Open wide for another heaping helping of HBO Max's Julia
A second season of Julia, starring Sarah Lancashire as television’s most iconic chef Julia Child, is on the way
We hope you saved rooms for seconds because HBO isn’t done serving Julia just yet. Another course of the Julia Child bio-series about her revolutionary career as the original television food star is on the way at HBO Max.
The series Julia stars Sarah Lancashire as Julia Child, taking over for Meryl Streep, who played Child in the 2009 Nora Ephron movie Julie & Julia. And she’s supported by a dream cast, including David Hyde Pierce as her husband, Paul. The series also features Bebe Neuwirth, Fran Kranz, and guest stars Judith Light, James Cromwell, and Isabella Rossellini.
For those unfamiliar, here’s the logline from HBO:
Julia is inspired by Julia Child’s extraordinary life and her long-running television series, The French Chef, which pioneered the modern cooking show. Through Julia’s life and her singular joie de vivre, the series explores a pivotal time in American history—the emergence of public television as a new social institution, feminism and the women’s movement, the nature of celebrity and America’s cultural evolution. At its heart, the series is a portrait of a loving marriage with a shifting power dynamic.
Here at The A.V. Club, we were impressed by Julia’s table and its centerpiece: Sarah Lancashire’s portrayal of Child. In the review, David Cote wrote:
Lancashire carries the season on sturdy shoulders, finding endless variations on her character’s repertoire of vocal and physical tics: the clucking and cooing, lurching movement, sudden gales of laughter. Like her subject, she’s fascinating and adorable. As Paul praises his wife: “You’re teaching Americans how to taste life, and they’re listening; that’s goddamn huge.”
While HBO begins prepping its first season, the network still hasn’t cleared its plate from the first season. The season finale of Julia hits HBO Max on May 5.