'the Miniature Wife' Turns A Big Misadventure Into A Nice Little Love Story

“The Miniature Wife,” premiering Thursday connected Peacock, is simply a messy, energetic subject fabrication farce astir a intelligence who shrinks his woman to a tallness of six inches, aliases much to nan point, astir a female whose intelligence hubby shrinks her to a tallness of six inches, by accident, connected purpose, aliases accidentally connected purpose. (Watch intimately to dress up your ain mind.) Created by Jennifer Ames and Steve Turner, it’s based connected a 2013 short story by Manuel Gonzales, sharing its cardinal conceit, characters, various crippled points and specifications to a alternatively different effect while adding a boatload of other characters, crippled points, specifications and backstory and extending nan story’s arc toward a solution fresh for television.

Elizabeth Banks plays Lindy Littlejohn, nan miniaturized wife, who introduces nan bid complete a montage of early bite-sized misadventures. (Lindy is bite-sized, that is, not nan misadventures.) “This is simply a emotion story,” she begins, going connected to picture nan ways emotion tin make you crazy. “Fair warning, it’s going to get worse earlier it gets better.” The important announcement present is not that it’s going to get worse, but that it’s going to get better, arsenic you will beryllium fixed overmuch origin to uncertainty that it will.

Matthew Macfadyen is Les Littlejohn, nan small-making husband, whose nationalist declare to fame is simply a superior GMO tomato. (He has poster-sized photos of himself holding 1 some astatine location and successful nan office.) But, pinch much than a spot of desperation, he regards his activity successful miniaturization arsenic his “last chance astatine greatness,” greatness mattering to him a awesome deal.

Two decades earlier, Lindy, for her part, made a smash, and a packet, pinch “My Rainbow Starts With Black,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, seemingly based connected her ain dysfunctional family, and its Oscar-winning movie adaptation. Though she maintains nan fabrication of a career, she hasn’t written a connection since; but nan money “Rainbow” earned — it’s still a unit prime astatine nan section bookstore — has bought Les a flashy reddish sports car, an costly vino postulation and an imposing mansion intelligibly much his thought than hers. (They unrecorded successful St. Louis because he had hoped to build “the Menlo Park of nan Midwest,” creating “the bioagritech that will alteration nan world,” but dream of returning to a location successful Vermont.)

As we begin, Les and Lindy are astatine dinner, toasting their couples therapist; he acknowledges his “narcissistic tendencies” and her “accountability issues,” some of which we will spot are still successful cognition and relationship for astir of nan chaos that lies ahead. Les has notions of winning nan Nobel Prize for his activity successful size alteration — activity that is someway a concealed from Lindy — though he has, truthful far, only been capable to make things small; they rustle up erstwhile turned ample again. Lindy, meanwhile, is astir to extremity an “emotional affair” pinch Les’ correct hand, Richard (O-T Fagbenle), nan only named characteristic successful Gonzales’ story.

“You were a awesome shoulder, an ear,” she tells him; “But I fell successful love,” he replies. He’s a clingy, immature man-boy who arsenic a Christmas coming has sent a manuscript he assumed was Lindy’s — it was successful truth her student’s activity — to her supplier (Sian Clifford), who has passed it connected to nan New Yorker; Lindy, enjoying nan interest, neglects to correct nan error. (The bid is arsenic whimsical astir publishing arsenic it is astir science.)

Elizabeth Banks arsenic Lindy, who is miniaturized by her intelligence husband, Les, played by Matthew Macfadyen.

(Peacock)

Much of what happens proceeds from there. In nan people of an argument, successful which Lindy accuses Les of “sucking nan life retired of maine and my promising penning career” and Les calls Lindy’s caller a “book report,” she is spritzed pinch Les’ shrinking potion. She’ll aftermath up to find herself successful furniture successful a dollhouse, pinch moving miniaturized appliances, wherever she’ll beryllium near nether fastener and cardinal for her “own safety,” which seems a beautiful (perhaps each too) neat metaphor for marital oppression. “I’m not a misogynist,” Les will protest. “Not intentionally. If thing I’m an accidental misogynist and I excessively blasted nan patriarchy for that.” And misogyny isn’t precisely nan point; he’s conscionable a self-involved, insecure egotist. He conducts changes connected a immense integer whiteboard from a podium for illustration a conductor starring an orchestra; he regards “my John Cougar Mellencamp Velcro wallet pinch my precocious schoolhouse ID still inside” arsenic valuable capable to auction for charity.

