Netflix classifies its new series
Firefly Lane in which Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke play lifelong friends as a premium soap. Neither term is quite right. Premium is not usually a word associated with cheesy dissolve cuts and distractingly bad wigs. And soap well, any
true soap opera is confident enough in its soapiness that it doesn t need to hide behind labels like premium. Instead, think of
Firefly Lane (premiering Wednesday) as an overlong PG-13 Hallmark movie boosted (a bit) by a pair of premium actresses.
Based on Kristin Hannah s 2008 novel,
Firefly Lane follows Tallulah Tully Hart (Heigl) and Kate Mularkey (Chalke) over 30 years of friendship and falling outs. We first meet the girls as polar-opposite teens in the Seattle suburbs, when the cool and beautiful Tully (Ali Skovbye) moves on to the titular street right next to bookish and awkward Kate (Roan Curtis). Both are lost in their own ways. Tully s mom (Beau Garrett) is a spaced-out alcoholic