User reviews

Like a lot of biography series/films there are some fictionalised elements, but this doesn't stop Julia being an enjoyable show to watch. The casting is great. Sarah Lancashire (from Oldham, UK) seems like an unusual choice to play the main role, but she does it really well. Since seeing Julie and Julia I've always had an interest in Julia Child. That film goes into how her book was written whereas this series goes into how she got on to television.

I don't know just how much is fictionalised in this series but it looks great and manages to mix comedy and serious very well. I binged the first 4 episodes in a day and am really looking forward to the next one!

So many things to like about this show... For openers, I grew up in Boston in the 1960's, and they did such a good job of recreating that city in that time that I was feeling nostalgic just watching the scenes with Julia walking down the street.

The casting is spot-on - I am so glad they went with Sarah Lancashire because I don't think an American actress could have replicated Julia Child's odd accent nearly as well. David Hyde Pierce is terrific in his usual understated way, and Bebe Neuwirth is always a joy to watch.

The show has a leisurely pace, but I don't mind that - it just provides more opportunity to enjoy the details. And they really got them right.

I gave this delightful series a straight 8. I remember watching Julia Child when I was a little girl and thought she was funny. The woman always seemed out of sorts but ended up with the most wonderful dishes...This series gives us a looks at this complex woman's life and it is a joy. I liked the interaction between her and her husband even though sometimes it was strained he must have really loved her. The cast playing her circle of friends are great. Sarah Lancashire is a fine actress and I feel she portrays Julia perfectly. She has her look and voice and mannerisms down pat. I think I will like this one.

I did not think I would like this series; for one, Meryl Streep owned the character in "Julie & Julia", along with Stanley Tucci as Paul, but half way into the first episode, I was totally absorbed into the story and the characters. Just superbly cast, well acted, the sets and the locations bring back a lot of memories.

I lived in Cambridge MA for a year or so back in the 80's, and Julia Child was a frequent sighting around Harvard Square - I would see her frequently in the bookstores and coffee shops. She was a presence, even without muttering a word.

Sarah Lancashire and David Hyde-Pierce are superb. They are Julia and Paul Child. Boston of that era was a bastion of equality, but still a product of it's time. I am glad to see that the writing is not telling a "woke" story, but an honest characterization of that time. There are times the show is as gritty as it WAS back then. Having LIVED through those times, this is about as honest portrayal as I could imagine.

Kudos HBO for bringing this story to the screen.

Since the Julie and Julia film, I fell in love with Mrs Child., that movie is excellent and this series is so effing good. The sincerity and acting is impeccable. As a cook and artist myself, I appreciate the attention to detail that brings this series alive. It's amazing!

It's nice to watch something that doesn't involve murder or bloodshed these days.

This is a fun and interesting show with lots of insight into Julia Child's early days as a TV personality.

Great acting and interesting sets, what's not to like!

I can't believe I waited this long to start watching this show. Top notch cast with Sarah Lancashire (who is an absolute revelation and deserves an Emmy for this performance), Bebe Neuwirth, David Hyde Pierce, Fiona Glascott, Judith Light, Brittney Bradford, Isabella Rosselini...all in the same show? Yes please, more of that. The show is one of the best hidden gems of the year. While there's definitely still room for growth, "Julia" is, all things considered, a well-written, superbly acted, charmer of a show. I can definitely imagine enjoying another serving. I'm begging HBOMAX for a season two.

Edit: Okay, we got a season two and it's just as magnificent as the first season. The show is my favorite of all shows in the last year. Utterly fantastic performances all around.

Well, the show dropped a few hours ago and I've already seen the first two episodes, and I must say - it's great! Sure I may be a smidge biased as I have fond childhood memories of my own mother watching on our rather modest 13" black and white set - and sure, the nostalga plays into my love of this, but it's much more than that - Masterfully acted by Sarah Lancashire and dealing quite deftly with both the biolographical aspects of a real life heroine as well as the challenges of being a female (and celebrity) in the early 1960s - this is just a real treat - bon Appétit my friends ;)

I've watched the Documentaries and the movies and Mrs. Child was an endlessly charming woman. A woman of Substance.

And Sarah Lancashire has captured it all wonderfully. I discovered Ms. Lancashire on the BBC show, "Happy Valley". I've wanted to see more of her ever since as "Happy Valley" seems to be in an endless hiatus.

