Apple TV+ Series 'Lessons In Chemistry' Will Star Brie Larson As A Cooking Show Host

Brie Larson is headed to Apple TV+ with the series Lessons in Chemistry. Based on the upcoming book of the same name, the show follows a woman who has to put her dreams of becoming a scientist on hold and then ends up becoming the host of a TV cooking show. Larson will also executive produce the series, which comes from Erin Brockovich writer Susannah Grant.

In what's described as "a highly competitive situation," Apple TV+ has given a straight-to-series order for Lessons in Chemistry, a new series that will star Brie Larson. Larson will also serve as executive producer alongside Susannah Grant, who is writing the show. Other executive producers include Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan.

Here's the Lessons in Chemistry synopsis:

Set in the early 1960s, "Lessons in Chemistry" follows Elizabeth Zott, whose dream of being a scientist is put on hold in a society deeming that women belong in the domestic sphere, not the professional one. When Elizabeth finds herself pregnant, alone and fired from her lab, she musters the ingenuity only a single mother has. She accepts a job as a host on a TV cooking show, and sets out to teach a nation of overlooked housewives – and the men who are suddenly listening – a lot more than recipes... all the while craving a return to her true love: science.

The show is based on the upcoming book by Bonnie Garmus, and when I say upcoming I really mean upcoming: it's not due to be published until April 2022. The book's synopsis offers some more insight into what to expect:

Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the 1960s and the science community within which she works is not ahead of the evolutionary curve when it comes to equality...Fast forward three years and Elizabeth Zott is unmarried, raising a daughter alone and — bizarrely — the star of America's most loved cooking show Supper at Six. Whilst her male colleagues had always intimated the kitchen was the only place for Elizabeth, her singular approach to cooking ('take one pint of H2O and add a pinch of sodium chloride') and independent example is proving revolutionary in homes across America. Because Elizabeth isn't just teaching women how to cook. She's teaching them the laws of chemistry and how to change the status quo. She's teaching them that a woman's place is out in the world.

When Apple TV+ first launched its original line-up was met with a bit of a shrug, but since then the streaming service has built itself up a well-regarded stable of titles, from original shows like Dickinson, Ted Lasso, and Servant, to upcoming movies like Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon. They may not be as flashy as Netflix, HBO Max, or Disney+, but they have a lot to offer.