There's a point near the end of the first episode of Aidy Bryant's new series Shrill when her character Annie plops down in the middle of a Portland vintage shop with her roommate Fran and bares some of her deepest insecurities and misdirected fantasies. But instead of letting her recent choices and circumstances get her down, Annie and Fran come to an agreement: Annie can't be so mean to herself. That despite everything that she ever doubted about her body, there's too much good in her life to just accept a raw deal. That although the world is often unkind to fat people, it's time for Annie to do what Annie wants. This self-assurance sets up the rest of the new, must-watch Hulu show.
The show candidly portrays what it’s like for Annie to navigate the world as a fat woman, but that’s not the entirety of Shrill. While she grossly underestimates what she’s capable of, Shrill follows her journey to vocalizing what she wants, both in her career and personal life. Sure, sometimes her size is part of the conversation. But it’s much more about a woman who’s just dealing with things such as chasing her dream of being a writer.
“It was really important to us to make a show that wasn't pedantic, and wasn't about teaching you a lesson every week,” executive producer Lindy West tells Teen Vogue during a set visit, a rainy Portland day where the cast and crew were shooting on-location at a coffee shop. “It's much more powerful to just tell a story about a dynamic, complicated human being, and how she interacts with the world; how the world treats her, and how she pushes back.”
Lindy has a personal stake in the series, more than just being a series writer — it’s based on her 2016 memoir of the same name. Having her in the writer’s room also meant that she was integral in adapting her experiences for the screen, an expert perspective, especially considering that the body positivity movement is one that only recently became a mainstream conversation.
“We're moving the show in a slightly different environment,” she says. “It almost gives you the chance to go into a little bit more nuance, because you're not starting from zero, where you have to be like, ‘Okay fat people exist, and are alive, and some of them have families, and jobs, and boyfriends, and normal lives.’ People know that, so we have the chance to get into, ‘Okay, how does she navigate her life? How does she come out of her shell?’ It's not just a story about being fat. It's a story about being a young woman dealing with all kinds of things.”
Aidy dazzles as the charismatic lead, pulling off everything from scenes joking with her mother about the false satisfaction about a six-almond snack to having to use the term “raw dogging” with a straight face. Lolly Adefope plays her best friend and housemate Fran, a hair stylist that does everything with a bit of flair and plenty of cutting zingers. There’s Luka Jones as Ryan, Annie’s aloof semi-boyfriend who seems to have mostly good intentions, but ultimately is clueless at treating Annie with the respect she deserves. Rounding out the rest of the cast is John Cameron Mitchell as Annie’s jerk of a boss, Ian Owens as her supportive co-worker, and Patti Harrison playing a space-case of a fellow employee.
Behind the camera, there’s industry pro and showrunner Ali Rushfield, who has worked on shows such as Parks and Recreation and Netflix’s Love. The series boasts episode directors including Obvious Child’s Gillian Robespierre and Portlandia’s Carrie Brownstein. Executive producers including Lorne Michaels and Elizabeth Banks also prove just how much of a powerhouse the show is.
The team behind Shrill and the actors portraying the characters are all mindful of what they’re trying to achieve with Annie’s story, that there’s much more than just her body to discuss.
“It's not about saying being fat is amazing or being skinny is amazing,” Lolly tells Teen Vogue. “It's about saying let people live their lives and let them do what they want to do and don't shame people for the way that they look. And everyone is an interesting person and has their own story to tell and isn't defined by their body.”
While the message of Shrill stands, having Aidy at the center of everything is incredibly noteworthy because film and television continue to lack body diversity. Even with important recent productions such as Dumplin’ and Dietland, fat people are often not seen as the lead star. And when certain shows try their hand at body positivity and what it’s like living in a world that’s all too often unfriendly to fat people, they often miss the mark.
At its core, Shrill is all about cluing audiences into Annie’s experience and making her someone that people can connect with. It also shows how there are plenty of people in this world that often feel unsure about themselves, something that we see Annie grapple with throughout the show’s first season of ups and downs.
“This is a show with nuanced everything, and [it shows that] not all fat people are the same, not all fat people have the same opinion about being fat,” Lolly says. “There are moments in the show when characters have a crisis of confidence and that's just like what it is to be a human being rather than this idea that no matter who you are you have to be confident all the time.”
Beyond that, it’s a series that wants to make you laugh. So how do you turn this insecurity and the world’s awful body standards into something funny?
“It's not like you walking down the street with a tuba soundtrack being like, ‘I'm fat. Fat, fat. Every moment I think about being fat.’ You're just a person living your life, and then the world smacks you in the face every once in a while and reminds you. That you don't fit, or that your body's not right, or whatever,” Lindy says. “It's like you're at work and everyone on the team gets a matching t-shirt, and yours doesn't fit. And no one thought to accommodate you. Or you go to a restaurant and the chairs have arms that are too narrow, and your butt doesn't fit. You know what I mean? That's external, and it creates moments for comedy that sympathetic. Normally, that would be played for laughs in a mean way, but when Annie is the central character it's sort of excruciating, but in a sometimes funny, hopefully funny, but really relatable way.”
And there are plenty of things that audiences will enjoy, from the brash ridiculousness of Annie eating Chinese food at a strip club while the dancers gas her up with advice, to the delightful freedom of a body positive pool party where everyone is welcome. Shrill finds its magic at these junctures, the ones that only a character like Annie would find herself in.
“It's not so much about teaching people something, it's just opening up storytelling. Creating opportunities for people to adjust the way that they think about the people around them,” Lindy says. “That is the idea, that typically Aidy would be typecast as the best friend. The show is about, what if she was the hero?”
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