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babewiththepower.bsky.social · @babewiththepower.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated Lessons in Chemistry 6/10

I'd never heard of this before the Apple tv show was announced. That was quite the turnaround considering this book published in April 2022 and the show premiered October 2023! Of course as soon as I decided I'd give it a read in prep for the show, it was already too late. The local library already had a wait list a mile long.<br/><br/>That means I watched the show before I got to read the novel. Not the order I like, but what can you do. It's fine. I'm not one of those people who demands a tv show or film be an exact replica of a novel. They're different media and they should be different. Therefore, most of my review will be about the differences between the two and what I thought of them. If you don't want either spoiled, now's the time to stop reading this review. The short review is it's an easy read about being a woman in decades gone by and specifically a woman who is also a scientist and how extra difficult that was. Portions of it are very much fantasy? fictional? but nothing outrageously so. The plot gets you there in broad strokes of what those two things meant in the real world.<br/><br/>Here starts the comparison and what I thought of each. I'd say the major thing I noted was that Larson toned down a bit the level of... obliviousness Zott has of how the average person thinks and behaves. While I'd already thought so when watching the tv show, very much so in reading the novel did I think how neuroatypical Zott behaved. I'd guess some writer/exec felt it needed to be toned down to make her more "likeable." The increase of the whole subplot of Mad's detective work to find out about Calvin was a good change. It made that whole conclusion a lot less abrupt and more believeable. Changing the reason Zott is atheist in the show to having an evangelical father also felt like a bit of a crutch for her personality instead of just believing as she did without a personal reason for it.<br/><br/>The side characters were also all there in the tv show, but massively moved around and, in Harriet Sloane's case changed completely in both race and how happily married and successful she is. This is great in the sense that it kept the show from being yet another undiverse cast, but on the other hand it wasn't anything I ever believed. Calvin would've never been so oblivious as to have not realized how strange it was for him to move into a Black neighborhood, well-to-do or not. The tv show change to Fran Frask from spiteful mean girl to the ally co-worker was also a bit unbelieveable and I would've believed more how her character worked in the book.<br/><br/>Also, making HER be the one to end up with tv producer Walter Pine instead of neighbor Harriett gets rid of that complication of her awful husband and down-low adultery of the novel. There were enough awful men in the tv show already without adding more. Granted, it was the way of the world and often nowadays still true the higher up the chain you go, but it does make things neater for a mini-series.<br/><br/>Speaking of getting rid of awful men, one that wasn't quite awful but definitely sweeter on tv was Rev. Wakely. Fleshing out the pen pal relationship between him and Calvin was for me a favorite part of the series. Also not making him secretly atheist like in the novel was good. It makes for a better story that it is possible for people of completely different religious beliefs to still have the same beneficial and positive effect on their life and that of others.<br/><br/>The nearly-mustache-twirling villain of tv GM Lebensmal played by Rainn Wilson was both the same as in the novel while also cranked up to 11. He played the overbearing sexist asshole to the hilt making the most of that character into a memorable villain. Dr. Donatti was also excelently played by Derek Cecil in a more quietly plotting villain best represented in my opinion by that image of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons quietly sitting hands together plotting. Neither character changed much, but both brought a little more of the same character to the screen than appeared in the book. Finally, also adding more from the novel to the tv show was the corniness of the talking dog. I wasn't a big fan of the dog-narrated episode, but it did add to the sad POV when Calvin dies - via police car not bus in the novel! Thankfully, for my tastes it was mainly limited to that one episode.<br/><br/>Finally, let's get to the plot of the unwed mother of Calvin, who was his bio father, and how it all went down from Calvin's conception to her meeting with the Zotts at the end. Mostly it remained the same although I found it interesting that in the novel it was Calvin's father who really did die of Tuberculosis. It gives a good answer that in the tv show was glided right past as to why he wasn't involved in all of this. Odds would be a rich 17 year old girl would know her baby-daddy well considering they don't tend to mingle much with the rest of us in real life! The addition in the tv show of the priest not only lying about Calvin's death, but doing so because he doesn't want to lose the golden goose, using him to enrich himself in more than one way also added one more believeable thing that made him even more despicable for denying Calvin a better life. On the other hand, without all that, there would've been no Zotts.<br/><br/>If you've not watched the show, I recommend it. I also recommend this book with the caveat mentioned earlier that in some ways it is a little fantastical and too neat in tying up its plot points. Which don't take away from the book. Or the tv series.

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Published 2026-08-18 17:59 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere