Reese and Nicole and Laura and Audrey and Elvis: Thread for BIG LITTLE LIES on HBO

I have really liked it so far

Ugh this season is kind of Broadchurching and the dialogue isn’t just too on the nose, it’s *only* on the nose, even the nice therapist is behaving weirdly

Careful, now. 'Broadchuching' is quite a strong pejorative, to be used in only the most egregious instances of contempt for an audience.

I think they're doing a fine job of continuing the narrative. And this might be the role Streep was born to play (inasmuch as her performances rarely elicit much interest for me while this show has me all OMG SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU LADY every time she's onscreen and talking).

It’s Broadchurching in the sense that it’s boringly re-litigating the first season’s narrative, when I’d rather watch the same set of characters in some Wacky New Adventure. And the dialogue... everyone’s lost their mystery and talks too much.

Streep is great but her WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU-ness is bending the other characters out of wack. Hard to believe Kidman or Woodley would be so sanguine about herder so long.

ok, 'm supposed to believe that a schoolteacher is teaching Scott's Marmion to seven-year-olds.

Also, the writers in this have never attended a therapy session because that's not how therapists do their job. They mostly don't say anything.

I’ve had very chatty therapists. But the bluntness is very offTM.

Streep's character is so fucking awful I hope this ends with them throwing her down the stairs

the scene with Dern and the principal this past week was *maybe* the best scene of either series.

Dern in the hospital was great, too. I appreciate that one of the greatest actresses alive is willing to play second fiddle on this show, but I'm definitely glad she's getting more to do this season.

ah, now this season makes sense

'Big Little Lies’ Season 2 Turmoil: Inside Andrea Arnold’s Loss of Creative Control

HBO and David E. Kelley took the show away from Arnold, as executive producer Jean-Mac Vallée tried to return it to his S1 style.

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/07/big-little-lies-season-2-andrea-arnold-lost-creative-control-jean-marc-vallee-1202156884/

loved the first season, but i quit after the 4th episode this time

dont' really feel like this season is as big a mess as some people think.

No, although the behind-the-scenes bullshit is bullshit, for sure.

I'll double down and say this is probably Streep's best role ever. I can't recall the last time I felt such visceral dislike for a character.

I'm enjoying this season and Laura Dern is absolutely killing it.

Of course. Every scene where her character unloads on her husband has been magical.

Would like to see all of the female executive producers on this show give Kelley & Vallee a metaphorical push down the stairs if there's gonna be a season 3.

She gets all the best scenes. Scene in the car this week was amazing! It was obvious hubby was fucking the hot young french nanny the second she appeared.

IMO the season has gotten better as it progressed; possibly Arnold was actually problematic or just not a good fit.

This season is also the first time I've realized that Zoe Kravitz has some actual chops (I think I'd only ever seen her in genre stuff before this show). Everybody's tearing it up (except for Shailene Woodley, who's been okay but generally continues to elicit a big ol' 'IDGI' from me).

I like her a lot but mainly from her work in the Spectacular Now and the Descendants and not this. She had a decent scene with Streep this week.

Every week I hope they toss Streep out a window or something but doesn't look like that's going to happen.

I can see Bonnie smothering her mother just to get caught and take the punishment.

Streep's character is one of those people who makes me all like HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU'VE BEHAVED LIKE THIS INTO YOUR DOTAGE WITHOUT PEOPLE BEATING THE EVERLOVING SHIT OUT OF YOU ON A REGULAR BASIS?!?

I'm liking Woodley this season. The scene where Jane confronts Mary Louise over coffee and the scene between Jane and Ziggy in his bedroom ("he salted you") both really got to me.

The acting from all 5 of them has been great

I love this show, and am enjoying this season as much as the first. I will be sad when it ends

Woodley is better this season than last, I'll grant you that.

i catch eps of this on occasion when my gf is watching, don't really love it tbh.

seeing in the credits a director credit for the excellent andrea arnold and created/produced by that hack david e kelley seemed v incongruous to me. not surprised there was some friction

streep is the most awful character ever in this tho, brava to meryl

I was enjoying this for a while but it's ending up feeling kind of unnecessary. They're dropping threads, too - I felt like they were setting up Ed to start something with Bonnie, and then it just...faded away. But Streep deserves her own Emmy category - Most Punchable.

