Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Let’s all pour one out for the moody and misunderstood men of prestige TV. From classics like Tony Soprano and Walter White to newer additions like Frank Underwood and Taboo’s James Delaney, our favorite shows are often packed with brooding men who are so bad and feel so very bad about it. However, this Sunday, HBO is adding some new energy into this glum dramatic genre with the premiere of its latest miniseries, Big Little Lies. Praise the gods of television.
Based on the book of the same name and starring Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Shailene Woodley, the seven episode miniseries follows how one murder rips a small seaside town apart. It’s a premise that’s been played with before, perhaps most notably on the critically-acclaimed Broadchurch, but there’s something undeniably juicy about Big Little Lies’ take on the story and genre. The Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Wild) directed series doesn’t immediately jump into the crime at hand. Rather, it takes its sweet time building its large array of characters, from borderline neurotic, helicopter-mom-with-a-smile Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Witherspoon) to doe-eyed and exhausted Jane Chapman (Woodley). Big Little Lies confidently relies on its engaging and hypnotic characters, trusting that the audience will become so interested in these women, they could successful star in their own reality TV show about nothing. It’s only when Big Little Lies lures you into its comfortably gossip-heavy tone that it starts to peel back the brutal crime at the center of the series.
Having never read the book the miniseries was based on, I can’t speak to whether the show is a tonally or narratively accurate take on the novel. However, as someone who watches far too much TV, I can confidently say Big Little Lies is good. Really good. The show skillfully fuses the quippy and addicting drama of lesser shows like Gossip Girl with the prestigious narrative heft of critical gems like Breaking Bad and True Detective. There’s real weight to Big Little Lies, but the show is also something that many modern dramas have forgotten to be: fun.
As you watch Madeline Martha Mackenzie and the soft-spoken Celeste (Kidman) complain about invitations to kids’ birthday parties and the evils of working moms, it’s easy to imagine Big Little Lies as a comedy about helicopter parents. Hell, the series would excel in that format. It’s only when the show is at its most seemingly innocuous and deliciously addicting that it delivers another dramatic punch. It’s a formula that’s attempted often by other shows but is rarely this successful, and it’s a successful balance that can be credited to the show’s skilled cast. Also starring the often-somber Alexander Skarsgård and comedy pro Adam Scott, everything from the miniseries’ side characters to its central story is in a constantly fluid state between comedy and tragedy.
A lot of Big Little Lies’ successful tone can be attributed to its reliance on gossip. The series hinges on time jumps, often diving into some unknown time in the past. However, the show’s tentpoles are set in a present-day interrogation room, where the focus is on a suspicious officer and whichever neighbor, friend, family member, or parent is willing to talk. Like in the best and most scandalous Bravo reality shows, there’s always something for these characters to criticize, and there’s always something mean to say behind someone else’s back. In this way, the series greatly reminded me of Jane Austen, an author who perfected using other people’s judgements to tell her characters’ stories for her. It’s a somewhat unusual narrative technique, abandoning straightforward narration to instead allow whatever opinions and stories characters may say aloud to drive the drama. Because of this, the juicy stories at the center of Big Little Lies are constantly in flux as they were in HBO’s other miniseries, The Night Of. But perhaps because of its more light-hearted tone or its all-female cast, there’s something distinctly feminine about Big Little Lies’ story.
If you’re looking for a straightforward crime drama that will give you a relatively predictable outline of who killed who, Big Little Lies probably isn’t for you. Thanks to screeners, I’m three episodes in, and I still barely know the details of the central crime. However, if you’re in the mood for a griping and twisting show about one crime told through a town of contradictory, gossipy voices, this series more than delivers.
Big Little Lies premieres Sunday, February 19 at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT.