The supporting cast is perfect with David Hyde Pierce as husband Paul and Bebe Neuwirth reunited from their days on "Frasier". What chemistry they have! They are superb in their roles.

I really love the show when it stays a bit closer to reality. The main characters acting is amazing. The show is very well done. And then it strays into the unbelievable and forced fiction which hurts the show's authenticity. I really liked the early parts of the first season, but late season one and especially in season two, the show pushes and agenda and is not authentic to the time period or what actually happened in Julia's life. I keep watching for the main storyline but I keep fining myself looking up if parts were real when they seem forced and time after time I'm finding it is fiction.

I don't get the hate.

I was engrossed from the first second.

And if, if she doesn't have the perfect American accent, it's 100 times better than Dominic West's accent in The Wire, so who cares! I find the slight Yorkshire inflection works well with her idiosyncrasies anyway.

Can't wait for the rest.

I remember Julia on my local PBS afternoons. She did help me cook an omelette when I just burned one attempting to cook without oil. I was afraid of her man hands & voice. It wasn't until I realize her many verbal faux pas were her dry jokes. What an amazing "the little engine that could" career in a patriarchal world.

However, so much fiction overpowers her reality. I've read her biography & don't appreciate Goldfarb's culture substitute of Ruth Lockwood with the fictional Alice. Why obscure her courage & struggles? It taints every episode she's in & it's hard to empathize with her.

Being more inclusive doesn't mean fabricating a heroine's drama-biography.

The story of Julia and Paul Child is so beautiful on it's own merits that altering the historical facts does a major disservice to this series. Paul was Julia's champion: never doubting or thwarting her efforts. I was appalled at how Paul was vilified. How (and why) would they do this? I wanted so much to like this show, but ultimately am horrified at how they facts have been so mangled and misrepresented.

This series is right on target portraying Julia Child. Sarah Lancashire does a wonderful job. In the very first episode, she has to deal with the onset of menopause. Sarah showed in a very subtle way Julia's regret for never having had, and now becoming unable to have, a baby. Her regret hits home when she later runs into a friend who has had a baby.

The Alice Naman character stands in for an actual assistant producer at WGBH. She represents how women in the early 60s, regardless of race or ethnicity or education, were dismissed by the men they worked with, if they could get a job at all outside traditionally, and subservient, female occupations. Even by the end of the decade, job listings were separated by gender and women were not allowed to apply for jobs whose qualifications they met.

We learn how Russell Morash initially did not think something like a cooking show met the purpose of educational TV. He later went on to produce not only many years of The French Chef but also This Old House and Victory Garden, equally non-academic. His wife, Marian Morash, begins as a typical American housewife of her time, thinking tuna casserole was great food. She went on to give her own cooking lessons featuring home-grown produce on Victory Garden. We can only imagine how much Julia inspired her.

This is one of my favorite shows right now.

I look forward to a new episode every week.

It is a few good show. The story and acting is great.

I hope they have 10 more seasons of this show.

Having seen the movie with Meryl Streep I started to watch half heartedly thinking what more was there to say about Julia Child? But I am a great fan of Sarah Lancashire and have enjoyed many of her performances.

The series really is wonderful if you are a fan of the 1960s. It is very encouraging to watch a woman of the time who through her good nature, perseverance and humour succeeded in a male chauvinist society.

David Hyde Pierce is also a great choice as her husband as they appear much like the real Julia and Paul Child. I also greatly admire Bebe Neuwirth . Despite today's abundance of cook books and chefs the show still makes you want to go out and buy Julia Child's cookbook.

I rarely write reviews but I was incensed by the pillock who slated this show. Sarah Lancashire is fantastic in this and I would expect her to receive industry award(s) for her performance.

Well who would think when one watches dross like 'moon knight' that tv can still produce sutch delights as this, Sarah Lancashire is perfect, as are the rest of the cast, the sets, are like a moving Norman Rockwell Saturday Post cover, the music, spot on, if this were a meal in a restaurant, it would warrant 4 michelin stars.

I watched the 1st 3 episodes in one day and liked it so much I watched then a second time that night. I am a Julia Child fan, and though I've never seen her television show, I have seen "Julie and Julia" several times, and read her autobiography "My Life in France," own both her cookbooks and the book "Always, Julia." I found this series accurate, charming, and eye-opening. Set in 1962, I learned about the early days of Public Television and Julia's contribution to it and to cooking shows and food television in general. It illustrates the disrespect the male-dominated industry displayed toward her and to women in general, and how she overcame their disinterest in her idea for the cooking show. I was never aware of any of that and admire her even more now. Forgive me if I've made it sound dry, because it was anything but that. I found it engaging and entertaining. The acting was terrific, with Sarah Lancashire as Julia, David Hyde Pierce as her husband Paul, Bebe Neuwirth as her best friend Avis, James Cromwell as her father, and appearances by Isabella Rossellini and Judith Light. It's full of humor and history. What more can one ask for?

