Julia – Season One [2022]

I never expected to love Julia. However, sometimes the unexpected happens. This HBO Max show is just perfect!

As you might have guessed, the show explores the life of television chef Julia Child, who pioneered the cooking-show genre. This first season gives us a glimpse into the motivation behind writing the first cookbook, moving to television, and the issues she had to overcome in order to get her own cooking show.

Starring Sarah Lancashire as Julia, I was honestly pleased and surprised at the same time. Second guessing myself, I started watching the show on a Sunday evening and I just couldn’t stop. Lancashire shines bright when she fully embodies Childs. Down to the minute details. She definitely deserves an Emmy for her role in this season.

In fact, this whole show is like an amusing dessert, minus the pesky calories. The series is the ultimate comfort television that wraps the audience in the joys of cooking, with sweet performances from actors all at the top of their game. It is at its most entertaining when depicting how the scrappy, inexperienced Childs managed to produce a live cooking show and turn it into a hit. From paying for the full first season herself (including freelancing and asking her father for money), to turning into an absolute success and capitalizing on it in order to impose her rules for a second season on the greedy public television.

The show is full of charm, tension, women and racial issues in the 1940s without being too obvious about it.

Just sit back and enjoy this one with your favorite dessert and wine. Can’t wait for the second season! A star has been cooked.

Should you watch it?

Just perfect. Julia nails every single checkbox from a period piece while keeping its charm and subtly highlighting the struggles of a successful woman in the 1940s.

Where can I watch it?

You can stream Julia exclusively on HBO Max in USA and on Crave in Canada.