REVIEW: ‘Tiny Beautiful Things’ Takes A Raw Look At A Life

Clare Pierce (Kathryn Hahn) struggles with her life as she approaches 50. On the rocks with her husband and daughter and stuck in a job she doesn’t like, Clare is starting to fall back into self-destructive habits that have dogged her since her early adulthood. But when a friend asks her to take over an advice column they’ve started, she suddenly begins to see her past and present in a new light. The only question is what she’ll do with these new insights in Tiny Beautiful Things.

Throughout this series’s eight episodes, we see Clare make some horrible choices. These choices can make the character at times hard to root for. While the show never attempts to excuse Clare’s failings, it does do a wonderful job of peeling back the layers of the character slowly throughout its tale. This slow series of reveals allows the audience to form an opinion about Clare which is then repeatedly challenged as the show explains how she came to be where she is in life. This is a storytelling technique that I always love and Tiny Beautiful Things utilizes it splendidly.

To fully explore Clare’s story, the narrative does a bit of bouncing around to several periods of Clare’s life. We explore her teen years living with her mother and brother to her time in college where many of the most impactful moments in her life occur, and, of course, the present day. These moments are woven together in each episode to focus on a theme that ties each period of her life together, which is generally prompted by a letter that has been sent into her advice column. These intertwined experiences craft singular narratives that wonderfully explore a key concept within each episode, while also building out the larger narrative of the series. My only complaint about this approach is the lack of clarity in when things happen. While this never ruins any given episode, there are times when I was left a bit confused as to when a past event had occurred relative to a previous moment that had been explored in an earlier episode.

While the past in Tiny Beautiful Things is incredibly important to the show, it is the future that takes center stage. Hahn’s portrayal of Clare as she struggles, succeeds, and frequently self-sabotages in the present day is excellent. As the character moves through the many struggles the show presents her with, Hahn is always able to capture just how complicated the character is. Even in her worst moments, Hahn is able to draw out a level of sympathy from the role that I was frequently surprised with.

The other stand-out performance that enhances Tiny Beautiful Things‘ tale is Tanzyn Crawford‘s portrayal of Clare’s daughter Rae. In Rae, we see many of the makings of her mother as she seems to also be headed down a less-than-stellar trajectory in life. Poor relationship choices combined with substance misuse color early impressions of the teen. As Clare careens from misstep to misstep, Rae is there to see it all, as well as see how her mom is growing. We see Rae learning from her mother’s shortcomings and strengths in a way that is truly moving.

When all is said and done, Tiny Beautiful Things delivers a raw, unflinching look at a life that has had more than its share of ups and downs. While many of  Clare’s struggles are her own fault, the show lays out her life with enough nuance and skill that the audience comes to understand her, as well as appreciate how hard she has tried and why she has often continued to fail.

Tiny Beautiful Things will begin streaming on April 7th on Hulu.