‘Big Little Lies’ Season 2 Unleashes Laura Dern, Comedy Goddess

If Big Little Lies Season 1 helped usher in the so-called “Dernassaince” — a veritable pop culture annus mirabilis that pushed the incandescent Laura Dern into the spotlight with roles in everything from Twin Peaks to Star Wars — then Big Little Lies Season 2 cements her as one of the most talented performers of all time.

We already knew she had the range to tackle meaty drama and Lynchian weirdness, but last Sunday’s Big Little Lies Season 2 premiere lets Dern’s comedic chops shine. In just a few short scenes, her Renata Klein comes across as a grinning satire of a hyper-specific kind of woman: a Silicon Valley heavyweight who overcompensates to cover up a deep-rooted insecurity. By playing Renata truthfully, Dern also plays her comedically, showing the breadth of her genius. It is a performance that cements Dern as a veritable comedy goddess.

Big Little Lies has always skirted the line of satire. After all, it’s a show about women who are hell bent on portraying perfection. This means that Big Little Lies is also about the funhouse mirror disconnect between how these characters work to be perceived versus who they are. Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) needs to be in control at all times in order to hide how vulnerable and small she feels. Likewise, Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) projects a serene surface of feminine beauty to mask the tumult happening within. If she’s not dealing with an abusive marriage, she’s struggling to make sense of her own grief for her murdered rapist husband. Monterey is a community defined by the illusion of perfection. Underneath the glittering surface of everyone’s pitch perfect lives rages a storm of darkness.

Of all the characters, though, Renata Klein might be the most obsessed with the illusion of perfection. She is the one who struggles to make friends, often erupts into fury, and has named her daughter the preposterous “Amabella.” It’s not enough to be perfect for Renata; she needs to be better. She yearns to be an Alpha, which is why she awkwardly boasts of her daughter’s I.Q. to the new teacher in the same breath that she threatens him to give her extra guidance. The scene shows off Renata’s farcical disconnect from reality with her theatrical hand gestures, and with her inability to evade an oncoming marching band as she exits.

Dern’s biggest moment in the episode is a deceptively small one. We see Renata dressed up in a hot pink designer gown, surveying her own small kingdom from the comfort of her backyard pool. She begins to vamp along with Diana Ross, and it’s revealed that she is in the middle of a photo shoot for an interview on being a woman in power.

During this scene, Renata laments that most powerful business women present themselves demurely. “Bullshit,” she says. She continues to strike diva poses until her husband Gordon interrupts her power trip.

It’s a blissful moment for Renata. She’s not just affirming her success but shamelessly reveling in it. Dern fills this scene with such unabashed joy that it’s impossible not to smile. Not only is Renata truly happy in this moment of performative confidence, but we know that the bottom is doomed to fall out. After all, there is no falser image than the glossy glamour shots in a magazine. This is not a portrait of who Renata really is, but who she longs to be. Part of that idealized version of herself? Someone with utter confidence and oodles of self-esteem.

It’s funny, and it’s also brutal. It is a mockery of Renata’s obsession with self-image couched in a celebration of it. The scene is a simple tour de force, and it lasts less than two minutes. Dern oozes this kind of awkward energy throughout the new season of Big Little Lies. It pops up in her excitement to be part of the Monterey Five and in later episodes, her lack of self-awareness smacks her so hard in her own goddamn face it’s monstrous. All you can do is laugh, or else you’d be cringing the whole way through.

Like I said, it’s proof positive that Laura Dern is one of the best actresses alive, and it’s proof that she’s an unsung comedy goddess.

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