But none of her motivations become clear. We know Frankie is dying, and Clare's having trouble with connecting to anyone outside her family. Yet, even then, Tiny Beautiful Things doesn't adequately focus on her early years, leaving only snippets which feel increasingly manipulative and melodramatic. The episodes struggle to underline the ways in which Clare traces back to her past to get her present column in place. Instead what little arc is built on the road to living with loss and fear is cut short with an extremely undercooked screenplay and edit work. It's a predictable route from the get-go, which would have still become poignant if the creators knew how to position the decades-long context into the present crises of Clare.

In parallel, we are introduced to a younger Clare (Sarah Pidgeon) and her mother Frankie (played by the always dependable Merritt Wever, whom you might remember 'serving' in Marriage Story), in flashbacks: as Clare enrolls into college, gets pregnant while Frankie is diagnosed with lung cancer. After a much needed reality check, Clare reports back to the retirement home she works at, while trying to keep writing to an advice column named 'Dear Sugar', which she has been reading for some months. Her daughter Rae (Tanzyn Crawford) doesn't feign much surprise because she's aware what her mother can forget. We first meet Clare Pierce (Kathryn Hahn), when she's so wiped out that she has entirely forgotten that she has been thrown out the house by her husband Danny (Quentin Plair). ( Also read: Beef review: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong wreck havoc in one of the year's best shows) Tiny Beautiful Things is streaming on Disney + Hotstar.Īdapted by Liz Tigelaar (who also developed another Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere), Tiny Beautiful Things gets the tone all wrong from the very first episode. Alas, Tiny Beautiful Things never rises above its formulaic, manipulative parts to dig into its own restless understanding of agony and healing.

But trust the formula to not work only when it had almost everything going for it. Throw in Kathryn Hahn, and you'd expect another nothing less than a poignant show. For those who have read and cherished the words of Cheryl Strayed, including me, the new eight-part series Tiny Beautiful Things based on the collection of advice letters from her column 'Dear Sugar', would genuinely pick interest and attention.

Tiny beautiful things cheryl