User Reviews

Ok.. I love all the things this show and script has to offer but one thing is driving me bananas. She is supposedly 49 with a 16 year old daughter. However, clearly the flashbacks have her pregnant as an early 20s woman grieving. Do the math... she'd have to been 33 when she had Rae. This mishap by producers and/or screenwriter throws the whole timeline off for me. Perhaps I missed something.. I don't know. But if I am following this correctly, the timeline is completely skewed and makes zero sense.

With that being said, I do think it's beautifully acted and the younger version of herself is amazing. As is Kathryn.

I watched until the end to be fair. Here I am, partially regretting my decision. Merritt made it all worth it, that's all I can really say. Clare was insufferable past and present and I just can't get past an unlikable main character. Maybe more backstory to explain why she had a colossal chip on her shoulder would have been helpful?

The story itself was pretty common/relatable but hard to follow. I was puzzled/irritated by Clare's first husband and how that came about but we didn't even learn that piece until what, episode 6/7?

The acting was decent. The Amy and Danny characters were great. Rae started off insufferable but hard to blame her with such an irritating mother and by the end, I quite enjoyed her. How Danny put up with Clare all those years is the real mystery.

As Episode 1 of "Tiny Beautiful Things" (2023 release; 8 episodes of about 30 min. Each) opens, Clare is on her way home, drunk after being a retirement party. When she gets home, she is locked out but she manages to get in via an open window, only to find her husband and her teenage daughter asking why she is here. Clare had forgotten that her husband had kicked her out just days earlier... At this point we are less than 10 minutes into Episode 1...

Couple of comments: this is the TV adaptation of the book of the same name by Cheryl Strayed ("Wild"), and like that film, this TV mini-series is executive produced by Reece Witherspoon (and from seeing the closing credits, it looks like this was pretty much an all-female production), I haven't read the book so I can't comment how closely this series sticks to the book. What I can say is that this is a pretty emotionally heavy series, focusing on now 49 yr old Clare and then in flashbacks on Clare in her early 20s, and all of the motional baggage Clare is carrying right now, and was all those years ago. Let's be clear: Kathryn Hahn, like the character Clare also 49 years old in real life, shoulders a heavy lead in this TV series, and shines along the way. The support cast, including Quentin Plair as her husband Danny, Tanzyn Crawford as her 16 yo daughter., and last but not least Sarah Pidgeon as her younger self, are equally up to the task,

"Tiny Beautiful Things" premiered on Hulu this weekend, and all 8 episodes are now streaming. I watched the first 4 episodes last night, and will watch the remaining 4 episodes later today or tomorrow. If you are interested in a female character-heavy mini-series, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

UPDATE I've now see all episodes. I've upped my rating to 8 stars. This is an outstanding series that just got better along the way. The last (8th) episode was just gut-wrenching.

I find this series a muddled mess with some good things sprinkled in every now and again.

Hawn is good, but her character is extremely annoying if that makes sense.

How is she 49 and the actress playing her younger self 33??? If her daughter is 16. She had a child just out of school it looks like? So confused with flashbacks coming at random and plot points never talked about. Heroine addict?

I really wanted to like it. There are certain moments that work but they are just overshadowed by a train-wreck of a person that is so unlikeable it is hard to root for her in any way.

It was an extremely frustrating watch.

Born, Live, and Die.

The Tiny Beautiful Things is very dark and sad but funny at the same time.

One of the most feared feelings is grieving.

Clare is always connected to her mother's grief, now and in the past.

The series begins very dramatic and dark, even depressing, but the performances are extraordinary.

Anyone who doesn't like drama shouldn't watch this series, but I put together wonderful actresses and excellent production.

There are some very funny moments that cut and smooth the drama. However, what I liked the most was the transition between Clare's past and present.

In this miniseries, Kathryn Hahn shows off her talent and raises the bar a great deal.

Merrit Wever is an actress I admire for her versatility and expressions that overflow my emotions.

Sarah Pigeon is the biggest surprise and what a surprise. Her performance is remarkable, and with inexplicable maturity and projection, she will have a bright future.

I recommend this mini-series. I give it a 9.

Here's the thing about this show: the book is definitely tacked onto another show. The storyline looks at the life and history of a middle-aged woman, Clare, who has had experienced a lot of adversities in her past, her husband, and her teenage daughter. The show jumps to Clare's past, which is quite dark in parts, such as coping poorly with her mother's death and dealing with a heroine addiction, to the present as she tries to pull her life together. In the present, she is recruited on a voluntary basis to be an agony aunt, and each episode addresses the themes of a new problem letter for Clare to answer.

