Every year Amazon conducts its own spin on pilot season. The emerging original content creator releases its potential new shows for members to watch and review. Based in part on audience reaction, Amazon green lights its new shows. Z: The Beginning of Everything is one of these success stories. After a well-received pilot in 2015, Z came to Amazon in full force this past January with a ten episode first season about the life of Zelda Sayre and her romance with and subsequent marriage to voice of a generation, The Great Gatsby author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Starring Christina Ricci as the rebellious southern belle, the ten 30 minute episodes fly by quicker than a juicy beach read.
Z: The Beginning of Everything is a gin soaked, romantic treat. More roaring 20s melodrama than stuffy period piece, it benefits greatly from Ricci’s charm playing Zelda with a fiery twinkle in her eye that suggests there’s much more to her than just breaking the rules. And indeed there is. David Hoflin (F. Scott Fitzgerald) has to fight to go toe to toe with Ricci who is equal parts buzzing life of the party and wounded, insecure young woman. Their relationship is fizzy and electric depicting the volatility that comes with two head strong yet co-dependent trailblazers falling madly in love. It’s clear how much Ricci loves Zelda from her performance.
Season 1 covers their meeting and marriage, Scott’s literary success and Zelda’s it girl rise to fame as well as their struggles to communicate and balance their non-stop party lifestyle with managing to follow up their successes. It begins to explore Zelda’s own talents as a writer and the ways in which that affects her relationship with Scott – an extremely fascinating and frustrating dynamic. It’s impossible not to be sucked into this boozy, sequined world; not to fall in love with the way everything from champagne to writing is a passionate endeavor. This first installment leaves them in a precarious spot, back where they started in many ways but with new challenges and struggles awaiting them.
Z: The Beginning of Everything, as the title would suggest, is just the beginning of Zelda’s story and her life with Scott. There’s so much left to be explored from Scott’s follow-up to This Side of Paradise and the strange commercial disappointment of his later classic, The Great Gatsby, to Zelda’s struggles with mental health and the birth of their daughter. There are no doubt many twists and turns for Zelda’s story to take, we can only hope Amazon will continue the tale. Season 1 in its entirety is available to Amazon Prime members now.
