This article, “who is Beth,” contains spoilers regarding Hulu’s Life & Beth season 1.
Amy Schumer plays Beth. An almost forty-year-old woman is walking through life content until she wasn’t. She is the title character of the new comedy series on Hulu and drives the story in many ways. With the majority being written by the famous comedian, the scripts tell parallel narratives of Beth as an ambivalent adult and a perplexed teenager. It’s a pivotal role for the show and potentially for Schumer’s career.
So, that begs the question…
Who is Beth in season 1 of Life & Beth?
At age 39, Beth has a good job, decent pay, and benefits at a wine distributing company called Kerig. She also works with her boyfriend, Matt, who is the company’s star employee. He makes the big sales because he is a people person, while Beth is fine at her job but doesn’t love it.
Beth also has a mother, Jane, and has a complicated relationship. When Jane is killed in a car accident at the end of the series pilot, Beth realizes how short life is and takes that (and a tree branch falling in the street outside a karaoke bar singing Ace of Base) as a sign she may need to reevaluate her life. She even breaks up with her boyfriend, Matt.
What does Beth do?
Beth wants to shake things up, so she convinces her boss, Murray, to let Beth work on Long Island. This will allow her to reconnect with her roots by being with old family friends and choosing to live in her childhood home. There, she starts to build a relationship with a local vineyard. Beth then meets John (played by Michael Cera), a farmer with a refreshing way about him. He is unlike any guys she has ever met.
The experience makes her want to make better life decisions. For instance, her doctor tells her to “drink less and chew more.” Beth dominates flashbacks that she places together with alcohol coming back while she grieves. She thinks about being bullied in school, how her best friend, Liz, was the constant positive force in her life, and how her family broke apart.
So, Beth realizes she keeps trying to date the same type of guy. (She dates Travis right after Matt, who are vain carbon copies of each other). As her friendship progresses with John, she quits her job after cashing in on her biggest sale because she needs to find something she loves. Beth hasn’t had that since she had to leave volleyball after a boating accident caused by her father, Leonard.
After a fight with John, she works up issues in her head how her mother divorces her father, has an affair with her best friend’s father, and effectively ends her home life and her friendship with Liz. Beth had to finish high school living with mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
When she finally reconnects with Liz, she recommends that she let go of all the bad things her mother put her through. Now, Beth starts to have closure and restarts the grieving process. She was going to break up with John but realized how much she loved him. Finally, she throws another funeral reception so she can have one that her mother deserves.
The experience brings her closure, and she can move into her 40s content and in a better headspace.
You can watch this series with a subscription to Hulu.
