Based on the novel by Tom Perotta, the HBO series Mrs. Fletcher explores the mid-life sexual awakening of divorcée empty-nester Eve Fletcher after her son, Brendan (Jackson White), goes to college. Starring Kathryn Hahn as Eve, the series explores multiple facets of identity but primarily looks at Eve’s reconnection with her sexuality now that she is living alone again.
As her friends encourage her to explore herself, Eve begins to fantasize heavily thanks to the seedy world of online pornography, and as a result, there are plenty of awkward moments to follow. Below are the ten cringiest moments from season one of Mrs. Fletcher.
Eve’s Laptop Speaker
Early in the series, one of Eve’s best friends sets her up on a blind date. When he calls Eve to talk, she opens her laptop to Google him, only for the pornography she’d been watching to resume playing at full volume.
Flustered, she can’t quickly find the mute button or close the lid, the inappropriate background noise playing while her date chats with her innocently about their children. It’s a hilarious moment, but one that’s relatable, too, as almost everyone has had some public embarrassment with a device before.
Roy Watching Porn
While Eve may lead a more sultry life at home, by day she has one of the most innocent jobs possible–managing a senior citizen’s center. In the first episode, one of the residents, Roy Rafferty (Bill Raymond), blends his private and personal life by watching pornography on his tablet–with the sound at full volume.
His fellow residents are disgusted and call Eve over to talk to him. Sadly, Eve recognizes this lack of social boundary as a sign that his dementia has progressed and has to ask him to leave.
Eve Giving Brendan “The Talk”
When Eve is getting ready to take Brendan to college, her son isn’t much help with packing his bedroom or loading the car. As she’s packing the last of his things in the minivan, Brendan’s ex-girlfriend stops by, so Eve sends her in to tell Brendan it’s time to go.
When Eve comes in to get him a few minutes later, she overhears her son saying some very lewd things, prompting her to give him a very awkward talk about respecting women on their way to move into the dorms.
Brendan In The Caf
Brendan occupies half of the cringey moments on this list because as evidenced in this scene, he lacks total self-awareness. As Julian (Owen Teague) rightly predicts in the pilot, while Brendan was a cool jock in high school, his personality doesn’t fit in at college. Like many freshmen, Brendan has a hard time fitting in.
One day, he lucks out and finds people he formerly competed against in lacrosse, hoping he can bro it up again, but is disturbed to find they are having an intense discussion about how to solve climate change. Brendan tries to joke about a tsunami meme, but these serious athletes aren’t having it.
Barry Learning Margo Is Trans
Eve’s writing teacher Margo (Jen Richards) is trans, but her gender identity isn’t discussed until the third episode when the class goes to a bar owned by one of the students, an older, gruff guy named Barry (Josh Pais).
As Margo shares that her relationship with her father was rocky for a while when she came out, Barry awkwardly realizes she’s referring to coming out as trans and asks inappropriate questions about her body. It is cringey, but Margo handles it with grace, and Barry’s apology makes it a moment everyone can relate to.
Brendan At The Support Group
Brendan meets Chloe (Jasmine Cephas Jones) at a support group for students with family members who have autism. While Brendan certainly could use the support and education, he isn’t equipped for what all it entails going in, as evidenced when he references his younger half-brother, Jonathan, with the “r-word.”
Brendan is immediately called out by other members of the group. Though he doesn’t mean anything malicious by it, he uses the slur three more times to apologize, making everyone, including the audience, cringe.
When Eve Kisses Amanda
Eve has a lot of repressed desires, but the first time she acts on one of her desires is decidedly cringeworthy.
After Roy’s funeral, Eve and her coworker Amanda (Katie Kershaw), go to Amanda’s house for a drink and end up getting loose in the hot tub. Eve tells Amanda about her fantasies, and when she finally leaves for the night, sloppily kisses Amanda. Eve is embarrassed, but Amanda sweetly shrugs it off and tells her not to be. Poor Eve is so humiliated, though, that she calls in sick the next day.
Eve’s One Night Stand
When Eve attends Margo’s book party in Brooklyn, she meets a guy she has an immediate connection with and has the opportunity to act out some of her fantasies in real life.
As they awkwardly make out in the bathroom, Eve takes control and asks to go to his place. But things soon turn from sultry to sad when he takes over and proves to be a pretty pathetic partner. It’s an unsatisfying coupling, but Eve still walks away happy from the raw, humanity of the experience.
Brendan Walks In On Eve
The final moments of the series culminate in the cringiest moment by far when the tension between Julian and Eve, and Eve and Amanda boils over into a full-blown threesome. Spurred by Amanda, it’s a lovely scene and one that finds the audience celebrating the fact that Eve is finally getting her due. But it is soon spoiled when a homesick Brendan, failing his classes and (rightfully) rejected by Chloe unexpectedly comes home.
Mirroring the moments of the pilot, Brendan overhears the post-coital giggles from his mom’s bedroom and opens the door, shocked by what he discovers. The series ends with a stricken Brendan waiting on the front porch as Julian and Amanda leave, and Eve, hastily dressed in a bathrobe, eventually joins him, neither of them saying a word.
Brendan Choking Chloe
Perhaps the worst offense of the series, and the only one that goes beyond cringey into outright triggering territory, things take a turn for the worse as Brendan reenacts the misogynist behavior he’s undoubtedly learned from pornography on a girl he genuinely cares about. This results in him unintentionally choking Chloe at the whims of his desires.
Chloe ends up punching him to get away and yells at him to leave. It’s another moment when Brendan hasn’t acted with intention but has still hurt someone around him due to his thoughtlessness and narcissism.