That Les and his partner Martin (Aasif Mandvi) are moving retired of money brings successful billionaire investor Hilton Smith (Ronny Chieng, aggravated successful that Ronny Chieng way) and his subject advisor Vivienne (Zoe Lister-Jones), whom he inserts arsenic a watchdog into Les and Martin’s business. With her crisp features, geometric haircut and form-fitting achromatic ensembles, she’s a Bond villain minus nan martial arts skills — icy but pinch a flicker of feeling, which makes her interesting. Their arrival, and a contractual deadline for successfully reversing nan look that mightiness costs Les his company, sets up a ticking clock, represented by literal ticking clocks mounted astir nan laboratory.

Entering nan show successful Episode 3 is Lulu, nan Littlejohns’ daughter, backmost from college. She’s played by Sofia Rosinsky, truthful terrific and earthy successful nan criminally canceled Prime Video bid “Paper Girls” and awesome again here; Lulu has age-appropriate business rather isolated from nan sci-fi storyline, but her scenes pinch her parents thief crushed nan show. She’s a valuable player.

Les and Lindy autumn successful and retired of knowing arsenic they drift into a authorities of war; she gains power, self-knowledge and self-sufficiency, moreover arsenic he falls apart. Escaping her dollhouse prison, she contrives to harry him successful imaginative and progressively convulsive ways, moreover arsenic she’s attempting to remotely negociate her literate credit-stealing — connected FaceTime nary 1 knows really large you are — and sending mixed signals to Richard, who continues to property his suit successful bonzer ways. (It’s a very engaged show.) For each of her flaws, self-delusion — she comes to deliberation of herself arsenic nan writer of her student’s activity — and immoderate knuckleheaded decisions, it’s overmuch easier to broadside pinch Lindy arsenic nan puny partner than Les, nan elephantine who made her small. (Gonzales’ communicative is told from nan husband’s constituent of view, successful nan detached sound of a scientist.) It only matters to america that Les manages to return Lindy to her erstwhile status; his thirst for nickname is represented arsenic pathetic and unseemly. It helps, of course, that Banks is simply a light, engaging process wherever Macfadyen, successful nan personification of Les, is not.

The bid is some watchable and trying, fixed its galore tonal shifts and an able, charismatic cast, immoderate of whom are assigned to play rather annoying people. Ranging from complete cartoons to much aliases little afloat realized humans, they don’t each fresh together perfectly, and truthful nominally affectional moments don’t needfully registry arsenic such. Some effort is expended to punctual america that Les and Lindy person been successful emotion and whitethorn beryllium again, an result that we reflexively approve, moreover against our amended instincts and moreover if we don’t consciousness it. Romantic comedy, which “The Miniature Wife” benignant of is, demands a reunion. It’s portion of nan woody that things will get worse earlier they get better. (Though they don’t ever get this bad.)

Anyways, bully and bad, it’s easy capable to urge nan series. Delightful and disturbing, size-related fantasies are eternally appealing, going backmost to Gulliver successful Brobdingnag and guardant to “The Incredible Shrinking Man,” “Honey, I Shrunk nan Kids,” “Ant-Man” and that segment successful “Help!” wherever Paul McCartney is made mini by a scientist’s ray. (It doesn’t matter overmuch that nan typical effects present don’t ever look convincing — amended than those scenes wherever nan group of Tokyo tally from a man successful a Godzilla suit, but still not rather knitted together.) Such stories play upon our ain imaginings; anyone who’s tally a artifact car crossed nan scenery of a floor, aliases pretended a planter was a jungle, aliases made a upland retired of a mound, aliases projected themselves into a exemplary train layout — indeed, a segment present — will relate.