They do the same thing in virtually every show set in a real location, including NYC and LA and no one cares. They was an entire tv series that took place in Santa Barbara where I live and pretty much the entire thing was filmed in Canada. Why are you harping on this?
I can’t speak for John Mace. For me, to be clear: I am being petty. As I state upthread, all the principles seem smackable from what I’ve seen, so I am inclined to nitpick. The geographic juxtapositions are jarring in a minor way.
Fair enough. I always notice when they drive south through the tunnel at Gaviota which happens all the time but I realize it’s about cinematography and they have no intent to portray reality. It only seems worthy of nitpicking if reality was their intent.
As for the show itself, I opened this thread to see if I should give it another chance since I gave up half way through the first episode. I see that I made the right decision.
I was going to say RW is one of the producers but now I see the NK is as well. Don’t know how much this would have to do with it, but in the book Madeline could be considered the main character.
That would explain it.
Anyone catch Ep. 4? I was surprised at how quickly the plot is moving along and then I saw that there are to be only seven episodes so I guess it’s right about on track. My joy watching this show has not diminished. That being said, does anyone else thing Nicole Kidman’s American accent is a bit off this time around? I’ve always thought she does a pretty good one but at times last night it almost seemed like she was hardly trying. For that matter, Alexander Skargard let a few traces of the Swedish Chef slip out:) I am glad they’ve given her character a bit more of a spine than was portrayed in the book.
I’m not sure how I feel about Jane. I don’t care too much for Shailene Woodley but I also don’t care too much for the character in the book or the show so I can’t tell if she’s playing the part well or not.
No idea why they included the superfluous story arc with Madeline and her co-worker. It adds to the bitchy side that TV Madeline has, along with how Ed is portrayed as a complete numpty that Madeline walks all over. I mean, her character is supposed to be bossy but in the story she loves him; it’s just her personality. In the show she barely seems to tolerate him
Sorry to keep comparing it to the book. It really does follow it closely for the most part and as I mentioned before, I’d recommend it to anyone.
Bumping this to see if anyone has been keeping up. I’m kind of surprised it hasn’t gotten more attention here, though I realiz everyone doesn’t have HBO.
Last night’s ep was powerful, owing to an outstanding performance by Nicole Kidman. I’ll be shocked if she doesn’t get an Emmy nod.
I am watching it, but still kinda pissy about my judgment of it. They all remain smackable to me. I agree Kidman and her conversations with her therapist were really well done.
As for Reese’s dalliance with the co-worker/director, it sets Hubbie #2 up as the angry, emasculated guy who kills out of feeling betrayed.
Most are set up to have a reason to kill. I hope they get on with it. They have to make the murder satisfy a specific story arc AND the overall narrative, AND they have to tie off all of the false trails, each of which is its own important story. Tricky.
There are only 2 episodes left so they don’t have much time. If they end it the way the book ends I think some people are going to be . . . less than satisfied. This is one of the few series I think could have been spread out of two seasons, or at least make the one season a bit longer. When you have this many characters and you want to create possible motives / the victim, you really need more time to flesh them out in order for it to make sense.
At this point, there are several characters that I would be happy to kill!! 
So true. And as I pissy-watch ;), I continue to get my knickers in a twist over the not-true-to-the-MBay Area bits. I can’t even deal with the fact that they refer to the area as “Monterey” as in “hey, that’s why we’re part of the Monterey crowd” or so it seems.
No one would refer to it that way, unless there was a specific ritzy part of the actual town of Monterey. It would be Carmel, or Pebble Beach, or Big Sur, or whatever. No person from Carmel would refer to themselves and their community as “Monterey.” Beyond picayune, I know.
And watching SoCal beaches, where a few of the houses are located, get mixed in with the rocky beaches of the actual area is off, too.
Just…grr in a trivial way. Harrumph, I say.
I’ll bump this, since I watched the final episode last night. I thought it was a pretty good show, though not great.
Prior to this episode, I correctly guessed who was bullying the little girl at school, who actually raped Jane, and who was the dead person referenced in the initial episode. Thus the plot must have been pretty transparent, since I’m usually an idiot when it comes to figuring these things out. I was incorrect in my guess as to the method of death, though.
I found the show a little frustrating in that it spent seven hours teasing us about a death that was the subject of a police investigation, and then when it came to showing us what actually happened, did so in barely a minute or two, with the critical scene showing who did what to whom taking perhaps a second or so. You could blink and you’d miss seeing what actually happened.
But I cheated and read the Wikipedia plot summary of the novel after watching the first episode, so I knew what was coming, although the show changed the events in the ending slightly.
I liked the ending. “Eric” got was coming to him, and the ladies all made nice to each other, in a way that was not unbelievable, either. A very interesting way to end a story that was mostly about a bunch of bitchy women!!
I found the ending very satisfying. I’m used to bad things happening to good people in almost everything else, so it was refreshing to see it so richly deserved and for the ladies to get away with it.
I was underwhelmed with the end (never read the book and didn’t know what was coming) with all the build up of the petty fights, I was not expecting it to be the guy who obviously deserved to die and I thought the Who Raped Jane reveal was pretty weak. But … I did enjoy all the performances up to that point, especially Reese Witherspoon & Nicole Kidman. Nice to see Laura Dern as well.
Again, I’ll say this series needed about twice as many episodes for them to have really fleshed out the characters and made it so that any victim / murderer would be plausible. The final episode, while enjoyable, felt incredibly rushed and I wondered if it really made sense if you hadn’t read the book. Bonnie’s intervening felt like it came out of nowhere and Jane’s realization about Perry didn’t pack the emotional punch that it should and could have done. All that aside, I really enjoyed this series and I put its imperfections down mainly to time / budget constraints. It’s like my Maine Coon trying to fit his big ol’ self into a shoe box.
Hollywood Reporter: Meryl Streep to Star in ‘Big Little Lies’ Season 2 for HBO.
I didn’t even know that they had definitely decided on a Season 2 yet, but it looks like all the scripts are written and the big stars are clamoring for parts.
I just binged both seasons of this show. The first season was definitely better but both have a lot going for them.
Very early on I went ahead and spoiled myself on the ending because the mystery didn’t appeal to me. But almost every other aspect of this show was exquisitely executed—the cinematography, the editing, the music, the casting, the performances, the dialogue, all just wow.
To have those performances by Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz, Nicole Kidman added to Meryl Streep in the second season was amazing. Even most of the smaller roles—Adam Scott, the girl who played his daughter Chloe, were just top notch.
Alexander Skarsgård was terrifying.
The weak link in my view was the actor playing Jane. She just didn’t seem like she was playing in the same league.
Nicole Kidman’s frozen face did give me a constant uncanny valley feeling.
The second season had some gorgeously loopy line readings by Streep and Dern especially.
I did think having the nanny ask to be paid for sex during the bankruptcy hearing was unbelievable, a step too far. Anyway, Laura Dern’s husband had some enough to be hated. We didn’t need that as well.
I really liked that two of Reese Witherspoon’s big secrets were blown by her daughters. And the hilarious tension between her current and ex-husbands was a treat.