From the upcoming adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s Three Women to Daisy Jones & The Six, even House Of Gucci, it has to be said that many of the films we’re most excited about once started life on the printed page.

So, book fans, we have some exciting news about the highly-anticipated new adaptation of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s bestselling 2019 novel, Fleishman Is in Trouble.

Following the announcement that Jesse Eisenberg will be joining the cast as protagonist Toby Fleishman alongside Lizzy Caplan in the upcoming TV series, FX has just released the first trailer – and it’s safe to say there’s plenty of domestic drama ahead. 

The show centres on a newly-estranged couple,  Toby and Rachel, who have recently been through a bitter divorce. As Toby enters the world of online dating, his former wife (played by Claire Danes) takes off and leaves him with their three children. Toby reconnects with his college friend Libby (Caplan) following the split, who also narrates the series.

The novel has received critical acclaim and was selected for the longlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2020. In a review, The Guardian called it “an honest, powerful, human story with no apologies” and Rolling Stone praised its “unsparing yet sympathetic depiction of the way we live now.”

Here’s everything we know about the upcoming series so far.

What is the plot of Fleishman Is In Trouble?

According to the novel’s synopsis: “Finally free from his nightmare of a marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of online dating and weekend-only parental duties. But as he optimistically looks to a future that is wildly different from the one he imagined, his life turns upside-down as his ex-wife, Rachel, suddenly disappears.

“While Toby tries to find out what happened – juggling work, kids and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity – his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if he ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place.”

Dealing with themes of gender roles, marriage and divorce, online dating, midlife crises, and class anxiety, the novel considerably mocks affluent and pretentious Manhattan professionals while embracing their anxieties.

Indeed, a New Yorker review claimed that the book “turns the marriage novel inside out,” something that is gripping to read, but perhaps even more thrilling to watch.

Who stars in Fleishman Is In Trouble?

The new series has a seriously impressive cast. Not only is Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) taking on the role of Toby Fleishman, but Homeland’s Emmy-winning Claire Danes will star opposite as Rachel.

Elsewhere, Lizzy Caplan will be playing the role of Toby’s friend Lizzy, while Meara Mahoney Gross and Maxim Swinton portray the Fleishman’s young children Hannah and Solly.

The wider cast also includes Adam Brody, Christian Slater, Josh Radnor, Joy Suprano, Ralph Adriel Johnson, Brian Miskell, Michael Gaston and Juani Feliz. 

Author Brodesser-Akner will make her TV writing debut as screenwriter for the series, also executive producing alongside Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Susannah Grant, and co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.

Is there a trailer for Fleishman Is In Trouble?

There is indeed, and it looks like the series is going to be equally as gripping as the novel.

The trailer begins with a shot of Fleishman sitting scrolling his phone in a near-empty apartment.

“Toby Fleishman awoke one morning inside the city he’d lived in all his adult life,” Caplan narrates over scenes of Fleishman driving his children and complaining to his friends about his ex-wife’s behaviour.

“Many thoughts had crossed Toby’s mind in the hours since he was informed that his ex-wife dropped the kids off a full day earlier than expected.” 

We also see flashbacks to bitter arguments Toby and Rachel had during their marriage as Toby reflects on how a loving relationship devolved into an acrimonious separation.

“Money doesn’t buy you happiness,” Toby says in one scene. “Oh Toby, of course it does! What are you, crazy?” Rachel retaliates.

The trailer also turns back times as it shows Toby and Rachel’s love story and how the stresses of life took its toll. “This is a story about everything: life and marriage and how young love can become old resentment,” Caplan continues. “And money and dissatisfaction and jealousy, ambition, career, parenting, nostalgia and lifelong friendship.”

When will Fleishman Is In Trouble be available to watch?

The new series will premiere with all episodes available to watch on Disney+ in the UK on 22 February 2023.

In the meantime, check out our roundup of the best book-to-screen adaptations you can sink your teeth into right now.

Images: Getty/Penguin Random House; FX