The cast of Fleishman is in Trouble, FX‘s upcoming adaptation of the Taffy Brodesser-Akner‘s bestselling debut novel, is starting to look pretty tasty indeed.

Emmy winner Claire Danes has just been added to the ensemble, per a Deadline exclusive, opposite The Social Network star Jesse Eisenberg — that is, if the guy even requires an introduction — and Lizzy Caplan, best known for playing Virginia E. Johnson across four seasons of the Showtime series Masters of Sex. Deadline describes Danes’ character, Rachel, as “a very successful and ambitious talent agent put-together exterior conceals past trauma”. The show itself centers on the fallout of Rachel and Eisenberg‘s Toby Fleishman’s marriage collapsing, with the latter finding himself more popular with women than he was in his younger years.

“While she initially enjoys her freedom after leaving Toby,” Deadline expands, “Rachel ultimately struggles with her new identity”. Caplan will play the female lead, Libby, the show’s narrator and Toby’s friend.

The Guardian posted a glowing review of the novel when it first published in 2019, anointing it a wake-up call for the “Great American Novel”:

“What Brodesser-Akner has achieved here, by Trojan-horsing herself into Toby’s point of view, is to quietly reveal the souls of the women in the story. But more than that, to show that all stories – about marriage, love, loss, hope and disappointment – really are universal. Libby believes that “all humans are essentially the same, but only some of us, the men, were truly allowed to be that without apology”. This is an honest, powerful, human story with no apologies. And it will do the “American Novel” a power of good.”

Brodesser-Akner is writer of the limited series, as well as serving as executive producer. She’s joined by Sarah Timberman, Carl Beverly, Susannah Grant, Jonathan Dayton, and Valerie Faris, the latter of whom will also direct the “first block of the series,” Deadline reports. The show will stream on Hulu.

Here’s the synopsis for Fleishman is in Trouble:

“Created by Brodesser-Akner, the story is centered on recently separated forty-something Toby Fleishman (Eisenberg) who dives into the brave new world of app-based dating with the kind of success he never had dating in his youth, before he got married at the tail-end of medical school. But just at the start of his first summer of sexual freedom, his ex-wife, Rachel (Danes), disappears, leaving him with the kids and no hint of where she is or whether she plans to return. As he balances parenting, the return of old friends, a promotion at the hospital that is a long time coming, and all the eligible women that Manhattan has to offer, he realizes that he’ll never be able to figure out what happened to Rachel until he can take a more honest look at what happened to their marriage in the first place.”

via Collider