frustrations – though still set in their own period. The formula includes various hallmarks of the zoomer generation: the younger characters all talk like they’re Instagramming avocado toast and their first batch of kombucha. This shouldn’t work – yet Dickinson is a very funny and often absorbing viewing.
Emily’s story is what makes it worth the watch, as she blossoms into one of America’s finest poets. The poetry is full of fiery abandon, brimming with morbid themes; her lovelife a mangled mess of men and woman, her family a complicated brew of new and old mindsets. It’s the irreverence that just really seals the deal with this show.
Soundtrack choices include Billie Eilish, Leonard Cohen and a lot of bands I have yet to be properly introduced to. All these are peppered throughout the episodes, working well with the ambience set. A subplot about sharing nudes (in this case, a drawing passed around) and contemporary ‘woke’ politics can slap you back to our own reality, especially in light of early January’s events in Washington DC. Granted, not everything is faculty-correct here, but what it does get right makes up for this, although the line “reading and chill” is near-unforgivable.
Even some other famous writers turn up. John Mulaney plays Henry Thoreau, being a fine example of why you should never meet your idol. In a frank depiction, Zosia Mamet is Louisa May Alcott, bushy-browed and full of encouragement for Emily as they go on a strange run together. Nick Kroll has a cameo as Edgar Allan Poe, who in a less inspired scene comes off as an arrogant incel more than anything, and the one writer who feels out of place.
The final few episodes see Emily getting published in a local newspaper after many attempts to do so, and in the face of her father’s backward views on her writing career. Death – an inspired casting for Wiz Khalifa – also returns again to remind her of all things fate. Sue, her love interest, also turns up the heat and we get a cliff hanger that is just so teasing.
Haille Steinfeld is perfect as our poet, bringing to life so many frustrations and passionate detailing that it is near impossible not to root and relate to her teenage angst. The finely-footed Adrian Enscoe is equally strong as Emily’s brother Austin; sister Lavinia, played by Anna Baryshnikov, gets a lot of the funnier side of the show, the poser of their Amherst, MA hometown. Jane Krakowski is their giddy mother, clearly having a lot of fun in the role, and the very watchable Ella Hunt adds sexual tension as Sue – married to Austin, but Emily’s apparent love interest. Toby Huss as the poet’s father Edward has the richest relationship with his daughter, disregarding her writing work while wishing for her to thrive. There are some powerful moments between them and these moments define the greatness of Dickinson, along with her time whipping up her impeccable verse.
Streaming now on Apple TV. Info: here
words JAMES ELLIS image APPLE TV
