Meryl Streep is starring in a new J.J. Abrams miniseries

The Nix, written by Nathan Hill, is already receiving acclaim for its massive multigenerational narrative, which is a phrase we advise against trying to say five times fast. It tells the story of a “hippie-era mother who gets national press exposure for throwing rocks at a conservative governor on the presidential campaign trail. Before you know it, her estranged son—a professor, aspiring novelist and general underachiever—seizes an opportunity to get himself out of debt by writing a scathing profile of his estranged mother.”

Other than the idea that someone who managed to survive the merciless gauntlet of academia in this day and age and become a professor is somehow an underachiever, it sounds like a great social novel of the Franzen variety. No word yet on when and where it will turn up, but Streep tackling something like this is probably a guarantee of watchability. Admittedly, the Streep Seal of Approval didn’t work for She-Devil, but this looks like a much higher-caliber project—too bad she’s already done something called Adaptation.