Dickinson – Season 3 Review

Budding writer Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld) uses her outsider’s perspective to explore the constraints of society, gender, and family in the 19th century.

Have you ever watched a show that you initially loved but gradually began to fall off the train as the series progressed? Perhaps the show loses its style and gets a bit tedious later on. Or maybe the storylines simply don’t interest you anymore. That’s exactly how I felt about Alena Smith‘s Dickinson during season two. The first outing was a riveting, hilarious, and incredibly emotional roller-coaster ride that proved to be one of the best television seasons in years.

Season two on the other hand? Not so much. Although it was definitely a lot of fun to see Emily Dickinson and her close-knit group of friends and family back in action, goofing around, the show lost its touch severely – mainly because the story was non-existent. The first season had the titular poet go through a lot of ups and downs in life, and it was consistently humorous to see her joke around about the situations she was finding herself in constantly.

And it was extremely emotional to see love interests get fatally sick and watch terrible things happen around Emily. It was truly powerful stuff. Season two mainly just focuses on Emily’s great big desire to finally become a published poet, because up until that season, she kept all of her writing work to herself and her family and friends. While it was interesting to see where the storyline would go, it dragged on for far too long. Did we seriously need ten whole episodes of seeing Emily want to become published only for it to quite literally never happen?

The whole season was just a giant disappointment, and I dislike it the more I think about it. That’s why I’m glad to report that Dickinson‘s third and final season is good. It’s not great but it’s certainly not bad, either. Is this an underwhelming wrap-up? Yes. The series finale “This was a Poet” is massively disappointing and left me wanting so much more, but there are still plenty of excellent things to love throughout this season.

“Hope is the thing with feathers”, “It feels a shame to be Alive”, and “The Soul has Bandaged moments” – the first three episodes of the season – are legitimately terrific. They were so great, in fact, that I was starting to feel like it would be the best season yet, only for it to go downhill afterward. It’s a blast to watch Hailee Steinfeld act her heart out as the titular poet. It’s genuinely hard to find actresses that commit to their roles quite like Steinfeld does. You can tell just by looking at her that she clearly loves portraying Emily Dickinson, and she injects such a sense of liveliness to the role to the point where it’s impossible to picture somebody else in her shoes.

And really, the same thing can be said about the rest of the entire cast. Ella Hunt has been reduced to more of a side character here, sadly, but as Sue Gilbert, she once again shines bright. Jane Krakowski and Toby Huss are a dynamic duo as Mrs. and Mr. Dickinson, and the outstandingly hilarious Anna Baryshnikov is once again dazzling in season three. Watching them all interact with each other and get into a bunch of shenanigans is truly a delight – while it lasts.

There are only so many times seeing these people be goofy can entertain me, and after a while, it did get quite old. Season three of Dickinson tends to follow the tried-and-true slice of life formula – for worse, and for better. It’s a lot of fun to see what a “normal” day in Emily Dickinson’s life looks like but at the same time, I just couldn’t help but wish something of excitement happened every once in a while. It never did. There are no moments like the surprise death or the shocking marriage in season one here. It’s predictable and formulaic but it’s still enjoyable for the most part.

Dickinson season three finds the show slowly finding itself again with its sense of humor and style but, sadly, there isn’t enough substance here to call it truly great.