Julia (2022 TV series)

Julia is an American comedy drama television series created by Daniel Goldfarb that premiered on HBO Max on March 31, 2022. It is based on the life of Julia Child in 1960s Cambridge, Massachusetts, during the production of her television cooking show The French Chef. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on November 16, 2023. In January 2024, the series was canceled after two seasons.

Main

 * Sarah Lancashire as Julia Child, a cookbook author who develops and stars in The French Chef, a pioneering cooking show
 * David Hyde Pierce as Paul Child, Julia's husband, an artist and retired diplomat
 * Pierce also appears as Charles, Paul's twin brother (season 2)
 * Bebe Neuwirth as Avis DeVoto, Julia's close friend who volunteers to help with her show
 * Fran Kranz as Russ Morash, producer and director of The French Chef at WGBH-TV
 * Fiona Glascott as Judith Jones, Julia's book editor and friend who works at Knopf
 * Brittany Bradford as Alice Naman, an associate producer at WGBH who champions Julia's show
 * Robert Joy as Hunter Fox, president of WGBH (season 2, recurring season 1)

Recurring

 * Jefferson Mays as P. Albert Duhamel, host of the literary program I've Been Reading
 * Charlie Thurston as Roland, a WGBH executive
 * Lindsey Broad as Dorothy Zinberg, a scholar and new mother who works on The French Chef as a volunteer (season 1, guest season 2)
 * Judith Light as Blanche Knopf, Julia's publisher
 * Erin Neufer as Marian Morash, Russ's wife
 * Isabella Rossellini as Simone "Simca" Beck, co-author of Julia's cookbooks who resides in France
 * Adriane Lenox as Virginia Naman, Alice's mother
 * Tosin Morohunfola as Isaac, a lawyer whom Alice dates
 * Danny Burstein as Stanley Lipschitz, a Harvard University physics professor with a romantic interest in Avis (season 2)
 * Rachel Bloom as Elaine Levitch, a former CBS director hired for The French Chef (season 2)

Guest

 * Christian Clemenson as James Beard, a celebrated chef who is friends with Julia
 * Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Madeline Anderson, a documentary filmmaker who advises Russ
 * Bryce Pinkham as John Updike, whose books Judith edits

Season 1

 * James Cromwell as John McWilliams, Julia's father
 * Sam Brackley as Coco Van, a female illusionist who idolizes Julia
 * A.J. Shively as André Soltner, the chef at Lutèce
 * Tracee Chimo as Betty Friedan, a feminist author who criticizes Julia's show
 * Rob McClure as Fred Rogers, a children's television producer who meets Julia at a gala

Season 2

 * Melanie Mayron as Millie, host of a crafting show on WGBH, and her twin sister Tillie, Hunter's wife
 * Lou Gala as Yvette, Simone Beck's maid
 * Michael Cognata as Martin Luther Kilson Jr., Harvard University's first black professor, a guest on Russ's show
 * Stockard Channing as Frances Fields, a wealthy widow involved with James Beard
 * Oli Higginson as Jacques Brel, a Belgian singer invited to dine with Julia and Simone
 * Nassim Lyes as Sam Slimani, a young artist involved with James Beard
 * Paul Bandey as Jean-Paul Sartre, an existentialist author Judith edits
 * Maggie Lacey as Helen Gurley Brown, a sexually liberated author who appears on I've Been Reading
 * Paul Guilfoyle as Frank, a former acquaintance of Julia who works for the FBI
 * Michael Esper as Noel, a reporter for Life magazine assigned to profile Julia
 * John Rothman as Alfred A. Knopf Sr., estranged husband of Blanche and co-founder of Knopf
 * Hannah Einbinder as Gretchen Fletcher, deputy U.S. chief of protocol
 * Patrick Breen as Henry Haller, executive chef at the White House
 * Deidrie Henry as Zephyr Wright, civil rights activist and personal chef to President Lyndon B. Johnson
 * Meera Rohit Kumbhani as Madhur Jaffrey, actress and Indian cookbook author

Production
The series entered development at HBO Max in September 2019 after being greenlit for a pilot order, with Chris Keyser showrunning, and Joan Cusack nearing a deal to star in the titular role. By March 2020, Cusack had exited the series, and Sarah Lancashire was cast as Julia. Tom Hollander, Brittany Bradford, Bebe Neuwirth and Isabella Rossellini were added in supporting roles. In March 2020, three days into initial filming of the pilot, production was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In September 2020, David Hyde Pierce was cast to replace Hollander, who exited the project. In July 2021, Robert Joy, Erin Neufer, James Cromwell and Adriane Lenox were added to the cast.

Filming of the pilot resumed in Boston in October 2020. In January 2021, it was announced that the pilot—written by Daniel Goldfarb and directed by Charles McDougall—had been picked up to series, with an 8-episode order. Filming wrapped in September 2021.

The series premiered on March 31, 2022, with the first three episodes available immediately and the rest debuting on a weekly basis until May 5. On May 4, 2022, HBO Max renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on November 16, 2023. In September 2022, it was reported that Rachel Bloom joined the cast for the second season. In January 2024, it was reported that the series was canceled after two seasons.

Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 8.0/10, based on 44 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Sarah Lancashire inhabits Julia Child with infectious joie de vivre in this appetizing valentine to the iconic chef." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

For the second season, Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.0/10, based on 10 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Understanding its strengths and leaning straight into them, Julia's deuxième cours is a delectable trifle that viewers will savor." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Amy Amatangelo, for Paste, wrote that the "series is billed as a comedy and there are definitely funny moments—notably when people are literally on the floor assisting Julia in the filming of her show—but Julia explores not just how pioneering Child was in showing cooking on TV, but how pioneering she was for television production in general. [...] Ultimately, the series hinges on Lancashire’s transformative performance. [...] The series thrives through its strong female characters". David Cote, for The A.V. Club, gave Julia a B+ and wrote that "each 45-ish-minute episode walks a line between sentimental period drama and high-toned sitcom. [...] Lancashire carries the season on sturdy shoulders". Cote commented that the "season arc is fairly standard" and that "the nearest Julia has to a villain is Feminine Mystique author Betty Friedan (Tracee Chimo), who chides Child at a public television gala for setting back the cause. It's a powerful moment that shakes Julia and complicates her status as female liberator".

Kathryn VanArendonk, for Vulture, called the show a "bracing, comforting hit of competence porn: people who care, doing their jobs well". VanArendonk highlighted that "the effort to loop Child into the cultural and historical context of her time makes Julia a better show than it could otherwise have been. [...] Julia has some flaws, but its good qualities outweigh the missteps". Caroline Framke, for Variety, compared Julia to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel as both shows share the producer Daniel Goldfarb; the show "does a remarkable job recreating a specific slice of upper middle class life as anchored by a white woman whose outsized personality comes with similarly notable talent". Framke wrote that "even as the series (from showrunner Chris Keyser) identifies more complex themes at play — Julia's heartbreak at hitting menopause before having a child, her Black producer Alice (Brittany Bradford) struggling to gain the respect she deserves — it's mostly happy to skip along the (admittedly very charming) surface".

Both Framke and VanArendonk praised Bradford's performance as Alice, a fictional character based on the actual producer Ruth Lockwood, but criticized Alice's storyline in the show. Framke commented that "by making her a Black woman, Julia tries to be more inclusive than the reality without fully reckoning with what it would mean for a Black woman to be producing a show made by and catering to well-off white women who might fancy themselves more progressive than they truly are". VanArendonk wrote that while Julia shows Alice experiencing workplace harassment, it does not force the audience "to think about racism all that much. [...] Alice is an invention who feels too neatly invented".