Now Streaming: DICKINSON Boldly Goes Beyond Comic Anachronisms

Some are born poets, some achieve poetry, and some have poetry thrust upon them.

Dickinson
The first two seasons are now streaming on Apple TV+. The third season premieres with its first three episodes on Friday, November 5. New episodes will thereafter be available on a weekly basis, every Friday.

Among multiple shows that premiered during the launch of the Apple TV+ streaming service in November 2019, Dickinson stood out because of its fresh look at poet Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld), reimagined as a modern millennial in spirit and thinking, yet mired in the corsets, conventions, and culture of 19th century New England.

Emily dearly loves her family, which is a distinguishing emphasis to the series as a whole. Her love of her family becomes the emotional center during the third season.

It also marks the series as different from previous incarnations of her character on film and TV. Her parents (Toby Huss and Jane Krakowski) archly represent the historic age, aiming to reinforce traditional thinking upon their three children. Older brother Austin (Adrian Blake Enscoe), a recent college graduate, wants to fully enjoy his young manhood, before dutifully following his father into his law practice, as everyone expects.

Austin became engaged to marry Sue Gilbert (Ella Hunt), who lost her family and became a welcome member of the Dickinson family. His relationship with Sue is dutiful rather than passionate. Sue is, in reality, Emily's best friend, kindred spirit, and secret lover.

Emily would love to live with Sue forever more, though the mores of the age do not permit such a thought. And so Sue agrees to marry Austin, and bear him a child or two, while yearning for Emily, even as Emily yearns for Sue.

Meanwhile, Emily's younger sister Lavinia (Anna Baryshnikov) is focused almost entirely on finding a suitable marriage mate, or any mate, really, at the urging of her traditional mother. Again, it's a reflection of the age in which the Dickinson family lives.

For her part, Emily yearns to be free of the bounds that restrict her. She wants to be with Sue, she wants to be free of the corsets that she is forced to wear, she wants to break out of all the conventions that surround and threaten to swallow her whole. Emily is consumed by a creative fire that burns in her belly, besieged by poetic thoughts that swarm out of her subconscious, and compelled to compose gentle, eloquent poems that capture her indomitable spirit.

Emily's creative spirit forms the backbone of the series. Over the first two seasons, her splendid writing gained recognition, not only with her lover Sue, with whom she has shared all things, but with others outside her family, who recognize and prize her rare poetic talents. The third season pushes those thoughts into the background, as Emily focuses more on her immediate family, yet her creative spirit is her engine, her driving motivation in everything she does.

Her poetry is her only vehicle for a full expression of the passions that burn within. It is what she does best, and the third season touches on this and expounds upon her creative spirit, even as it also touches on social issues of the day, refracted through modern cynicism and concerns of our day.

Vital and independent, Dickinson reflects upon the very best of what people are capable of doing, if they only have the will to give voice to their innermost desires, and break free, in the spirit of Emily Dickinson.

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