In the Hulu series "Life & Beth," created and partly written and directed by Amy Schumer, Schumer plays Beth, a sales representative for a midlevel wine distributor in New York City that even her boss (Murray Hill) describes as mediocre. Though she is good at her job, and up for a promotion, her claim of leading a great life — "I am probably the most happy, satisfied person in this entire mall," she tells her lovingly critical mother, Jane (Laura Benanti), on an uncomfortable shopping trip — is clearly a case of the lady protesting too much. There is a weight on Beth; the very air seems to slow her down. When her mother dies suddenly, her lack of tears is seen by those around her as symptomatic of a disordered personality. (The show is quite acute on the numbness that can accompany the loss of a parent.)
With her relationship with longtime boyfriend and co-worker Matt (Kevin Kane) coughing and sputtering and a 40th birthday looming, she abandons Manhattan for the Long Island hamlet where she grew up, there to face old wounds and court new possibilities. Extended flashbacks portray Beth's middle-school years, an anthology of challenges and humiliations at home, school and in basement rec rooms — though not without moments of hope, elation and best friendship. In the present tense, Beth visits a local winery to drum up business (Jon Glaser plays its uncooperative, irritated, irritating owner) and, at the connected organic farm, meets John (Michael Cera), the farmer.
"Life & Beth" has the curious quality of being at once a little awkward and and exactly what it wants to be. Its parts don't all tonally mesh — it is an amalgam of romantic comedy, straight drama, bits and sketches and adapted stand-up, with the odd line that seems to come more from Schumer than her character — and at times it feels constructed to deliver a point, a project as much as a story. But it is also clearly sincere and personal, salted (like Schumer's script for "Trainwreck") with autobiographical details. Like Beth, Schumer, who grew up on Long Island, experienced a turn in family fortunes when their high-end baby furniture business went under; her father — Michael Rapaport plays Beth's — was an alcoholic; her parents divorced. (Whether her mother made a habit of short-term relationships with married men, I don't know, but it's Jane's defining feature.)
