Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Firefly Lane’ On Netflix, Where Katherine Heigl And Sarah Chalke Play Unlikely Best Friends Through The Decades

At first glance, Firefly Lane looks like a “warm bath” show akin to fellow Netflix drama Virgin River; but from the first moments of the series’ first episode, there’s a tiny bit of an edge that makes the show more than just the TV equivalent of a hot cocoa on a cold day — think of it as a hot cocoa with more than a shot’s worth of bourbon in the mug. In the series, Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke play best friends whose friendship is tested but stays strong over 30 years. Read on for more…

FIREFLY LANE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman is backstage on a TV show, thinking back to times she was hurt and/or abandoned in her life (we see that in brief glimpses). Then she gets in front of the cameras and turns on the charm.

The Gist: The woman is Tully Hart (Katherine Heigl), a popular Seattle-based talk show host in the feel-good Oprah mold. She’s best friends with Kate Mularkey (Sarah Chalke), who is separated from her husband and dealing with her not-so-happy 14 year old daughter Marah (Yael Yurman), who has been cutting school since the separation happened.

Both of the friends are 43 and struggling in 2003, but we also see them during two other time periods. We see a little more of Tully’s history; we see her at 8 or 9 (played by London Robertson), being grabbed by her strung out hippie mother Cloud (Beau Garrett) from the safe haven of her grandmother’s house, only to be left behind as Cloud participates in a war protest.

Then, in 1974, 14-year-old Tully (Ali Skovbye) goes with Cloud again, this time to move into a house on Firefly Lane. Her neighbors are the Mularkeys, and young, shy Kate (Roan Curtis) eventually hits it off with the confident Tully… eventually. Tully, who basically is on her own, lives in a way that Kate envies, but Kate’s kindness is something that Tully needs in her life.

We also see them in 1982, as Kate goes for an interview at the TV station where Tully is a low-level producer. There, she meets Kate’s boss Johnny (Ben Lawson), and, despite the fact that he wasn’t looking for an assistant, hires Kate after Tully insists that Kate will be a good, cheap hire. Kate ingratiates herself to the work-focused Johnny, finding out that he used to be a war correspondent, but for reasons he won’t talk about, took this job as a local news director. When the crew goes drinking one night, Tully sees that Kate has a thing for Johnny, but when they go out and dance, Tully and Johnny get close.

Back to 2003: Kate, out of the workplace since having Marah, applies to a low-level magazine job assisting the editor — she scrambles into the interview late after she has to go to Marah’s school to hear about her cutting class. But that editor, Kimber Watts (Jenna Rosenow), only gives Kate the job because she knows Tully.

She also has a PTA fundraiser to go to — she’s the committee chairman. She wants Tully to go, but Tully has a movie premiere to go to; Tully decides to be Kate’s “plus one” for moral support. But when Kate gets distracted by PTA stuff, Tully dances with Travis (Brandon Jay McLaren), Kate’s “PTA crush”. This sends Kate home early, where she finds something in Marah’s backpack that could shake up her friendship with Tully.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Firefly Lane, based on a novel by Kristin Hannah, feels like an edgier version of some of the “warm bath” shows that have been Netflix hits in the past year or two, namely Virgin River.

Our Take: Maggie Friedman adapted Firefly Lane for Netflix (Heigl is one of the executive producers); it’s a lighthearted drama that still does a good job of communicating all the issues both Kate and Tully bring to their decades-long friendship. Tully, despite being brash and outwardly confident, has some serious damage that she may not have even revealed to Kate. Kate, even in her forties, still lacks confidence in herself and thinks that she’s failing her daughter during her separation.

In the first episode, pretty much everyone around Tully and Kate — with the possible exception of Marah — is largely undefined, mostly characters that exist in their universe. Even Johnny, whom we find out at the end of the episode is Kate’s soon-to-be ex, comes off less as a real, rounded character than as a hunky Aussie who regrets his career (and possibly romantic) decisions for the past 20 years.

But that’s not as important in the first episode as establishing the chemistry between Heigl and Chalke, which the two TV vets slide into with ease. This is the best work that both of them have done for quite a number of years, perhaps since the shows they’re best known for (Grey’s Anatomy and Scrubs, respectively), because they’re both playing slightly different characters than the ones they perfected in the ’00s.

Heigl nails Tully’s brash but troubled persona, especially when she tells Kate that she’s the brave one for having a family, something that’s she will likely never have. Chalke, for her part, channels the inherent goofiness we know she can muster into more of a shyness and lack of self-esteem, making Kate one of those people who seemingly has it all but refuses to believe it. We feel that in her schlumpy manner, even when Tully trades dresses with her before the PTA event. A dress that looks spectacular on Tully looks “ok” on the Spanx-clad Kate, despite that Kate looks like, you know, Sarah Chalke. That speaks to Chake’s ability to make Kate nerdy and shy, with the occasional ability to take risks and make an ass out of herself.

We’re still not 100 percent sure about the show’s This Is Us-style time shifting. It feels like there’s a lot of story distinction between 1974 and 2003, where what goes on in one time period feeds into the other. But the 1982 timeframe is less distinctive; aside from de-aging makeup (or CGI?) on Heigl and Chalke and Kate’s wildly-feathered hairdo.

It feels like it’s there to largely tell the story of Kate and Johnny and whatever role Tully plays in it, but it feels like there’s more insight into their relationship in the earlier and later time periods than the one in the middle. In fact, it took us a while to realize that Friedman hadn’t visited 1982 in awhile during the latter part of the first episode; we neither missed it or was happy to see the show come back to it, because it interrupted the flow we were in. The time shifting may smooth out over time, and we may go to other time periods of their friendship, but it certainly breaks dramatic momentum, at least to start.

Sex and Skin: Tully picks up a younger man named Max (Jon Ecker) in a bar and they have sex in her massive apartment, against the glass wall of her wine cellar. She tells Max she rarely goes on a second date, and he tells her that a) he’s a fan and b) she’s only the fourth person he’s had sex with. It does look like Max will be around more as the season goes on.

Parting Shot: Johnny barges into Tully’s penthouse apartment, saying he’s back from New York. Tully says, “Go home to your wife,” but Johnny says he’s made so many mistakes and he wants to stay with Tully that night. “I need you, Tully,” he says. Could there have been something between them?

Sleeper Star: In the ’70s, Tully happens to catch Kate’s brother Sean (Quinn Lord) kissing his friend Robbie (Synto D. Misati), on whom Kate is crushing hard. She keeps their relationship a secret, but we’re curious to see where the two of them factor into Kate and Tully’s friendship.

Most Pilot-y Line: We were pretty annoyed that it seemed like Kate and Tully were costumed like two people from 1982 (though Kate’s hair screamed more 1977) and everyone else more or less looked like they were from the present day.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The chemistry between Sarah Chalke and Katherine Heigl will carry Firefly Lane, but the show needs to develop the world around them and smooth out its time shifting a little bit more for the show to have lasting impact.

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.

Stream Firefly Lane On Netflix