Big Little Lies Review

For much of the 1990s, the master force behind television was David E. Kelley. Still the only showrunner to win both Best Drama and Best Comedy Emmys in the same season, he was one of the most unbridled forces in TV, creating such brilliant works as Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal and The Practice. But paradoxically, when the new Golden Age of TV began, Kelley began to seem something of a relic. Perhaps the Bush administration did more to make him seem like his methodology now seemed more like preaching then anything else. Though he had successful series in the 2000s, like Boston Legal and Harry's Law. he no longer seemed as relevant. And though he's adapted a couple of series since then, he's gone quiet.

But that seems to be changing in a big way. Late last year, he developed his first series for streaming TV, Amazon's Goliath, which has already won a Golden Globe for Billy Bob Thornton. And now, he has melded with HBO in what seems sure to be another powerhouse in the realm of limited series that has been going on for the last few years, on the level of The Night Manager and The Night Of: the adaptation of Liane Moriarity's Big Little Lies.

Of course, this would be a major event for HBO anyway, considering the talent involved. Leading the series are some of the greatest actresses working today, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley.  Kelley has always been good writing roles for women in any medium, but in this group, he has some of the strongest collection of thespians he's ever worked with.

The adaptation is set in Monterey Bay, and centers around a group of mothers, leading their first graders off to school. Witherspoon portrays Madeline, the ultimate alpha female, trying to demonstrate that she is the best parent ever to the world, and mainly to her remarried ex-husband, whose younger new wife has a hold over her daughter that she doesn't like. The most recent grudge emerges when the new wife signs a petition saying that they shouldn't perform the school play that Madeline has been throwing her soul into. The fact that its Avenue Q, a play no first grader should see, is irrelevant to Madeline.

Nicole Kidman plays Celeste, a fortyish woman, who seems to be a rhapsodic marriage with a slightly younger husband (Alexander Skarsgard), but their loveplay seems just a little too gooey, with just too much of an edge. Laura Dern plays a working mother whose very employment seems to earn her the enmity of all around. And Woodley plays Jane Chapman, a single mother with no man in the future, and a way too quiet child.

Throughout the community, there seems to be way too much tension in every element, but the catalyst that seems to set everything in motion is an incident at the first day of school, where Jane's son Ziggy is accused of attacking Dern's child. Madeline, who has befriended Jane almost on a whim, takes Jane's side, and seems to cause all of the dominos to start falling. The fact that Ziggy seems just a little too suspect about it may be ultimately irrelevant.

Where these dominoes will fall is still unclear. What we do know is that they will end in murder on the night of the fundraiser, though who has been killed and why is still unclear.

Given cables recent sloppy history with event series  being set around murders (yeah, I'm looking at you, True Detective), this should fill the average viewer with peril. It doesn't because of the incredible work of all the actresses involved, particularly Witherspoon, who seems to be playing an older, more maternally focused version of her classic character Tracy Flick, and Woodley, who consistently demonstrates why she one of the most undervalued actress of our time. Considering the rest of the casts effectiveness, which also includes Zoe Kravitz and Adam Scott, Big Little Lies looks like it could easily be another rung in HBO's gathering assets of TV series. And it demonstrates that Kelley, who has tried adaptations in the past, is still one of the best writers the medium has ever known. For once, I'm looking forward to what happens next on his work. 

My score: 4.5 stars.