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.

Big Little Lies- Season 2, A Review

Secrets always surface.

Big Little Lies is back! Back in 2017 the award winning Big Little Lies first premiered and completely shocked and amazed a whole nation. Everyone was talking about the show and it ended up doing brilliantly during the awards season. Even after the series had ended I was still obsessed with it and then went on to read the book and even more of author Liane Moriarty’s work which I have come to love. Originally billed as a miniseries, fans were ecstatic when the series was renewed and then news broke out that Meryl Streep would be joining the cast and it was like a dream come true.

The second season of Big Little Lies revolves around the “Monterey Five” as they are now dubbed and the aftermath of Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) death and their attempt to cover it up. Starting up again with a new school year the women each try to move past the accident but new faces and ongoing problem prove difficult and one way or another the lie will come out- but who will be the first to crack?

Season 2 deals with Celeste (Nicole Kidman) struggling with how to feel about Perry’s death- on one hand she did love her husband but she is glad to be free of his abusive ways. Celeste continues to work through her problems with therapist Dr. Reisman (Robin Weigert) but finds the arrival of her mother-in-law troubling.

Perry’s mother Mary Louise (Streep) arrives to help Celeste look after her two boys and recover after Perry’s death however her constant questioning and idolisation of her son puts Celeste in a very tricky situation. It is soon revealed that Mary Louise plans to sue for custody of Josh and Max, seeing Celeste as an unfit mother. The legal battle turns into a full on court case with Mary Louise and Celeste at each other’s throats and some of the show best scenes to date. The court case threathens to bring up not only the lie but Mary Louise’s own mysterious past and the death of her other son many years ago. Tensions are high are secrets run deep but only one can win in the end.

Kidman and Streep really blew it out of the water this season, all of the women on this show are amazing but Celeste and Mary Louise were just something else. As Mary Louise, Streep played such a hateful character, her constant defending of Perry just made me want to punch her- Streep really brought it this season. Celeste also continues to reign as the absolute Queen of Big Little Lies, her struggling with Perry’s death and fight for her children were amazing and her scenes both in therapy and in court were award winning- really any scene were it was just Kidman monoluging was stellar.

Madeine (Reese Witherspoon) also faces her own problems, this time within her own household. Initially arguing with her eldest daughter Abigail (Kathryn Newton) about why she needs to go to college, Madeline accidentally lets slip to husband Ed (Adam Scott) that she had cheated on him the year before. This fractures the couple’s marriage massively and Madeline must first prove that she still loves him and then fight to win him back. Madeline also struggles with the fact that the lie was her idea and must therefore live with both the consequences and the occasional anger from the other women.

This season I feel like Madeline has very much took a step back in storylines compared to the other women- but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think compared to the other four women’s storylines this season, and even a little bit in season 1, Madeline’s issues are a lot more small scale. Having her character step back a little bit means there’s a lot more drama with the other storylines which is always fun to watch. Madeline is a great character and often the most comical out of the five but having her storyline compressed a little means the audience get to spend a lot more time with the more interesting storylines.

Jane’s (Shailene Woodley) season 2 storyline also looked at her recovering from Perry’s death- in Jane’s case however with her attempting to date again after she meets coworker Corey (Douglas Smith) and struggles with getting physical again due to her history with Perry. I feel like out of the five women, Jane is often given the short end of the stick. Even when writing this review there’s really not a lot I can say about her storyline because she really doesn’t have as big a one as the likes of Celeste or Renata. In season 1 a lot of the mystery surrounded who her rapist was but once that was found out Jane didn’t have a lot to contribute to the story.

A lot of Season 2 also looks at how the grown-up’s drama has effected the kid’s lives. Through school yard gossip Ziggy (Iain Armitage) eventually finds out that Perry is in fact his father and Josh and Max are his brothers. Jane struggles with explaining the concept of rape to Ziggy and her and Celeste eventually have to come together and introduce the boys as brothers. I liked how season 2 looked at how the kids were effected by all the drama in their parents lives because it was this that had caused the bullying incedent in season 1, and children are naturally inquisitive so this was an interesting storyline to run with.

One of my favourite parts of season 2 was Renata (Laura Dern) and Bonnie’s (Zoë Kravitz) increased roles, both played vital roles in the first season but were never really part of the group. However the lies ends up bonding the five closer together, meaning both get bigger and better storylines– which ended up being two of the best in the series.

In season 2 Renata must deal with the fact that her husband Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling) has bankrupted them and that she is now poor- much to her horror. Now on top of the lie, Renata must deal with her life completely falling apart around her- and rest assured she does this in the most hilarious way possible. Dern’s character has such an anger about her and watching her go completely ballistic on her husband, weilding baseball bats and tasteful languge was a fun change to a lot of the show’s more serious themes. Renata may be my favourite of the five (I think a toss up between her and Celeste) because I like how she is able to add the humour to such an otherwise dramatic show. Renata may have been an outsider initially but now she is well and trully part of the group and I love that.

Bonnie also had a great storyline this season in the form of her parent’s arrival. Out of the five the lie definately had the most effect on Bonnie, leaving her in a depressive state, leading to husband Nathan (James Tupper) calling in her parents for help. Right from the start its obvious that Bonnie has a rocky relationship with her mother Elizabeth (Crystal R. Fox) and a series of flashbacks show that Bonnie had a very difficult childhood. Bonnie’s relationship with her parents and the abusive nature of it was a small part of the original book that didn’t make it into the first series and I remember wishing it had after I first read the book. The abusive nature of her parents is revealed to be the main reason she pushed Perry in the first place, having grown up in an abusive household she wanted to protect Celeste- Bonnie herself said that she imagined she was pushing her mother. This added depth to Bonnie’s character was so heartbreaking to watch but I’m glad that we got to learn more about her as a person and glad that the writers were able to incorporate a part of the book into the second series. Bonnie’s speech to her mother in episode 6 was one of season two’s best moments and I now like Bonnie a lot more as a character because of her added storylines and depth.

Season 2 of Big Little Lies really was outstanding and an amazing follow up to an amazing first season. This show manages to have outstanding characters, cast, storylines, music, editing, everything really. Big Little truly is one of the TV greats and I predict great things for the 2020 award season- the only question is, with limited awards handed out- who’s going to win?