'Rodham' Series, Based On Fictional Book About Hillary Clinton, In The Works At Hulu

Hulu is adapting Rodham, the alternative history novel where Hillary never marries Bill Clinton, into a series. Written by Curtis Sittenfeld, the book is set in a world where Hillary and Bill split after college, and when Hillary eventually goes on to run for president, it's Bill she's up against, not Donald Trump. The project is currently in the script stage, with The Affair co-creator Sarah Treem working on the adaptation.

I voted for Hillary Clinton. Despite some flaws, I think Hillary Clinton would've made a good, maybe even great, president. She certainly would've been a better president than Donald Trump. With all that said, it feels very weird to keep revisiting Mrs. Clinton in the media over and over again. Don't get me wrong: I'm not one of those people who think Hillary Clinton should be quiet and go away forever. She's a public figure with a rich history, and she has every right to voice her opinions on political matters. That said, I really don't want to spend the rest of my life revisiting the traumatic 2016 election in any form, and I'm fairly certain most people feel the same way.

Which makes Rodham a curious project. Written by Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham explores an alt-history where Bill and Hillary never actually get married. Hillary breaks with Bill and forges her own path, and the novel suggests how different her life – both personal and political – would've been had she not been forever in Bill's shadow. The book received mixed reviews, with some praising it while others labeling it little more than political fan-fiction. Here's the synopsis:

In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times; although she said no more than once, as we all know, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton.

But in Curtis Sittenfeld's powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail—one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life.

And now Hulu wants to turn it into a series. Per THR, Sarah Treem is working on adapting the book. Things are still in the script stage, and the project would need a formal series order before moving forward. Will this happen? We'll see. While my knee-jerk reaction to this entire idea is one of disdain, I'm fully willing to give the show a chance if it actually gets picked up. For now, we'll wait and see.