Dickinson on Apple TV: Top 5 Things You Need to Know Before Watching

Releasing on the launch date of Apple TV+, Dickinson is a comedy series executive produced by the show creator herself – Alena Smith, along with David Gordon Green, Michael Sugar, Ashley Zalta, Alex Goldstone, and Darlene Hunt.

Back in November 2017 after Apple confirmed that it was branching out into original scripted programming announcing that it will start to distribute straight-to-series shows on their global streaming platform called Apple TV+. Spending over $1 billion on their original programming and a projected $4.2 billion by 2022, Apple TV is going full steam ahead with their programming with star director Steven Speilberg’s anthology series – Amazing Stories, Sofia Coppola’s original film – On the Rocks starring Rashida Jones and Bill Murray and Defending Jacob starring Chris Evans yet to find a release date.

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Back to Dickinson, on May 30, 2018, it was announced that Apple green-lit the series as the principal photography commenced on January 7, 2019, in Old Bethpage, New York and was concluded quickly by March 2019 as reported by The New York Times.

Subsequently, after the initial promos released to the public in August and September of 2019, the general consensus from the audience was fairly positive as quite a few people criticized the number of re-tellings of the same story.

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1. Dickinson: The Lonely?

Created by Alena Smith, Dickinson is a fantastical imagination of the life of Emily Dickinson, an affable poet from the 1800s and nearly 1,800 of her poems were published after her demise. The premise of the series explains that the narrative will take place during Emily Dickinson’s era with a modern sensibility and tone. Furthermore, the half-hour comedy series (every episode) audaciously explores the constraints of society, gender, and family from the naive perspective of a rebellious young poet Emily Dickinson.

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As the entire series showcases the character of Dickinson, it must be very interesting to watch the showrunners get all the emotions right cause it is suggested that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Criticized for her attitude and reluctance to greet guests or even leave her room, for the most part, Dickinson was even considered as an odd character by most of the locals. Furthermore, most of her friendships entirely depended upon correspondence and she never cared to get married.

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2. Dickinson and Her Legacy

With over 1800 published poems, Dickinson followed a particular style which was unique to her era. Many of them contain short lines, lack titles, often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. The central theme of most of her poems surrounded by death and immortality which were incomparable back in the 1800s.

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Even though Dickinson’s family and friends were likely aware of her very novel habit of writing, it was not until after death in 1886; her younger sister Lavinia Dickinson discovered her poems and later on took the responsibility of getting them published as a tribute to her sister. The poems published after Emily Dickinson’s death were regularly edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules and make them more easy and readable to the general public.

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3. Led by the Prolific Hailee Steinfeld

Dickinson primarily comprises of a very talented star cast led by the main female lead, Hailee Steinfeld, who plays the titular character in the show. Fresh off the decent success of her 2018 Transformers movie, Bumblebee, and the 2016 critically-acclaimed drama, The Edge of Seventeen, Steinfeld seems to be the perfect fit to play the role of Dickinson, a prolific poet in real life.

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Debuted nine years ago back in 2010 with True Grit, an American Revisionist Western film directed, written, produced, and edited by the Coen brothers, Hailee Steinfeld proved to be a stand-out performer and is well-known to fit in any kind of role flawlessly. Along with her thriving film career, Steinfeld is also a singer and a songwriter and is best known for her 2X Platinum single “Love Myself” which was released in 2015.

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4. A Decent Supporting Cast

Filling in the supporting cast roles is Jane Krakowski, who plays Mrs Dickinson and the mother of Steinfeld’s character. Krakowski is popularly known for her roles in National Lampoon’s Vacation and the comedy series 30 Rock for which she received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

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Also portraying the siblings of Dickinson are Adrian Enscoe who plays the older brother, Austin and Anna Baryshnikov who plays her younger sister Lavinia. Most importantly, English actress, Ella Hunt who is well known for her presence in Les Misérables will be seen portraying the best friend role of Dickinson and judging by the trailers, her role appears to be equally significant when compared to Steinfeld’s character.

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5. The Release

Premiering on November 1, Dickinson will release alongside with quite a few Apple TV originals like The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, SEE starring Jason Momoa and For All Mankind starring Joel Kinnaman in the lead roles.

However, unlike Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ will follow a one-episode-per-week formula similar to its competitive platforms like Disney+ and HBO MAX. So, binge-watching will not be a thing anymore for all the Apple fans unless if you plan to watch the entire show once it finishes airing.

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