The new miniseries “The Pursuit of Love” features two storytelling tropes that tend to annoy me: the juxtaposition of the free spirited woman and her wallflower best friend, and the woman who values romantic (hetero) love over virtually everything else. And yet I found this show charming and challenging in equal measure — perhaps because it interrogates its central characters’ dynamics even as it revels in them.
From writer-director Emily Mortimer, and based on Nancy Mitford’s beloved novel of the same name, “The Pursuit of Love” follows narrator Fanny Logan (Emily Beecham) and her cousin and best friend Linda Radlett (Lily James) from their late teens through their early 30s. Linda, who grew up in a secluded manor under the rule of her tyrannical father, wants to fall in love — that’s her raison d’être. Abandoned by her flighty mother and raised by a kind aunt, Fanny seems to want more — education, career, freedom — but is mostly wrapped up in Linda’s story, a la Nick Carraway. If you haven’t guessed already, Linda is sexy, passionate, and impulsive, while Fanny is shy, steadfast, and bookish.
Throughout the the three-part narrative, Linda searches for her soulmate and becomes involved with three very different men. (She also parties a lot, dabbles in Communism, and excels at looking effortlessly glamorous 24/7.) Fanny sticks with one man, her husband, and settles into a life of domesticity — something she grows more and more disillusioned with, especially when she compares it to Linda’s adventures. In the background, fascism spreads across Europe, Hitler gains power, and WWII approaches.
That real-world darkness mirrors the evolution of Linda and Fanny’s relationship. While they never completely lose touch, things become more strained between them as they grow up. Fanny’s irritated by Linda’s selfishness, her lack of commitment, her tendency to drop everything for a man’s attention. Linda is hurt by Fanny’s judgment, and considers her cousin’s family-focused life boring. Neither woman is right, and neither is wrong; they are both flawed yet very sympathetic. The wild woman/timid woman dichotomy between them is tiresome, and “The Pursuit of Love” is well aware of it. By the end of the story, Linda and Fanny are just as fed up with their labels as the viewer. Yes, Linda is bohemian and Fanny is conventional — but they are both so much more than that.
Mortimer’s take on “The Pursuit of Love” isn’t quite as subversive as it thinks it is — it’s still a period piece based on a book published in the ’40s, despite the Sleater-Kinney needle drops. Even though it doesn’t completely dismantle the boxes the cousins have been put into as characters, it does actively push back against them. Ultimately, the narrative is hopeful that, one day, women will be seen as more than just a “Linda” or a “Fanny.” If only the actual Linda and Fanny had been afforded that luxury.
“The Pursuit of Love” is now available on Amazon Prime Video. It previously aired on BBC One in the U.K.
