With several excellent subplots that weave throughout the episodes, Mrs. Fletcher unfolds a touching, funny, sometimes deeply sad, and sometimes outrageously horny story of human sexuality.

There’s a smart symmetry to “Mrs. Fletcher,” the superb new HBO limited series. ... The structure of the series (whose all-women directing roster features Nicole Holofcener, Liesl Tommy, Carrie Brownstein, and Gillian Robespierre) has been mapped out beautifully. ... When Eve and Brendan finally come back together late in the series, whose episodes are perfectly gauged at a half-hour each, it’s a precise and satisfying collision.

Mrs. Fletcher takes a concept that sounds like a snooze and turns it into an unexpectedly absorbing limited series. Give much of the credit to "The Leftovers" producer-writer Tom Perrotta -- adapting his book -- and star Kathryn Hahn, who throws her all into a role distinguished by its lack of clear definition.

A comfortable, pleasing character study, one with points to make about the ways the sexual revolution has failed men and women both.

Allowing Hahn to seduce you is easy enough to do, and compensates for much of “Mrs. Fletcher” that is mostly just … fair. The puzzling part is that it ends with possibility for future episodes and storylines, and the sensation that if it doesn’t return to expand upon those unresolved developments, we’ll be fine going on to the next.

Is it so different from “Better Things,” or “This Way Up,” or “Shrill”? Or “I Love Dick,” which Hahn also starred in? Only in that it’s not as good as those shows. It is better than “Divorce,” “Casual” and “Togetherness,” for what it’s worth.

It's hard not to imagine the whole thing working better if it could perhaps last longer and develop its characters more naturally. ... Mrs. Fletcher feels both unfinished and rushed — the seven half-hour episodes failing to cement a story rather than just the feeling of a story.