Clare's life and the explorations of relationships around her are interesting enough. It feels like the Dear Sugar parts were shoehorned into the show, as the tone can jump from teenage Clare openly grieving and coping with her pain through sex, to adult Clare writing a response which is usually ripe with sentiment. It feels like the show is trying to be like This Is Us without striking a good balance of tone and storytelling.

I would like the show if it didn't include the Dear Sugar sections. Without them, it makes for an entertaining dramedy. With them, it just doesn't work.

I thought the show started off well and I was intrigued enough to move onto the next episode despite a few narrative oddities (all those muddled flashbacks were probably designed to give you insight into Clare's character but were just super confusing because young Clare always looked 18 despite some flashbacks being set in her late twenties). But honestly, you get to the end of this show and you feel like the last episode is not a finale at all. What has changed? What journey has she truly been on? Yeah I guess she somewhat sorted her relationship with her daughter out, but barely and meanwhile her husband is or isn't cheating on her with the therapist?? A storyline that's foreshadowed early on then completely abandoned for the rest of the show...

This show was a mess of flashback scenes that start making sense once you realize the actress playing young Clare is a vampire and thus never ages. Actually wait, I might just have cracked the code there. Maybe this entire show was about vampires and no one's clocked it. What about the time she was addicted to drugs? Was that before her mom's death or after?! And when did she ever divorce her first husband and why and was that before or after she met her new one?! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

The whole coming to terms with the death of a loved one plot is good and thoughtful but it's being let down by everything else.

This is a beautiful story and even more beautiful production of a middle-aged woman stuck in life... then hit by a metaphorical truck of a midlife crisis that seemed to be heating towards overboiling for the 2 decades since the protagonist's mother died an abrupt yet painfully slow death to cancer.

The scenes not only jump back to past and present but also showcase the past, inner child in present day depictions to highlight the sealed off trauma never healed before. Clare's writing, which was pushed off due to what she felt was writers block, a lack of creative flow, and being a mother is now being pushed to the surface as she faces the music with her realities of today, her adolescence, and her abusive childhood.

It highlights the true internal blocks of underlying traumas - how these can haunt you and create vicious self-destructive patterns if not faced... and most importantly, how to forgive yourself and your inner child... how to look at yourself from the third person (what we see as the audience) and understand what triggers continues to throw a wrench in your path with recycled anger (we can especially see this in the s1e8). Sometimes, you just have to look at that little person within you and cut them some slack - Clare's mindset and experience is stuck in her young experience and understood through the eyes of the young twenty-year-old-self. She is now almost 50 and is finally starting to look reflect and take a glimpse of her hardships through the eyes of a middle aged women... reflections only made with empathizing advice to her peers she so easily can guide. In a sense, Clare is getting a back door entrance to self-forgiveness with her human and mature advice towards helping others unpack their trauma and forgive themselves.

It's truly fantastic for those seeking their own redemptions.

I was really looking forward to this series since I just love Kathryn Hahn. I can honestly say the storyline is intriguing and I enjoy finding out how these relationships progress with each episode. However, the flashbacks to all the sex scenes is VERY distracting from the story. Im pretty sure the writers could imply some things without actually showing so much. Sometimes less is more and in this case, more is just more and it's wayyyyy too much. Other than the overt sexual context, the show is pretty enjoyable and all of the characters have an interesting backstory which are all worth exploring more (definitely more interesting than all the sex-capades).

This show was so beautiful and moving that I was just left stunned as it appeared to end with Claire finally reckoning with her Mother's death. First off, Hahn and Pidgeon are incredible and rarely are we gifted a female led show let alone one so compelling. I didn't read the book but I have seen Wild so I knew parts of it were true and others had to be fiction. Another review here stated they prefer the book but it had to divert from Strayed's real life story or it would have been Wild all over again just as a show so I think they did an incredible job building the fiction off the true original narrative. I doubt there will be a second season but I think they could do something absolutely wonderful with just one more order of 8. So much was left hanging or never fully revisited/realized. I loved it. We need more content like this. Reese Witherspoon just keeps knocking them out of the park! A win for those who only wanna watch stories worth watching rather than being overloaded with second rate content. Hello Sunshine is golden:)