The series begins with the character on whom Brodesser-Akner's influence is arguably the greatest, Philip Roth, will relate to most. Toby of Eisenberg, a New York City hepatologist, has just reached a strange point in his life: He's separated from his wife of 15 years, Rachel (Claire Danes), and finally seeing himself as a hot commodity thanks to dating apps. Have a lot of sex. A whole world of opportunity has opened up to him, or so it seems, chasing the rush of getting a sexy stranger off your phone to want you. This euphoria only lasts for long when he's stuck caring for his two young children, Sully and Hannah, after a stage agent and hard-working ex-wife Rachel suddenly drops the kids at his apartment early one morning and ghosts everyone. She seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, and calls to her assistant go unanswered.
There's a lot of initial angst in this story about Rachel, especially as Toby looks back on a relationship that began with love and has been eroded by passive aggressive disagreements about practically everything. Rachel is missing, but haunting in this story, and makes her musings about their clashes over money, status, and his most attentive upbringing vastly more interesting. In Roth's story, this might all happen differently, or he might feel his anger toward women in a certain kind of way. But part of the strength of "Fleishman is in Trouble," as a series but also a true page-turner, is how this is a Trojan horse for a greater understanding of the women in Toby's life.
We learn about Toby's life initially from Libby's off-screen presence (Lizzy CaplanHis voice hits us from the start. Libby has known Toby since a trip abroad in college (along with the sweet, non-directional Seth [Adam Brody]), but have been out of touch for years, until Toby arrives to find a boyfriend. She also experienced major changes in her life, after she moved to the suburbs of New Jersey and became a stay-at-home mom, leaving behind an earlier version of herself who worked at a magazine, opened movie theaters in New York City, and was more independent. Like Rachel, Libby is about other mothers whose lives seem to revolve around their status and offspring. And like Rachel, Libby #MomSoHard has no value for this life role. (Libby's collection of cool vintage shirts is her own rebellion against the catchphrase shirts about brunch, wine, etc. that populate this series' fashions for modern maternity.)
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