From Scratch
| October 21, 2022 (United States)
Stars: Zoe Saldana, Eugenio Mastrandrea, Roberta Rigano
Summary: An American woman falls in love with a Sicilian man while studying abroad in Italy.
Countries: United StatesLanguages: English
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File No – YTS921-10381
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From Scratch 2022 Season 1 Review
From Scratch 2022, Perhaps a sappy love story is best experienced in the fall. You may wear a nice knit sweater that will quickly absorb all your tears so no one will know that you were weeping so hard at fictitious characters that you actually could not see your TV screen, and the leaves falling from the trees will seem like a melancholy metaphor for life. Don’t forget that your chunky knits may be worn in a variety of ways.
From Scratch, a Netflix limited series starring Zoe Saldana, is a sappy love story through and through, thus this hypothesis should be tested. That may come out as a criticism, but as someone who enjoys reading romance novels, I assure you it is not intended that way. How many failed series tried to do too much all at once or failed because they were trying to be something they weren’t? For all its benefits, one of From Scratch’s best features is that it has no trouble defining itself. It is aware that listeners are clicking play in hopes of being transported or emotionally affected, and it satisfies those desires. True, From Scratch is not for you if you’re not into mushy love stories. Still, you’re in for a real treat if you consider yourself even a casual lover of the genre. A treat that will have you crying into your thick sweater, but a delight nevertheless.
Based on the memoir of the same name by actor and novelist Tembi Locke, published in 2019, From Scratch is an eight-part limited series. (At this point in the series, you should probably turn away if you’re attempting to watch it without knowing Locke’s backstory.) Locke met her late husband, the Sicilian chef Saro Gullo, when she was a student in Italy. This is a narrative of their tremendous love, their loss, and the unexpected ways in which they built a home together.
Locke and her sister Attica Locke, who serves as showrunner and also contributes writing to the series, conceived of and developed the series adaption. There are benefits to the show’s creators being so immersed in the original material. The first is that the show’s creators obviously care about the tale and the people they’re depicting; in the TV adaptation, Locke is portrayed by law student turned artist Amy (Saldaa), and Gullo is portrayed by aspiring chef Lino (Eugenio Mastrandrea), but the gist of their story is the same. The struggles that Amy and Lino, who meet by chance while Amy is studying in Florence, endure together are unimaginable, yet the sorrow is never exploitative. Showrunners make an effort to establish that Amy and Lino have grown beyond their loss and that their happiness is worth celebrating. It’s easy to see a narrative that plays up the emotional manipulation by driving home the melancholy without offering any kind of catharsis, but From Scratch never shies away from cutting the sadness with something amusing, cute, or embarrassing. Don’t get me wrong, From Scratch is really sad, particularly in the second half of the season. I cried for days after the series conclusion. That’s private, thank you very much; yet, the authors do their best to provide some solace.
The second, and perhaps more crucial, benefit of the Locke sisters’ rendering of this classic tale is that it allows for some rich character detail. The show’s uniqueness lies in its attention to detail, which is refreshing in a genre that may be rife with cliches at times. Now, there are still cliches in both the narrative and the language (there’s a lot of wishy-washy talk about aspirations and living a large life, and you may find yourself rolling your eyes at some point). The first episode is the most general and hence the worst of the eight. The first episode explains how Amy and Lino meet and fall in love, following the rom-com formula closely. Subsequent episodes sometimes skip forward in time by a year or more. Supporting characters whose personalities aren’t solely in service of the mains and the great actors playing them save the plot whenever it wades too far into those sorts of clichés.
Normally, this is the part of the review when I single out one or two performers whose performances stand out from the pack, but I’m afraid I just can’t do it this time. Don’t force me to watch From Scratch, since the acting is too good. The quality of life is high. As Amy’s elder sister Zora, played by Danielle Deadwyler, who has her life continuously overshadowed by her sister’s problems, she has numerous emotional moments. Hershel, Amy and Zora’s father, is a stern Texas lawyer portrayed by Keith David, who gets a good arc as he warms up to Lino. Both Judith Scott (as Hershel’s second wife) and Kellita Smith (as Amy’s mother) accomplish a lot with the few sequences they get, which depend on our comprehension of a past we never see, in the film.
Introducing Lino’s parents, Giacomo (Paride Benassai) and Filomena (Lucia Sardo), hardworking farmers and traditionalists in a rural corner of Sicily. In the pilot, we see that Lino’s father has already disowned him for abandoning the family to follow his passion for cooking in Florence; the rest of the series focuses on Lino and Giacomo’s attempts to heal their strained relationship. More than once, Benassai will break your heart, and the last episode has some fantastic moments for both Sardo and him. Because of this, there are no weak points, but there are also times when the main tale drags and you may feel that the supporting characters isn’t getting enough attention. Amy’s interactions with the artists at the gallery where she works are the least interesting part of the job.
True romance enthusiasts, however, realise that the success of a story hinges on the chemistry between its two leads. Okay, but where does it leave Amy and Lino? It’s hard not to fall in love with them. The connection between Saldaa and Mastrandrea seems genuine and lived-in, making it easy to believe in their performances as Amy and Lino at any point in their relationship. During the decade or so that Amy and Lino are together, Saldaa and Mastrandrea strike all the emotional notes at precisely the perfect pitch, from the sexy and squabbling to the profound love, fury, and sadness.
Some of the rougher parts of illness are glossed over with a sheen of beauty and peace, which, for people who have experienced something similar, might make the show seem like it has fastened on rose-colored glasses. Conflicts are resolved a little too neatly; obstacles are examined only on the surface. On the other hand, isn’t it the whole goal of settling down in a romantic relationship? Is there still room for magic when your heart is broken? You can’t blame From Scratch for embracing that, and because to the lovableness of its cast (you will really miss them when the show is gone), you won’t feel guilty for doing the same.