Gutsy ★★★
Apple TV+

Based on Chelsea and Hillary Clinton’s 2019 book The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience, this eight-part docuseries follows the former First Lady and her daughter (who are both executive producers), travelling around the US to interview “inspirational women”.

Their subjects range from activists, community leaders, sportswomen and environmentalists to, um, Kim Kardashian. In each episode, the pair meets women who are “bold and brave”, and there are some fascinating subjects, such as Shannon Foley Martinez, a former neo-Nazi who now helps other women extricate themselves from far-right movements, primatologist Jane Goodall and feminist leader Gloria Steinem.

But then there’s the segment in which the duo takes a tango lesson with actors Goldie Hawn and her daughter, Kate Hudson, while they discuss mother-daughter relationships and exchange mawkish platitudes about how being a “mom” is “gutsy”.

Oddly, the word “feminist” doesn’t get a look-in at all throughout the series, but “gutsy” is a constant.

Then they talk to Kardashian about her work around criminal justice reform, and helping people who have been wrongly convicted, and nod sagely in cutaway shots. Now training to be a lawyer, Kardashian’s appearance is (some might say mercifully) brief and hard to take seriously when she relates a story about how she tried to stop the 2020 execution of convicted killer Brandon Bernard by tweeting her millions of followers, but had to rush off to a launch of her shapewear brand.

But if you’ve made it through the first episode, which has the Clintons inexplicably travel to Paris, where they attend a clown school to “take a voyage into their authenticity, naivete and vulnerabilities” (while wearing red noses), you’ll be girded for scenes such as the en plein air painting session with rapper Megan Thee Stallion, who discusses how she deals with trolls (Megan does, at least, have some interesting things to say).

That clown school opening episode is saved by their sit-down with comedians including Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes who talk about the perils of being on stage as a woman, and the issues of power and prejudice they face, unlike their male counterparts.