Based on the best-selling novel by Sarai Walker, AMC’s new television series Dietland is a darkly comedic story that explores a multitude of issues faced by women today.
Dietland is a wickedly funny and extraordinarily timed satire about Plum Kettle, a ghostwriter for the editor of one of New York’s hottest fashion magazines. Struggling with self-image and fed up with how she’s treated by her boss and society, Plum sets out on a wildly complicated road to self-awakening. At the same time, everyone is buzzing over news reports about men, accused of sexual abuse and assault, who are disappearing and meeting untimely, violent deaths.
Plum also finds herself in the middle of two factions – one sisterhood who may be responsible for the attacks on male harassers, and the other which preaches female empowerment. She straddles these two groups, trying to make sense of the changing world and her part in it.
Equal parts revenge fantasy and heartfelt journey to self-acceptance, Dietland, which is based on Sarai Walker’s 2015 best-selling critically acclaimed novel of the same name, is a darkly comedic story that explores a multitude of issues faced by women today – including patriarchy, misogyny, rape culture, and unrealistic beauty standards.
CHARACTERS
- Plum Kettle: Plum lives in Brooklyn and works for Daisy Chain, ghostwriting the “Dear Kitty” advice column for the fashion magazine’s self-involved editor. She’s waged a lifelong battle with her weight, and while saving money for weight loss surgery, a mysterious woman enters her lonely life. Her world is upturned by two rival factions – caught between old ideas and radical new extremes, Plum must decide for herself what it means to be a revolutionary as the “war of the sexes” becomes literal.
- Kitty Montgomery: Kitty is a glamorous, wildly ambitious senior executive at Austen Media where she oversees many magazines including Daisy Chain, which she was instrumental in launching and building and therefore holds a special place in her heart. Passive-aggressive, self-involved, and impassioned in the most superficial way possible, Kitty feels a unique connection with her readers, whom she affectionately calls “my girls” and is convinced she’s really helping them.Her world is thrown into complete chaos when an unknown organization starts targeting people in her orbit. Sucked into a terrifying news cycle, Kitty can no longer rely on her old-school media power and must instead play a whole new game of master manipulation where rules no longer apply.
- Verena Baptist: The author of the anti-dieting screed Dietland, Verena is a body-positive therapist who notoriously exposed the secrets of her family’s weight-loss program as a pyramid scheme – she’s a woman on a mission. Verena possesses a beauty that is natural yet imposing; with a commanding presence, she’s made it her life’s work “to be assertive and bold in fighting all forms of misogyny and gender inequality.” Verena runs Calliope House, a collective of women who have been marginalized, and reaches out to Plum, eager to provide her with a new way of looking at her life. Her peaceful feminist principles are thrown into doubt when an underground group of vigilantes begins taking matters into their own hands and shaking up the patriarchy.
- Julia: Crisp in appearance and a fast talker, Julia is the manager at “the beauty closet,” an underground warehouse filled with every kind of beauty product imaginable. She is welcoming and warm, but she’s not all she appears to be and is capable of being sternly assertive and controlling. Julia is on a mission to deprogram the women of the world on what it means to be beautiful, and wants Plum to be on her team by providing her with the contact information for all of “Kitty’s Girls.”
- Dominic O’Shea: Handsome and confident, Dominic is a rough-around-the-edges NYPD detective who’s hired by Kitty to investigate a hack at Daisy Chain. While at the magazine’s offices, he easily strikes up a conversation with Plum. Charming in a very approachable way, he seems genuinely interested in Plum, who is slightly wary of his motives.
Starring Joy Nash (Twin Peaks), Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), Robin Weigert (Big Little Lies), Tamara Tunie (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Erin Darke (Good Girls Revolt), Adam Rothenberg (Ripper Street), Tramell Tillman, Rowena King (Of Kings and Prophets), Will Seefried (The Deuce), and Ricardo Davila (Instinct).
Dietland premieres June 4th 9/8c on AMC with a double episode.
If you would like to check out the book, you can learn more about it on Goodreads or purchase it from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
