Lewis Pullman is a Mega Dream Boat in Apple TV+’s ‘Lessons in Chemistry’

It’s difficult to describe just how wonderful Lewis Pullman is as Calvin Evans in Apple TV+‘s new series, Lessons in Chemistry. The limited series, based on Bonnie Garmus’s bestseller, tells the story of intrepid chemist-turned-food show host Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson), but Pullman’s performance is so outrageously nuanced and charming that the series (and its star) become the most alive when Calvin is on screen. The professional and romantic relationship that blossoms between Elizabeth and Calvin becomes the emotional foundation for the entire series. Lessons in Chemistry turns Calvin Evans into stone cold dream boat and, in the process, announces Lewis Pullman as a rising Hollywood star.

Lessons in Chemistry opens in late 1950s California. Elizabeth Zott is the super popular television host of the hit cooking show, Supper at Six. Part of what makes her so captivating as a host is the fact that she uses her background as a chemist to transform cooking from a simple domestic task into an important intellectual experiment. Elizabeth insists that her mostly female audience take themselves, and their dreams, seriously.

We then travel back in time seven years to when Elizabeth worked as a lab tech at the Hastings Research Institute, a laboratory only on the map because a brilliant scientist named Calvin Evans deigned to do his research there. Elizabeth works as a lab tech for another group of chemists, all of whom simultaneously dismiss her as a coffee girl while also leaning on her genius to solve their scientific mistakes. When fate draws Elizabeth and Calvin together, the two young, attractive, and idiosyncratic intellectuals finally meet each other’s match. Calvin, in particular, seems awed by Elizabeth’s smarts, creativity, and beauty.

As soon as Calvin realizes that Elizabeth has been held back professionally because of her gender, he concocts a plan to move her to his lab, where she will be nominally a lab tech, but will be able to pursue her research in abiogenesis with all the resources at his disposal. As the two work side-by-side, they inevitably fall in love. Elizabeth, we already know from the show’s cold open, is destined for stardom. She is a rare jewel of a character, full of integrity, grace, and defiance. And judging by the way Calvin just looks at her, it seems he realizes this before anyone else in the world of Lessons in Chemistry does.

So much of what makes Calvin Evans charming comes down to how Lewis Pullman lets the character’s sharp edges soften in Elizabeth’s presence. While Calvin is gruff and rude to the vast majority of the vapid researchers at Hastings, he is deferential, chivalrous, and even servile to Elizabeth. When he learns she prefers melodic music to his favorite, jazz, he agrees to play her favored music every other day. Any suggestion she makes, need she has, he allows and accepts. When he discovers she cannot swim, Calvin insists on easing her into a pool mid-kiss. He is gentle with her in a dreamy way that’s never patronizing.

Of course, then there’s the fact that on top of being a great performer, Lewis Pullman is an incredibly handsome man. Putting aside the fact that he inherited his movie star father Bill Pullman’s good looks, Lessons in Chemistry makes a point to shoot Pullman according to the feminine gaze, focusing on his sinewy muscles and even, in one scene, his naked body. In fact, we’re basically introduced to Calvin as an object of desire. He’s rowing, then running, and then showering in his lab. (The shower moment literally made me think Pullman’s Top Gun: Maverick co-stars have to be relieved that the character of Bob opted to keep his t-shirt on in the film’s beach football scene.)

Lewis Pullman as Calvin Evans is TV’s newest, swooniest dream boat. He’s handsome, he’s fit, he’s brilliant, he’s kind, and he’s head over heels for Lessons in Chemistry‘s leading lady. Calvin Evans is essentially every straight woman’s dream man and Lewis Pullman is Hollywood’s next big thing.