Stream on Netflix
Based on 2 seasons, 26 episodes · through April 27, 2023
Firefly Lane is a drama series about two best friends, Kate and Tully, who share a deep bond over thirty years. The story follows their lives from high school in the 1970s through their adult careers and family challenges. The show places strong girl power and female independence at the front of the story. It features very clear themes about personal identity, including a major storyline about a closeted gay character struggling with family expectations, a young girl coming out as queer, and struggles with sexual harassment in the workplace.
Why 84%? See the score breakdownBreakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Firefly Lane.
Woke representation / casting
The show features a very diverse supporting cast and places a heavy focus on LGBTQ+ representation. It changes Kate’s brother Sean into a prominent gay character with detailed relationship storylines across three decades. Kate’s daughter Marah also gets a visible queer coming-out storyline. These prominent gay and lesbian storylines add significant woke weight to the casting and representation.
55%
Woke political dialogue
The dialogue regularly addresses feminist issues, female career struggles, and glass ceilings in the news industry. There are explicit discussions about gender roles in the 1970s and 1980s. The show also includes conversations about lesbian musicians and coming out, framing these historical eras with modern political sensibilities.
50%
Identity-driven story themes
The core narrative heavily explores female empowerment, the division of motherhood versus career, and corporate sexism. It also places a high emphasis on queer identity struggles. This includes Sean's fear of the AIDS crisis, his forced straight marriage, and Marah's path to accepting her sexuality.
65%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The series critiques traditional family expectations and the social pressure on women to prioritize domestic life. It portrays the late 20th-century media industry as highly toxic and sexist. It also critiques conservative family dynamics of the past through Sean’s struggle with parents who refuse to accept his sexuality.
45%
Woke character or canon changes
The show makes major identity-driven changes to the source material. In the book, Kate's brother Sean is a minor straight character, but the show makes him a central gay character. Marah is also changed to be queer. Additionally, the book's twin sons are entirely cut, and a brand-new corporate sexual harassment plot is added for Tully.
70%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
There was some negative feedback from fans of the novel who felt the changes were unnecessary and done solely to check modern progressive boxes. Viewers complained on forums like Reddit about the addition of multiple queer storylines that were not in the original book. However, this backlash remained small and did not spark a major public controversy.
25%
Creator track record context
The creators have a moderate history of focusing on feminist and representation-driven content. Showrunner Maggie Friedman and writer Kristin Hannah focus heavily on female agency, and producer Ilene Rosenzweig has worked on highly political, diverse dramas, leading to a moderate overall score.
37%
Production
