Little Fires Everywhere (Miniseries), A Review

It only takes one spark to start a fire.

Based on Celeste Ng’s novel of the same name, Little Fires Everywhere follows the Richardson family- husband and wife Bill (Joshua Jackson) and Elena (Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies) and their four children Lexie (Jade Pettyjohn), Trip (Jordan Elsass), Moody (Gavin Lewis) and Izzy (Megan Stott) and how their lives becomes intertwined with Mia (Kerry Washington) and Pearl (Lexi Underwood) a mother-daughter duo who come into their lives and change things forever.

Mia is a travelling artist and she and her daughter Pearl decide to move to Shaker Heights, a picture perfect town, where they end up renting a house from Elena. The two families become involved in each other’s lives with Moody and Pearl becoming friends, Izzy becoming fascinated by Mia and Elena hiring Mia to work in her home- a job Mia only takes to keep an eye on Pearl. The two families get a look at how the other half lives and bonds are quickly formed and broken as the families intertwine. In the centre of this all a rivalry begins to brew between Mia and Elena who each see the other as a ‘bad mother’. Soon secrets are exposed, boundaries are set and threaths are made- one question remains though: What makes someone a good mother?

Whilst the war is brewing between Elena and Mia, a custody case between the McCulloughs- husband and wife Linda (Rosemarie DeWitt, Black Mirror) and Mark (Geoff Stults)– and Bebe Chow (Huang Lu), a young chinese woman begins to turn ugly. Bebe left her infant daughter outside a fire station when she could no longer cope, leading to the McCulloughs adopting the child. A year later Bebe is back on her feet and wants her daughter back. The case soon goes to court with Elena and Mia firmly siding against each other with the McCulloughs and Bebe respectively. Whilst two women fight for their child, the court case intensifies things between Mia and Elena, heading towards something niether of them can ever take back.

Little Fires Everywhere was a truly amazing miniseries and I thought the acting, the writing, the directing, the music, everything was done to perfection. Celeste Ng truly is a brilliant story teller- both this and her other novel Everything I Never Told You are so powerful, she’s so good at exploring such interesting topics and I just love her work.

One of my favourite things about Little Fires Everywhere was how the series handled the historical and social context of the story line. I loved the 90s setting and the opposing families and how different they both were. The very subtle (or sometimes not so subtle) racism shown throughout was brilliant and some of the scenes were so poetic. The awkwardness between the characters were really telling of the class divide and I loved how the characters all interacted with each other.

One of the things I love about the storyline in Little Fires Everywhere is it really makes you think, it makes you want to talk to people about it. I remember when I first read the book I really wanted to get someone else’s opinion on the baby issue and see what side they would take, and it’s the same here. The great thing about the miniseries is that now the storyline has a bigger audience so there’s more people who have watched or read it. One of the best parts of watching this for me has been scrolling through the comments on social media and seeing what other people think- whose side where they on? Who did they think should have kept the baby? Who was right? Who was wrong? A good sign of a good story is it makes you think, it makes you want to talk to people about it and Little Fires Everywhere does this brilliantly.

I want to take a minute also to commend the two actresses who portrayed young Mia and Elena in the flashback episodes. Tiffany Boone and AnnaSophia Robb played the younger roles to such an impressive degree, they had the characteristics and the mannerisms and even the voice down perfectly- so impressive. The flashback episode itself was also a great insight into both characters and I loved seeing both backstories play out.

There were changes made from the book in this miniseries adaptation but you can trust me when I say they were brilliant changes. Often when a TV or film adaptation makes changes it is to shorten the plot or to omit unnecessary characters but here the changes actually add to the plot and give the characters development. Some of the smaller changes such as Lexi stealing Pearl’s letter for her essay instead of asking her for help or Izzy’s struggles with her sexuality both build upon the social context of the original novel and isolate the characters further from each other. The biggest change (the person who set the fire) was also done brilliantly, that scene with Elena and the kids was chilling, Reese Witherspoon actually scared me a little bit and I can’t even count the number of times I’ve rewatched, I can sense some awards in the future. I liked the change made because it made sense to the storyline and I also think it was fun for people who had read the original book because it meant that they too were suprised.

I really think Reese Witherspoon should be commended on how she and her company find and adapt these books into TV series and films. The work she does is so important and every adaptation of hers is always a massive hit. I actually did have my doubts about Reese playing Elema because she seems like such a nice person (whereas Elena is not) in real life but oh my god I think this is the best I’ve ever seen her. Witherspoon played Elena to the best of her ability and she was definitely my favourite performance of the series.

Overall Little Fires Everywhere was simply outstanding. Reading the book I really enjoyed the storyline but the miniseries just intensifies the whole thing tenfold. The acting was phenomenal, especially between Witherspoon and Washington and this is honestly one of the best TV adaptations I have ever seen, everybody involved should be proud. Little Fires Everywhere broaches some truly divisive topics in such an extraordinary way and watching has been amazing.