I watched the first season of "Julia" as it was on the Guardian's Top TV of 2022 list. Whilst it was a bit too frothy for his own good, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed this second season two, though I was already starting to wonder if maybe we'd run out of plot and the cancellation, whilst not welcome, was perhaps understandable.
Julia (Sarah Lancashire) is in France between seasons of The French Chef and is struggling to reach a consensus with Simca (Isabella Rossellini) about what recipes to include in their second cookbook. The station is struggling, as they're attempting to come up with a show that can rival Julia for viewing figures. Pilots are produced by Alice (Brittany Bradford), of a talk show dealing specifically with women's issues and by Russ (Fran Kranz) with a documentary on current affairs. The studio has hired a new director for The French Chef though, Elaine Levitch (Rachel Bloom) from CBS - however, on her return Elaine and Julia's chemistry is not right.
This second season is similarly as light, funny and charming as the first was. Again, it threatens at darker storylines, this time largely focused on a (frankly bizarre) storyline involving the FBI looking for left wing agitators working at the studio. This is introduced by the arrival of Paul Guilfoyle as a former friend of Julia, who threatens to go public with allegations about Paul, unless Julia provides information. It's not so much the idea of this storyline that is bizarre, as it is the way that it's overcome.
Performances are really good. Lancashire remains utterly lost to the character and David Hyde Pierce is fabulous and gets to play his characters twin brother in one episode of this season.
I'd have watched another season, had it been forthcoming - though they might have had to do a time jump by a decade or so to find more interesting aspects of Julia's life. As it is though, the show was a light hearted comedy drama that I enjoyed.
Julia (Sarah Lancashire) is in France between seasons of The French Chef and is struggling to reach a consensus with Simca (Isabella Rossellini) about what recipes to include in their second cookbook. The station is struggling, as they're attempting to come up with a show that can rival Julia for viewing figures. Pilots are produced by Alice (Brittany Bradford), of a talk show dealing specifically with women's issues and by Russ (Fran Kranz) with a documentary on current affairs. The studio has hired a new director for The French Chef though, Elaine Levitch (Rachel Bloom) from CBS - however, on her return Elaine and Julia's chemistry is not right.
This second season is similarly as light, funny and charming as the first was. Again, it threatens at darker storylines, this time largely focused on a (frankly bizarre) storyline involving the FBI looking for left wing agitators working at the studio. This is introduced by the arrival of Paul Guilfoyle as a former friend of Julia, who threatens to go public with allegations about Paul, unless Julia provides information. It's not so much the idea of this storyline that is bizarre, as it is the way that it's overcome.
Performances are really good. Lancashire remains utterly lost to the character and David Hyde Pierce is fabulous and gets to play his characters twin brother in one episode of this season.
I'd have watched another season, had it been forthcoming - though they might have had to do a time jump by a decade or so to find more interesting aspects of Julia's life. As it is though, the show was a light hearted comedy drama that I enjoyed.
