Inside Peacock’s ‘The Miniature Wife’: Elizabeth Banks Stars in This Modern Sci-Fi Twist on The ‘Bewitched’ Era of 1960s Sitcoms

There was a time when television thrived on a simple idea: take the impossible and drop it into everyday life. Shows like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, The Munsters and other fantasy sitcoms of the 1960s built entire worlds around that concept—a witch in suburbia, a genie sharing a home, a family of monsters trying to fit in—and then grounded it all in relationships audiences could recognize.

Peacock’s The Miniature Wife taps into that same tradition, even if it wasn’t intentional at first. “I will say it wasn’t in the thought process per se,” admits co-creator Jennifer Ames, “but I think after the fact we talked about that. I loved Bewitched and that’s so great. And we even talked about Boris and Natasha [from Rocky and Bullwinkle]. We’ve definitely talked about Looney Tunes.”

What is ‘The Miniature Wife’ about?

The series stars Elizabeth Banks as Lindy Littlejohn and Matthew Macfadyen as her husband, Les — a couple whose long-term marriage has settled into a familiar, uneasy rhythm. Les is a scientist whose work ultimately leads to an accident that shrinks Lindy to six inches tall, turning their already strained relationship into something far more volatile. Forced to navigate their lives—and each other—under wildly altered circumstances set against a ticking clock, the two find that the imbalance between them is no longer just emotional, but physical. Here, co-creators Steve Turner and Jennifer Ames weigh in:

STEVE TURNER: “Our bigger influence in this particular show was really those comedies from the ’80s and ’90s, those really big sort of one-buy ideas like Big or Groundhog Day where there’s that one buy and then you go on the ride and you just enjoy the time on the story.”

JENNIFER AMES: “What jumped off the page to us was that this is The Incredible Shrinking Woman, it’s War of the Roses. Yes, Big, yes, Groundhog Day, but The Money Pit as well. Things like that, those were inspiring tonally for us as well.”

How ‘The Miniature Wife’ reinvents classic fantasy sitcoms

What connects all of those influences is the idea of a single, outsized premise reshaping everyday life—something Turner sees as part of a larger continuum.

STEVE TURNER: “I think the seeds of what you’re talking about are in those movies. They go from the ’60s—Bewitched gets you to the ’80s of Incredible Shrinking Woman and those kinds of things. I think there’s a line there.”

That “line” also extends into the show’s more exaggerated moments, where physical comedy plays a major role.

JENNIFER AMES: “When we talk about that in Chuck Jones and Rube Goldberg, there are a lot of set pieces and sequences that are coming up and things that Lindy is going to have to tackle. In the trailer, she’s going to find a fly in that dollhouse she’s living in and she’s going to have to battle that fly. And that to me feels very of that world. A Wile E. Coyote brought to life.”

At the same time, The Miniature Wife doesn’t operate on the reset-button logic of earlier sitcoms. The premise isn’t just a source of weekly complications—it’s something that continues to shape the story as it moves forward.

STEVE TURNER: “I think if those writers had eight episodes, they would’ve done those shows differently. So it’s almost like you fit the story to the box that you’re given. I don’t think it necessarily changes the nature of storytelling. I think you really just find the story that fits the box you’re in.”

What results is a series that feels both familiar and distinctly modern—one that carries echoes of classic television while embracing a storytelling style built for today.

And like those earlier shows, it begins with a simple question. What happens when something impossible enters an ordinary life? The answer, it turns out, isn’t all that simple.

How to watch ‘The Miniature Wife’

Ready to dive into the chaos of Lindy and Les’s shrinking marriage? All episodes of The Miniature Wife begin streaming on April 9, 2026, exclusively on Peacock. That means you can binge the entire season at your own pace—no waiting week to week.

To watch, simply log into Peacock on your smart TV, phone, tablet or laptop. The platform offers both free and premium tiers, though new original series like this one are typically available with a Peacock Premium subscription.