It's time to hand out the award for 2017's most graphically-named, punny new TV show and the winner is…Amazon’s I Love Dick. The double entendre series follows a woman named Chris Kraus (the esteemable Kathryn Hahn) who becomes absolutely obsessed with her husband Sylvère Lotringer’s colleague Dick (Kevin Bacon). Chris deals with her newfound infatuation by writing letters about the object of her ardent affection.
All of that is a little difficult to parse from the show’s season 1 trailer, which mostly focuses on Chris’s mounting obsession, the eccentric setting of Marfa, Texas, and Kevin Bacon’s inescapable masculinity. Thankfully, I Love Dick was a 1997 book before it was a streaming series, so it’s possible to understand the dramedy ahead of its May 12 premiere. And boy, what a story it is.
Although the two versions of I Love Dick have their differences — the epistolary novel-slash-memoir has a tendency to hop around the country, unlike the Marfa-set series — at their heart they’re pretty similar. So scroll through the gallery to find out everything you need to know about Dick before it premieres. You’re going to be obsessed.
Chris And Sylvère Have A Huge Age Difference
In I Love Dick the book, Chris is a mid-to-late thirties filmmaker and her husband Sylvère is a late-fifties academic and writer. This difference holds up in the series, as Hahn is 43 and Dunne is 61. In both versions, the couple’s age separation creates a huge chasm in the relationship, despite the fact they’re best friends.
One big problem between the couple is…
Photo: Courtesy of Amazon.
Chis And Sylvère Are In A Sexless Marriage
After over 10 years together, the Kraus-Lotringers aren’t having any sex. In fact, Chris admits in the novel she was "sober and asexual" for a full two years. Instead of connecting physically, the pair share everything they’re feeling and thinking, even if it’s hurtful.
That’s why Chris admits to her husband she’s attracted to his colleague Dick after meeting him. While that may seem like a stone’s throw away from infidelity — or at least insensitive — to many, Chris divulges her desires to her husband so she can feel intimate with him.
Photo: Courtesy of Amazon.
Dick Brings The "Spirit Of Sex" Back Into The Kraus-Lotringer Marriage, Causing Obsession
Chris and her husband attend dinner at Sylvère’s colleague's home and are changed forever. Of course, that colleague is Dick. The academic cowboy’s masculinity overtakes both of them in different ways. Chris is instantly in love and aroused for the first time in seven years, while Sylvère is turned on by the fact his wife is going through a sexual awakening.
From there, the pair immediately began writing letters upon letters to Dick, about everything from their marriage and sex to artists and academics. Chris and Sylvère also begin sleeping together again. Because of all this psycho-sexual drama, the couple calls Dick multiple times and wants to make a film about Dick reading their increasingly obsessed letters, among other schemes to involve him in their lives.
Photo: Courtesy of Amazon.
Dick Doesn’t Really Get A Say In Any Of This
Chris and Sylvère have involved Dick in a matter of obsession he never really asked to be a part of. "I’ve projected a total fantasy onto an unsuspecting person and then actually asked him to respond!" book Chris laments while waiting for a call from Dick, a week after first meeting him. By then, there are nearly 100 pages of letters.
A lot of the book involves Chris or Sylvère waiting for Dick to phone them back or write a return letter. I Love Dick the series doesn’t seem to let that happen, since it’s a shame to let Kevin Bacon go to waste.
Photo: Courtesy of Amazon.
Sylvère Becomes Conflicted About Dick’s Place In His Marriage
Although Sylvère encourages Chris’s attraction to Dick, he eventually realises the obsession probably isn’t very good for his own ego. Sylvère starts thinking the Kraus-Lotringers’ stacks of letters aren’t actually about Dick and his wife’s love for another man, but instead come from their need to connect.
Chris doesn’t agree, knowing she really does love Dick.
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