I don't think they were intending on doing anything with Ed and Bonnie other than giving him a way to be passive aggressive towards Madeline and wind up Nathan at the same time.

Also for real Ed is like the Usain Bolt of passive aggression.

I am still watching s2 but I am pretty disappointed.

The behind the scenes story doesnt surprise me, the whole thing feels so off.

The writing is my main gripe though bc it feels like such a first draft story. Or very rushed. All these random outbursts in place of earned drama, everyone’s yelling & slapping & crying it resembles fkn Dynasty more than the show itself. The depth to the characters is gone & they’re just doggy paddling in a circle around the death of peter & it’s dumb as shit.

Big Little I Know What You Did Last Summer

ugh

Yeah. Even the remixed theme tune is a slow bummer

I love that song

The proper version is great - local Muswell Hill boy makes good! the S2 version loses the drums and only primes me for an hour of drear

agree the proper version is better.

maybe the writing wasn't as strong but I thought the drama this season has made sense. I have enjoyed how much more somber and emotionally dark this has been than the first season

it could be so much better tho

i mean, Laura Dern is amazing & i love seeing her character go nuclear & lose her shit, but in ~every~ scene? i dunno

lol I confess I have really enjoyed all of her scenes. to me she is the comic relief in the midst of all of the suppressed guilt and anger

Well, that wraps everything up, I guess.

that was .... a giant wet fart of an ending. As much as I enjoyed watching laura dern smash shit up and meryl streep lose: the courtroom shit was absurd, no custody hearing goes like that; I love poorna jagannathan but she's obviously the worse lawyer on earth; everybody hates nathan; the stuff with zoe kravitz' mom never had any dramatic tension; what happened with reese witherspoon's daughter deciding not to go to college (also why is that actress in every single thing I watch all of a sudden?); and at the end what, did zoe decide to confess? did they all? why did they all? WTF?

*IF* this comes back they'd better figure out how they want to present the story and stick to it.

Yeah, this deflated really badly. I didn't want a second season and I am actively against the idea of a third.

i liked some of this season (ok maybe only meryl) but the finale was pretty bad

yep. shit loads of stuff dropped; what exactly are we to think of the non-stop Bonnie drowning scenes? Was that just supposed to be metaphor? if it was it was dumb, and if it was meant to foreshadow anything it didn't work either.

if this show comes back it should star ONLY Laura Dern yelling at people.

david e. kelley gonna david e. kelley

The euthanasia plot really took care of itself huh. And that judge really allowed herself to be interrupted for some monologues

The vow renewal was odd. It didn't seem like the show was suggesting we view it cynically, since it was presented as lovely and uplifting, yet the audience knows it's something of a fraud because Madeline never came clean to Ed about the cover up.

Except for popping up in the background of a few scenes, the detective didn't seem to really be still investigating at all. I thought that Mary Louis lash out in defeat by dropping some sort of new information with the detective rather than just slink away.

honestly this show is just bad

I assumed that Madeline came clean to Ed offscreen. I mean you figure her confession to the police would probably get back to him.

The show wasn't mindblowing but my expectations were tempered from go and it was fine.

Y'all need to maybe see some legitimately bad tv or something, I think.

she didn't confess to the police?

Didn't she?

I wasn't clear whether she did confess or just went with Bonnie out of solidarity or something. (Like, does that mean Celeste also came clean? Even though she just fought a big battle to keep her kids?) I figured they would have shown Madeline talking to Ed about it, since it seemed like a big conversation to have considering their whole plot was about trust, and that Ed would not have been particularly receptive to "So, I know you gave me all those chances to come clean, but let me slip one last thing in here..."

bonnie didn't go with madeline to the police station?

i mean the other way around