Firefly Lane Season 1 Review: Someone Let This Firefly Out of the Jar
Netflix’s Firefly Lane has a lot in common with the insects whose image its title evokes. It has fleeting seconds where it tries to be beautiful… but the light inevitably fades as quickly as it appears.
The firefly becomes an ugly but harmless bug flying around trying desperately to evade the trauma that will come when a giggling child comes along and captures it in a jar. It’s innocuous but destined for a life in captivity.
Watching Firefly Lane and living through Tully and Kate’s lives with them is a continuously traumatic experience.
In one season, we are subjected to parental abandonment, rape, divorce, a miscarriage, and multiple deaths (including a dog’s) — to name a few of the devastating moments these ladies survive.
Don’t get me wrong, those tragedies are to be expected in a romantic drama. Firefly Lane is also at a disadvantage because it must follow a basic path laid out by Kristin Hannah’s novel of the same name.
But if we must watch another Netflix drama whose characters share minimal DNA with Jen and Judy of Dead to Me or even Grace and Frankie — if we must sit through another show that shares bones with Sweet Magnolias or Virgin River — it better be extraordinary.
Sadly, Firefly Lane is ordinary in every way.
Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke give perfectly fine performances as Tully Hart and Kate Mularkey respectively — especially when they’re allowed to act their ages in the early aughts.
There is nothing wrong with being in your mid-40s. It’s rude to ask us to believe that an actor of 40 can play 20 if they just slap on a bad wig.
Ali Skovbye and Roan Curtis are sweet together as young Tully and Kate. Their bond is believable, strong, and rare. But everything about that is still predictable.
There is absolutely nothing new about the girl with the wild heart taking care of the good girl and being protected in return.
Tully’s personality protects her from the trauma that is her life. She, too, is a firefly. A beautiful, attention-seeking creature who builds a glass jar around her heart to survive.
It’s all perfectly explained, so it’s impossible to hate Tully, even though she intentionally and unintentionally causes most of the trouble in Kate’s life.
For example, Johnny is so obviously in love with Tully throughout Firefly Lane that Johnny and Kate’s marriage is hard to believe in at all. Kate pines for a man that doesn’t notice her romantically for far too long.
That’s not to say that Tully and Johnny would marry and live happily ever after. But poor Kate marries a man who has had sex with Tully Hart. She never escapes her best friend’s shadow.
Kate and Johnny’s divorce is sad but absolutely inevitable. It makes Kate’s pain harder for us to feel, but that’s unfair to Kate.
Kate’s is dull, constant pain. Tully’s is always sharper and more sporadic. If she doesn’t numb it with sex and keep it at bay by keeping most people from getting too close to her, it would be too unbearable for anyone to live with.
It all makes complete sense and makes for a predictable watch.
Yet, nothing about Firefly Lane is comforting. You’ll need to bring wine to the couch but not to help you relax as you watch a sweet show. It’s to keep your own trauma from bubbling to the surface as you watch Kate and Tully try to get through life with minimal scars.
The worst part of it all is that we already know that in the present-day, they don’t even have each other to lean on.
It’s been a long time since I read the book, so I don’t even remember the fight that comes between them. The biggest indication that Firefly Lane has very little magic in it is that I don’t care enough to try and remember what happens there.
Sean is the easiest character to feel genuine concern about, but he’s the saddest of them all. Coming out in the ’80s was probably impossibly hard to do. So, we understand why he doesn’t.
But he’s been trapped in a loveless marriage since before day one. It’s a relief to finally watch him come out to Kate in 2003, but oh so hard to watch at the same time.
When she and Tully come home for her parents’ anniversary party Kate explodes about her whole family being fake.
I can’t help but wonder what kind of show we’d be watching if everyone involved in Firefly Lane approached the whole project from a more genuine place.
As it stands, Firefly Lane is a typical story about love and friendship lost. The predictable script is adequately performed. The powerful moments are as hard to point out as the flaws.
In other words, someone needs to let this firefly out of the jar. Let the harmless insect determine its own path.
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Esme Mazzeo
Esme Mazzeo is a lifestyle and entertainment journalist from Long Island. When she's not writing for work, she's writing for fun, or searching for something to satisfy her sweet tooth. She thinks rainy days are the best kind of days. Certified night owl.