It would be easy to make Child into a caricature of a woman. Her voice alone is so unusual I can see a version of this in which Lancashire adopts a squeaky Minnie Mouse tone like someone doing a Saturday Night Live sketch. But there is nuance and subtlety to this performance that provides layers to Child, making her journey to television all the more engaging. And it's funny.
The costuming and set design is impeccable and had me immediately fantasising about moving in next door to the Childs in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1960s. Child's husband Paul, played by David Hyde Pierce, was an integral part of the production of The French Chef, and the pair bring a warmth to the screen that proves there's romance - and sex - to be had after the age of 50. Even - get this, Hollywood - for women.
Arguably though, the most significant relationships in this series are those between the team of women, Child's friends and collaborators, who championed her from the start and were integral to getting the show produced when male executives couldn't see an audience for it. According to the creators of Julia, when The French Chef went on air in 1962 there were almost no female producers at the network. When it went off air in the 70s, it was 75 per cent women. What this show does so wonderfully is tell a frustratingly relevant story, without being didactic, preachy or annoying, of women stepping into roles of power, and men, some of whom are threatened by the changing workplace of the 60s and 70s, learning to accept there's room for everyone at the boardroom - and kitchen - table.
HE SAW
Julia Child was sexy. She introduced a new type of sex appeal to a world unnaturally obsessed with youth, smooth complexions and perk. She was talented and talkative, ambitious and powerful and, according to this series, was pretty frisky with her husband Paul, at least until she entered menopause.
Julia is a show about the value and power of age. It acknowledges the idiocy of the idiotic idea that our glory necessarily fades as we age. Julia and her husband Paul, played by Niles from Frasier, see each other as beautiful, and with good reason. They're in love. They're a sexy couple and they like doing it, at least until Julia starts going through the "change of life" and goes to the doctor, troubled by her diminishing sex drive.
Were Julia and Paul Child sex fiends? I certainly hope so. I have read some hot letters they wrote each other, including a sonnet by Paul about her melting his "frozen earth" and I love that the producers of this show don't shy away from their hot late-middle aged sex. In a culture that continues to fetishise youth, I believe it's important to acknowledge and champion the value and power of age, particularly as I accumulate more of it.
The show's early narrative tension arises from Child's attempts to get her television show off the ground, beset by obstacles, most notably a male producer who doesn't think she's any good. She overcomes this for the most part with killer cooking. No one initially notices or is willing to accept she's a killer presenter, presumably because of their misguided notions of what that is. Telegenic, photogenic: these are words that are still used in the industry as bywords for young and unwrinkled and perky, but what Julia Child taught us is that we should think again about our misguided ways of thinking.
Cooking is sexy, eating is sexy, being old is sexy. Child paved the way for a future that never came in which older women are valued for and given as much media attention as younger women. She should have been a trailblazer but the trail remains mostly overgrown.
I never expected to hear Child making jokes about having a "coq" in her mouth but I love that she did it and that it made it to air, in this show at least. She is still enormously famous 60 years after becoming so and nearly 20 years after her death. That is testament to the enduring power of something more valuable than looks.
Julia is streaming now on Neon.
