‘Fleishman is in Trouble’: Whose stories get told and how?

“Fleishman is in Trouble” stars Jesse Eisenberg, Claire Danes, Lizzy Caplan, and Adam Brody. Credit: YouTube.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel “Fleishman is in Trouble” is  now adapted as a limited series for FX/Hulu. Jesse Eisenberg plays Toby Fleishman, a nebbish doctor in his 40s who discovers the delights of dating apps. Claire Danes plays his ex-wife Rachel, a successful talent agent who disappears one day. Much like the book, the series is narrated by Toby’s college friend, Libby, a magazine writer living with her family in New Jersey. 

“The book is very much about memory, and nostalgia, and the way we remember things. And it's also about the way we tell a story,” says author and showrunner Taffy Brodesser-Akner. “Ultimately … it grapples with the question of whose story gets told and how. And this strange sense that every time we tell a story on someone's behalf, we are automatically creating some kind of empathy for them. And the people who are left out of that story are people that we are putting into harm's way empathy-wise.”

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