Episode Guide
We’re grieving out on the island pancakes fair boat Leonard homecoming MRI kiss from a rose. Life is going on as usual, but we’re all feeling a little bit different. Beth is still in the hospital, and Leonard is gone. We miss him so much.
Life is full of surprises and it can be difficult to keep up with the ever-changing events. You may find yourself feeling discontent with your current situation, or you may be considering your future. It’s important to stay positive and focus on what you can control, like your relationship with your boyfriend or job.
Life & Beth is a series about Beth, a woman who is struggling to find her place in the world and decides to move to a new city. She has never been on such an adventure before and is quickly learning that she doesn’t know everything about her new city. She meets new people and starts to question her relationship with her husband.
Beth is a down-to-earth woman who finds herself in emotional predicaments on this new show. While much of the series is about Beth reflecting on her life, it’s still light and funny, as can be expected with Amy Schumer starring. Her character is warmer and more grounded than her usual spiky persona, which will be good news for anyone who isn’t a fan of her stand-up comedy or her sometimes outrageous behavior. ..
Beth is a likeable protagonist and as the series progresses, we get to experience her life and the various changes she decides to make. In the opening episode, we follow Beth at her job at a wine distributing company and get to meet her infuriating boyfriend Matt (Kevin Kane). We also get to meet Jane (Laura Benanti), Beth’s less-than-helpful mother, as well as her world-weary sister Ann (Susannah Flood). ..
Beth’s journey is a heart-wrenching one, as she realizes that her life is not what she thought it was. She begins to question everything she has ever believed and starts to realize that maybe her dreams were never meant to be realized. This leads her down a path of self-discovery and growth, which ultimately leads her back to John.
As the final episodes of “Beth” air, Beth experiences a health scare that forces her to confront her own mortality. As she contemplates the future, we watch as she reflects on the present state of her life. Should she remain on Long Island? Is John the right person for her? Should she branch out with her own business? These are some of the questions Beth ponders and if you have become invested in her journey during the course of the series, you will want to know the answers as much as she does. ..
This is a comedy series that is full of laughs and heartache. The characters are well-drawn and the story line is compelling. The show has a great sense of humor which makes it enjoyable to watch. The cast does an excellent job in making the characters likable and the story line is exciting.
While much of the series is focused on Beth as an adult, we also get flashbacks to her teenage years. As she goes through the emotional traumas of adolescence, from parent breakup to high school bullying, Beth’s later life is given context and we are given extra reason to warm to her. Violet Young, who plays the teenage Beth, is a wonderful young actress, and she ably displays the same charm and wit that her older incarnation does. Flashback scenes sometimes get in the way of the main story in television programmes and as such, can be annoying to sit through. This isn’t the case in Life & Beth as young Beth is as enjoyable to watch as older Beth, due to the sparkling lines of dialogue, comical scenarios, and the emotional depth that she portrays.
Life & Beth is a beautiful love story, a chaotic comedy, a coming of age tale, and a teary drama. It’s all these things and more and the writing team does an amazing job of making each scene come alive. When watching, there was never a moment when I got bored or wanted to fast-forward through one scene to get to another. The actors and the characters they play make every scene come alive and they are a joy to watch at nearly every moment.
The biggest revelation here is that Schumer can be funny but rarely has she portrayed an emotionally complex character as Beth. She doesn’t lose her wacky charm but, with the possible exception of her role in the darkly comic The Humans, she shows much more dramatic range than she has done before. Cera deserves to get a lot of credit too as John, the socially awkward farmer who provides much of the show’s heart and soul, despite his disarming bluntness.
Schumer and her writing partner, Judd Apatow, have been working on the show for over a year and it is their passion project. According to Schumer, the show is semi-autobiographical in that it is based on her own experiences. The series follows Beth, an actress who has experienced many of the same things as Schumer does in her life. The show’s complexity comes from the fact that Beth’s story is not just a simple one; it is full of both good and bad moments that are all unique to her.
If you haven’t seen the series, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s not the outrageous Amy Schumer comedy that you might be expecting and it’s not the schmaltzy Hallmark-type show you might assume it is after reading the program’s synopsis. It falls somewhere between the two but it is also its own thing that defies a neat characterization. ..
