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Lessons in Chemistry cooks up a feminist storm on Apple TV, with Brie Larson at the helm making her TV comeback as the brilliant chemist/chef boxing it out against 1950s patriarchal society.

The series jumps back to post-WWII America, where genius chemist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) struggles to advance her work at a male-dominated research institute. Much like the reality of the fifties, Zott’s intellect is set aside as a female scientist was an absurd premise. Instead, she is designated to the lowly profession of lab chemist and coffee barista for her intellectually-inferior scientist peers who happen to be born with different genitalia that ensures that they get the resources and opportunities that Zott deserves to have.

She meets eccentric Dr Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman) who is the only man who seems to meet her intellectually, and who also promises to support her research and cause. You guessed it: Sparks fly and she eventually becomes pregnant. The research center where she works decides to let her go to avoid a scandal. So, what does one do to feed herself and her baby?

Zott trades her lab coat for an apron, seemingly conforming to the standards of the time when women would only take center stage in cooking shows. Instead, she begin to use the show as a platform for female equality and often dubfounds her producers — men of course — as she is able to share her excellence in chemistry — beating them at their own game.

If you enjoy the 1950s TV series pantheon, then this show is one to your collection.Alongside Mad Men and Marvelous Mrs Maisel, the show really pokes the sore that is gender and race discrimination in America.

The cast of Lessons in Chemistry have, well, chemistry…Pullman (son of Bill Pullman) and Larson could not have been well-matched in their awkwardness and passion when it comes to science. Aja Naomi King portrays Harriet Sloane, a member of Evan’s community, socially active and who also happens to be black is played with grace and energy.

Watch this eight-episode lesson on women’s history on Apple TV to see how female chefs rewrote the scripts handed to them in their plight for independence.

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