The New Look Review

When you spend the better part of a series’ premiere episode trying to figure out just how big of an age gap exists between the actor playing the older brother of another character and his sister (for reference, the real-life age gap between the sibling was 12 year – in the series, it’s a whopping 28 very obvious years between our actors), it’s a sign that the show might not be your cup of tea – and, on the whole, might not be worth your’s or anyone else’s time. Which is a shame, since this is a series with some very interesting (and rarely talked about in common discourse) subject matter with a heck of a cast to boot. It’s just so poorly constructed narratively that the complex, thorny, and interesting story being told gets lost amongst time jumps, strangely flat writing, and, yes, some strange casting that pulls one out of the story pretty quickly.

The New Look has an interesting starting point: Roughly a decade after the end of World War II, Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn, doing great work, even if he seems far too old in flashbacks) is questioned by a design student about his actions during the Nazi occupation of Paris. You see, Dior continued to work, designing luxurious gowns for the wives and girlfriends of the occupiers. The student contrasts this to Coco Chanel (Juliet Binoche, with a strong performance), who has just returned from abroad and, in the view of the student and the general public, didn’t work for the Nazis during that period. What the student – and perhaps the audience, if one hasn’t taken a peak at Chanel’s Wikipedia of late – doesn’t realize is that Chanel’s actions during the Nazi occupation were not what many believed them to be. While we can’t know the complete breadth of her collaboration with the Nazis, it’s clear from records of the time that Chanel was more than happy to pass secrets and collude with the Nazis.

Dior, on the other hand, had a very different experience during the occupation, continuing to design, yes, but also dealing with his younger sister, Catherine (Maisie Williams, fine in the role, although she reads as much younger than her real-life counterpart, which in turn makes Mendelsohn read far too old), and her work in the French Resistance. Once Catherine is captured by the Nazis, Christian is beside himself with worry and willing to throw everything away to save her life.

It’s a compelling story to tell – two giants of the fashion industry (even today, years after their deaths), on opposing sides during war and in the “present day.” Dior, knowing that Chanel was at least friendly with the Nazis in Paris – in an early scene, he spots her at a Nazi soiree that he is called to in order to fix a dress – has to decide just how much he should reveal about his industry rival. And Chanel, who colluded with the Nazis during a time when so many were suffering (her reasoning is particularly odious when presented to us), must walk the delicate tightrope of trying to relaunch her personal brand while ensuring that those who know of her past don’t let it get out. And when the story is broken down to those simple elements, it’s intriguing. It’s that the narrative adds in more and more layers – and spend too long in the past and not enough time in the present – that drags the entire enterprise down with it.

First, the writing doesn’t seem completely sure just how much of a villain it wants Chanel to be. Yes, it makes it clear that she colluded with the Nazis. It also makes it clear that the thing promised to her – full control of her company and her Jewish former partners removed – was very much wanted by Chanel in exchange for her espionage work. But she’s never painted as a complete villain. She wavers at times in her commitment to her work. She is willing to turn a blind eye to the horrors around her so long as she benefits, but she also doesn’t really see said horrors up close and personal. And she is clearly terrified about what might happen to her if she were to refuse the “requests” being made of her by the Nazis. One minute, she’s glibly telling a friend that said friend getting taken under armed guard against her will and brought to Chanel’s apartment was a misunderstanding, and the next she’s tearfully trying to get out of going on a mission because she fears what might happen if she fails. There’s a lack of consistency with her character that confuses. Binoche is entrancing on screen – you absolutely get the feeling that she’s acting her ass off throughout – but the writing isn’t helping her all that much.

And then there’s the Dior side of things, which offers the more straight-forward World War II drama of the narrative. Dior, a closeted gay man at a time and place where such a thing was a death sentence, is struggling on all fronts. While his designs continue to be bought and respected, he absolutely chafes at having to design for Nazis. And then there’s Catherine, who is putting herself in danger every day – and, but extension, him as well. It’s a hell of a lot for anyone to deal with, and Mendelsohn’s hang dog face makes it clear that Dior is barely holding it together from one day to the next. It’s an interesting performance, and Mendelsohn makes it clear that the scars of that period of Dior’s life never left him and eat at him even years later. You can’t help but wish we got more time just sitting with him in the present, watching him work through that trauma and its impact on his designs. When the story is juxtaposing Dior and Chanel during the war, it works fairly well. It’s when it tries to move beyond the confines of their stories that things start crumbling and there isn’t enough narrative push to really make the story work on a wider scale.

It does have something going for it, though, and that’s that the series has opted to have everyone adopt a French or German accent – to varying degrees of success. It feels a bit shocking after so many stories set in France have opted to have everyone sound like they are in the middle of the English countryside – although Mendelsohn’s accent is surprisingly weak (and Binoche, who is French, sets the gold standard). But even that interesting quirk isn’t enough to make The New Look worth your time.

The New Look premieres on February 14 on AppleTV+. All ten episodes were provided for review.