When
Big Little Lies debuted on HBO in 2017, it was proof positive – if
more was needed – that television drama had surpassed film as the go-to
destination for Hollywood’s creative community. Created by longtime
television icon David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice), based on
a hit novel by Liane Moriarty (who also contributed to the writing of the
series) and directed by respected filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas
Buyers Club, Wild), the series signed up the kind of deep and impressive
cast that most movies could only dream of.
First off, the show signed
genuine A-list movie stars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman for their
first TV series work (though both had done miniseries early in their
career). It surrounded them with impressive names like Shailene Woodley,
Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz, Alexander Skarsgård, Adam Scott and Jeffrey
Nordling.
The story is a soapy
mystery about five very dysfunctional mothers of first graders who are
somehow involved in a mysterious death in a coastal California town.
(Surprisingly for a high-profile show like this, Big Little Lies was
filmed in Canada rather than California).
These mothers were
Madeline (Witherspoon), the busybody stay at home mom whose current marriage
is being negatively affected by her obsession with her ex.
There is Celeste (Kidman),
the beautiful former lawyer turned stay at home mom whose seemingly
storybook perfect marriage is being rocked by violence and abuse.
Renata (Dern) is the
super-controlling mom and CEO who dotes over her young daughter, to the
point that she messes up her relationships with other adults.
Jane (Woodley) was the
youngest of the group, an outsider who dotes over her son Ziggy (Ian
Armitage of Young Sheldon), even though he is the result of a
long-ago rape. That trauma has made her extremely distrustful of other
people, particularly men.
Bonnie (Kravitz) is also
younger, and the only black person in the group (as well as one of few in
the very homogenized community), the sunny and level-headed new-age second
wife of Madeline’s ex.
They are drawn
inextricably together in the first day of classes, when Jane’s son is
unfairly accused to trying to choke Renata’s daughter on the schoolyard.
Battle lines are drawn and the whole town joins into a skirmish about this
schoolyard incident, eventually snowballing into an increasingly dangerous
situation that leads to death.
They all live in glass
houses – literally. Most of the homes on display are massive banks of huge,
curtainless windows, the better to see the lives within.
It was a smart and
dramatic and mostly realistic look at modern America – though one of the
major final twists feels like a bit of a cheat, a bit too convenient and not
realistic enough. However, other than that one complaint, it was a terrific
season.
The show became immediate
appointment television.
With an excess of caution
about spoilers, I will not tell who was killed in the first season, simply
because the killing was teased throughout that first season and the identity
was the big reveal in the final episode. Chances are anyone who is reading
about season two will have already watched season one, but I’m not going to
be the one who ruins the surprises if someone hasn’t. It will make
discussing season two a little bit tricky because most of the second group
of episodes revolves around the fallout from that death.
So, how to one up the
first season? Big Little Liars added a queen to the already stacked
deck of their cast by signing up movie star Meryl Streep for her first TV
series work (although, again, she had done earlier miniseries, including the
classics Holocaust and Angels in America).
However, the second season
lost director Vallée, who had moved on to another HBO miniseries, Sharp
Objects. He was replaced by American Honey director Andrea
Arnold, though eventually HBO felt her vision of the show was too dissimilar
from Vallée’s original season and took the final edit from her, giving it
back to Vallée, who had by then finished Sharp Objects. That is never
a good sign.
When the second season was
first aired last summer, it was met with much more muted fanfare than the
first. That is probably because, honestly, the second season simply isn’t
as good as the first. It’s not bad, mind you, but it has lost the unique
spark and sense of adventure of the earlier episodes.
Season two mostly revolves
around the aftermath of the death the complications of the lie they told the
police – the five swear the death was an accident though it was
caused by one of them, though she was acting in defense of her friend.
Their connection in
experiencing the death has solidified their friendships at the same time as
it tears at them – Renata and Bonnie, who were on the outskirts of the group
before the death (and were even often antagonistic towards it), became
charter members of “The Monterey Five” in the aftermath. It was the intimacy
of a shared secret.
Interestingly, though the
first season revolved around the children, in the second season they fade
into the background somewhat. Oh, sure, they are still there, and all of
them have some periodic storylines, particularly two kids who are in the
middle of a custody battle, but they play much less of a part in the new
season.
Instead, the show revolves
around the group trying to cover up their parts in the death – even though
had they not lied they probably would have been easily exonerated. This is
made particularly difficult because the mother of the dead person is certain
that it was a murder, or at least a killing.
Surprisingly, Streep as
that mother is the weak spot in the season. Her character of Mary Louise is
cut off, stringent and rather unlikable. This puckered and abrasive
performance was undoubtedly what was asked of Streep – after all, the woman
can play anything – but it makes the character obnoxious and unlikable. It
saps the main conflict of the season’s plotline, causing the audience to
root against justice, or at least the giving up of a toxic secret.
Season two will probably
be the final go-round for the “Monterey Five” – most people involved say it
is unlikely, but not impossible, that the show will return for a third.
Honestly, I think it’s probably best that it doesn’t. Not to say that the
second season was bad, but it ended in a very appropriate spot for the saga,
an elegant place to end this particular story.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2020
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted:
January 7, 2020.