I grew up in a house where my mother could not literally boil water and my father's idea of fine dining was turkey in a tin foil tray and a cold beer. Luckily, our local PBS station ran reruns of The French Chef when I was growing up in the 1980s and I fell in love with the idea that food was fun! I also fell madly in love with Julia Child, who was everything my family was not: sophisticated, educated, classy and joyously in love with life.

Sarah Lancashire nails Julia from the start. She is big, brassy, loud, and defies anyone not to like her. If they don't, she shoves Mousse au Chocolat framboise in their face until they submit. David Hyde Pierce is brilliant as always, playing Julia's husband and love of her life, Paul Child.

There are a few historical oddities and a few liberties taken with the story. I don't care! Julia captures the essence of a magnificent life force who is still remembered as a brilliant person nearly 60 years after the debut of her no-budget little show on educational TV that became a world-wide phenom. I love you Julia. Bon Appétit!

I initially binged season 1 on a long haul flight and loved it. As a longtime fan of Julia Child and having read several comprehensive biographies on her, I found that the first season, though fictionalized to an extent (the Alice character was a 100% fictionalized character, for example), was in general fairly accurate to the real events. The acting was well done, and I really enjoyed the show.

Recently, I discovered that a second season had been made, so I streamed it, first watching season 1 again and then the second season. The second season is a joke. It is about 80% fiction, and bad fiction at that. The stupid plot line about the FBI. The plot about Alice and women's issues programming. The plot about Russ and his documentary. The plot about Avis and her new love interest. The plot about Judith and Blanche Knopf. The plot about Hunter facing forced retirement. The character of the new woman director. All fiction.

I don't know if the writers changed, or what, but in season 2 they took an interesting story about a real fascinating a complex woman and turned it into a second rate soap opera with every 60s era cliche they could find. What a shame. I'm not surprised it wasn't renewed for a third season.

I was truly and utterly disgusted with the portrayal of Paul and Julia's relationship. Julia would be rolling over in her grave after seeing this depiction of her beloved husband as a self-involved, over-bearing, and unsupportive husband. Since when did Julia need Paul's permission to go on the show in the first place?? He was was the one helping haul all of her kitchen utensils to the building they were filming in (the studio had just burned down). I could barely make it through the first episode because I was seething with anger at this injustice. How could they do Paul so dirty like this?

I just finished reading Julia's biography and was so excited to watch the show as I had loved reading the book and seeing the love and support between Julia and Paul. I get that this was a fictional retelling of her life but why did they have to create such unnecessary drama between Julia and her husband. I can get the shows whole idea of creating drama between Julia and the executives for the sake of having some drama, granted in her book she does talk about how they were unsure whether the show would be a success. However, the network approached her and not the other way around. The shows retelling of these entire events is mostly false.

I genuinely don't understand how some people who have given the show a high rating can possibly compare what we got from Julie and Julia from this heap of garbage. Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci were truly *French kiss* as Julia and Paul and accurately depicted their relationship. If you want a true depiction of Julia as a person and her life read her book because this will not give you that. Truly a disappointment.

People are going to compare it to the oscar worth performance of meryl streep and it would utterly justified. She dazzled with her performance and even if not completely accurate her presence on camera was captivating. Now this is a though act to follow but follow she did. I really liked her more grounded represantation of julia child as this series does her life story justice. You not only see her camera work on tv but also very niche and neat domestic scenes that tries to deepen people's understanding on her character.

The show has very good pacing and every episode adds more to the character. Filmed with a lot of love and humor this is a good watch.

Never too heavy or too light, the show has a most agreeable tone. LOVE Sarah Lancashire in this (and everything else), and she feels perfect for this part. Whether true to life or not, it's gratifying to see a partnership - Julia and Paul - that is mutually respectful and supportive, esp. One in the 60s. The supporting cast is well chosen. Though 8 episodes feels as if it might strain my good will if each isn't substantive, I think I'll make it through just fine since it's a wonderful cross stitching companion.