TV Review: Dickinson Season 3 Wraps Up Beautifully
Sometimes, it takes a show awhile to find itself. Yet, we stay on because of the potential of what it can be. On its spark alone, it burns brighter than shows filled with certainty but not, exactly, creativity. Dickinson was always the show that burned brighter for what it could be because what it filled our imagination enough. In Season 3, its final season, we get the Dickinson we have been waiting for on Apple TV Plus.
From its conception, Dickinson promised to be a feminist ode to the poet that was ahead of her time Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld). For these 3 years, Steinfeld has relished her role, and this season is her best performance yet, in part, because Emily is a woman now, and if there is one thing women know more than girls……it is heartbreak. Frankly, I think that heartbreak is what makes a girl into a woman; the burst bubble of innocence that teaches us we can be betrayed, unloved, and unprotected, despite being so good to others. Throughout the past seasons, a lot of Emily’s pain was her own machinations and frustrations at not being able to “fly the coop;” only to realize “the coop” might be her safest place.
Death, cheating,WAR, AND THIEVERY!!!!!!! Emily faces it all, and, frankly, all the Dickinsons do. With the Civil War in the backdrop, Dickinson enters a socio-political domain, it always, playfully alluded to. Making the societal crushes of 19th century misogyny and racism hiccups in Emily’s way, but, this season, no amount of charm, fierce strength, or dream sequences can deter Emily from the fact that “being ahead of the times” sucks because you do not time-travel to an era where you are socially respected. In fact, women and black people are still fighting for freedom over their bodies. If anything, Season 3 of Dickinson comes to a happy medium between the show’s inherent promotion of joviality and strength and its growing truth on how difficult it is to be a genius in a dumb world.
Yes, the world is dumb because people are hateful, and, often, it is for no reason. As her father (Toby Huss as Edward) and brother (Adrian Enscoe as Austin) become more involved in the abolitionist movement, Emily is further confronted by her own helplessness. In nature, she is a spitfire but society burns her out, and this feeling of being the biggest bonfire on a rainy day oddly connects her more to her sister (Anna Baryshnikovas Lavinia), her mother (Jane Krakowski), and her friends (Ella Hunt as Sue and Amanda Warren as Betty). Each of these women are struggling with the peace and acceptance that comes from knowing you will never be the center of “history’s narrative” but can you be the center of your own?
Frankly, I thought that showrunner Alena Smith DELIVERED this year. It was life she perfectly wrapped a show where every single member, from cast to crew, felt like it was a gift. There was no doubt, Dickinson was a show made with love, and its sendoff perfectly achieved its ultimate message: to be revolutionary, you have to be love, and to love, you have to be self-love. New pisodes premiere every Friday on Apple TV Plus.
