Dietland

Great new series - and NOTHING YOU'D EXPECT. I actually avoided this show because of the title - I saw it on the AMC app but (wrongly) assumed it was another weight loss journey show. After seeing a promo, I gave it a chance. And it has won me over! Plum is a great lead character and the show is doling out pieces to a murder/revenge spree while telling Plum's story. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes!

New Yorker Plum Kettle (Joy Nash) is depressed, is overweight, attends her Waist Watcher meetings, and needs money for weight loss surgery. Her job is to reply to depressing mail for fashion magazine editor Kitty Montgomery (Julianna Margulies) from her adoring fans in her name. It's a low-paying unsatisfying job. She is befriended by the mysterious Julia Smith at the company who wants the names of Kitty's fan letter writers. She follows an anti-diet book to its author, Verena Baptist, the daughter of the creators of the Baptist weight loss plan which she was once on. Verena offers her a new method and is willing to pay Plum for her to join. Kitty hires former police detective Dominic O'Shea to investigate a security breach at the company. Radical feminist group Jennifer is murdering men for past sexual abuses which leads to widespread chaos.

Plum is rather depressing at the beginning which keeps the early episodes a downer. The plot unfolds in a scattershot way. She needs a co-conspirator who could join her on her journey. That seems to be Leeta at first but she disappears and then comes back and disappears again. That's this show in miniature. Characters come in and then are cast aside. The plot throws some big punches and some of them hit hard. The social commentary is compelling. It can get depressing with some attempts at dark humor. I appreciate the attempt but I'm not sure I even like Plum and I'm not sure I like this show.

Wicked fantasizing show, but grounded in real pain and the daily insecurity of women and economic attack onto women for decades. Finally a TV show that speaks to the ridiculousness of men making money off the objectification of women's looks. The lead character is likable, thoughtfully flawed. and bolstered with a curious & colorful supporting cast. Layered storyline, with serious and silly elements. It's human, it's fun and it's also close some people's real lives.

I haven't seen the whole series, but I like Dietland. Posters here have objected to Plum's passivity and desire to be thinner, but Plum, in a way, is a stand-in for the audience, who long to be thinner, younger, more glam, etc. but resist looking into the political and cultural systems that marginalize and impoverish them. I like the Brooklyn settings and NYC locale of the show. I hope this dark and well-written show gets a second season. All the characters are interesting and we need to get to know them better.

This is based off of my favorite read of this decade. Being a fat woman living and being treated with utter disdain by society it was rewarding to finally have a story like mine told. And the peppering of some radical feminism never hurts too.