Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Julia’ Season 2 On Max, Where Julia Child Tries To Follow Up The Success Of Her Cookbook And Public Television Series

The first season of Julia succeeded because it wasn’t trying to be a historic artifact. In its version of how Julia Child came to change the way Americans cook, it made Julia and the people in her universe into fully-realized characters instead of biographical sketches. It helps that the cast is full of veteran actors adept at drama as well as comedy. Season 2 starts with Julia trying to match her initial success, and struggling to do so in the most lighthearted way.

JULIA SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Julia Child (Sarah Lancashire) takes a deep sniff at a peach as she shops in an outdoor market.

The Gist: Julia sees her friend and co-author Simone “Simca” Beck (Isabella Rossellini) and they bike back to Simca’s house; Julia and her husband Paul (David Hyde Pierce) are staying with Simca and her husband Jean (Nicolas Briançon) while Julia and Simca come up with recipes to put in their second book.

The two of them are having a slow time of it, because whenever Julia makes a modification to a recipe to reflect what might appeal to an American audience — like subbing chicken for goose in a cassoulet — Simca objects, claiming that what she’s doing isn’t French cooking. When Simca starts a complaint to Jean that “I love her like my sister,” he comes back with, “You hate your sister.”

Back in Boston, WGBH station president Hunter Fox (Robert Joy) is searching for another show that was as successful as the first season of The French Chef and is having problems finding anything nearly as compelling; the board chairman tells him that if he can’t find another hit, the board will find someone who will. As he tries to get ideas from his producers, Alice Naman (Brittany Bradford) bemoans the fact that none of the ideas she’s pitched to him, ideas that have strong appeal to the same audience as Julia Child’s show, have been entertained.

With Russ Morash (Fran Kranz) producing a docuseries on the issues of the day, Fox has found a new director for season 2 of The French Chef, a woman with a lot of experience. Now they just have to get Julia to come back to the US. Alice is relieved to finally hear from Julia, but her blood pressure goes back up when Julia has no hints of what she’s planning for the second season.

In the meantime, Julia’s book editor, Judith Jones (Fiona Glascott) is struggling at work, given that her boss, Blanche Knopf (Judith Light) is not in a good way, and she has been covering for her company’s publisher. When Judith scrambles to give information in a meeting when Blanche falters, Blanche upbraids her for showing her up.

When Avis DeVoto (Bebe Neuwirth) visits Alice at the station, she tells Russ that she’s going to an antiwar lecture at Harvard. Looking for experts for his docuseries, Russ tags along. At the lecture, Russ drinks some “special coffee” and goes on the trip of his life. Avis does OK, meeting a man named Stanley Lipschitz (Danny Burstein), who just happened to work on the Manhattan Project.

Back in France, Julia becomes enchanted with a dish called Loup en Croûte, which is sea bass cooked in a fish-shaped puff pastry. Simca dismisses the dish as all show and no substance, but Julia insists that they recreate it for the new book. The first attempt is a failure which even the ever-supportive Paul can’t stomach. But, over Simca’s objections, Julia dusts herself off and tries it again.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Julia still carries the same themes that we saw in Season 1, which leads us to the same unusual comparison: It could be a good companion piece to its former Max neighbor Minx.

Our Take: Season 2 of Julia, created by Daniel Goldfarb, shows the signs of a series that has settled into a nice groove with an ensemble that works well together.

Here’s how we can tell that the show has become a well-oiled ensemble: Even though the season starts with Julia and Paul in France and the WGBH contingent back in Boston continuing to churn out TV shows, we enjoyed the separate stories. We were even OK with extended scenes in Boston and Cambridge with the Childs nowhere to be found.

Somehow Godfarb, showrunner Chris Keyser and their writing staff have managed to take these real life figures and make them into effective television characters that can carry storylines on their own. Of course, it helps that these people are being played by pros like Neuwirth, Light, Kranz, Glascott and Bradford, none of whom are trying to do an impression of their real-life counterparts. Instead, they’re making the characters their own, and it shows in the fact that we get to see their lives when they’re not working with Julia.

Speaking of not doing impressions, Lancashire continues to show how she’s shaped the famous cook’s character in her own way. If there was any character in this show that could have become a caricature, it was Julia herself, given how completely Julia Child’s persona permeated pop culture from her start in the early sixties to her death in 2004. Lancashire’s performance gives viewers a chance to connect to Julia Child as a character instead of a pop culture figure, and Lancashire’s chemistry with David Hyde Pierce’s Paul Child continues to drive that connection to viewers.

Sex and Skin: Besides some minor snogging between Paul and Julia, there’s nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: We see the Childs snogging — it even straightens out Paul’s aching back — as we pull back from their bedroom window. What’s playing? “The Times They Are A-Changin'”

Sleeper Star: Hard to call David Hyde Pierce a sleeper, but at this juncture of the story, Paul is there to be the supportive husband, and Pierce gives Paul the shading he deserves. Paul is as passionate as Julia about various things, like his painting and gardening, and his conversations with Jean give some funny context to where he is at this point. But what he’s most passionate about is his marriage, and that’s evident in Pierce’s performance. We’re also looking forward to seeing Rachel Bloom as Elaine Levitch, the experienced producer WGBH brings in to work on The French Chef.

Most Pilot-y Line: “My mistress is a cruel mistress,” Jean says to Paul after he explains how his lover left him after he wrenched his back. It’s oh so French, isn’t it?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Julia continues to tell the story of Julia Child’s rise to pop culture ubiquity in a way that’s funny and warm, with an ensemble of well-written characters whose stories we also want to follow.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.