“I hope she'll be a fool — that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
She wore short skirts, adorned a bob in a crowd of long-haired clones, smoked cigarettes and tapped her heels to Jazz. She was beautiful, but she was no fool. Dubbed the “First American Flapper” by her novelist husband F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was anything but ordinary. One of the most iconic women of the roaring 20s, Zelda’s life was summed up by contemporary American writer Theresa Fowler in her book Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, which has now been adapted for television by Amazon and Killer Films.
A portrait of Zelda Fitzgerald
The Amazon original is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video in India and it is definitely worth 5 hours of your binge watching time. The TV series has 10 half-hour episodes that trace the life of the Fitzgeralds from the time they met in Montgomery, Alabama to their transition as New York’s Enfant terribles.
Cinematography is definitely the highlight of the series, which depicts the Jazz era in all its glory. The show opens at the end of Zelda’s story, which is not revealed at the close of Season 1. Those familiar with Francis and Zelda’s tumultuous relationship would know how their tragic love-hate story reached its conclusion, but the studios are definitely looking at a second season of the show, which is now eligible to enter in the Best Drama series category of the 69th Emmy Awards.
Christina Ricci bares it all and Hoflin does not
The 19 year old Zelda is portrayed by Actor Christina Ricci, who has literally and figuratively bared it all on screen. The young Zelda, her defiant nature, her internal conflicts and her free spirited personality is depicted to a T by Ricci’s riveting performances across episodes. Episode 5, the one where Ricci emerges stark naked in a doorway during an after party/wedding reception thrown by the couple in their unpaid Biltmore Hotel suite, is completely captivating and reaffirms her strength as not just the lead, but a character actor as well.
There is not a single episode where Ricci’s performance is overshadowed by that of David Hoflin, who plays the inebriated, insecure author. Hoflin's acting does no justice to Fitzgerald’s complex character as a struggling novelist and romantic, but I must say he does a good job of carrying the ‘Flapper-King’ look (Read Leonardo Dicaprio from The Great Gatsby). There is, however, one sequence where Scott is shown having an outburst, reacting to a harsh review by a critic. Although cliche, it is still the only scene which reflects a glimpse of originality in Hoflin’s character.
Scott and Z sitting in a tree…
If you know a bit about the American novelist, you would know that his writing was inspired to a great extent (bordering on plagiaristic) by the diary entries and letters of his wife Zelda. This inspiration is evident in Fitzgerald’s first successful novel, This Side of Paradise, where he directly borrows from Zelda’s letters.
While the show captures this aspect of the couple’s relationship perfectly, it does little to establish their initial chemistry. Maybe because there wasn’t much of it in actuality. While Zelda is shown courting other men and keeping her options open as Scott struggles to get published, there is no real interaction between the couple, except for the forced, random mention of a letter or two exchanged between the two. The parasitic nature of Scott and Zelda’s relationship is brought out well, as an opportunistic Zelda travels to New York to be wed to the so-called love of her life, kicking her old life to the curb. The two get lost in a whirlwind of alcohol and parties, which seem all too familiar to what we have seen in The Great Gatsby. Of course, it is a well known fact that the author lived parts of his novels in reality. In the show, however, things get too predictable and boring during these few episodes. In all honesty, there were times I caught a wink or two and had to rewatch an episode. The saving grace is the inclusion of real-life incidents from the couple’s life: like the one where Zelda dizzyingly run around a revolving door and the part where the duo are ordered to vacate their Biltmore suite due to their drunkenness and lack of payments.
In conclusion, Z: The Beginning of Everything is one of the few good Amazon Originals I have come across since Prime Video launched in India back in December. I would watch season 2 just to see some more of Christina Ricci’s stunning performances.
Platform: Amazon Prime Video
IMDB Rating: 7.4
Also Read: Marvel’s Iron Fist: He’s no Daredevil, but there’s nothing wrong with him being ‘white