How great!!? So great right?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/tv/2017/03/15/190317STEBiglittle01-large_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqEr60ca48GGIZWmRLXLlk4DeeosFWPgY9ZYnSp5XdIv4.jpg
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:05 (seven years ago) link
Things I loved, a list
1. All five women had nuanced human roles. They all brought their A game 2. Monterey scenery-porn holy crap so gorgeous3. Those kids!! Esp Chloe. 4. The ending!! 5. All of it, I loved all of it. Except the greek chorus of dumb town people, and the teachers.
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:08 (seven years ago) link
I'm only on episode 3 but really enjoy this show. Sometimes the music use feels a little on the nose though.
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:12 (seven years ago) link
Aw! I kinda liked the music.
Great piece by Emily Nussbaum here, that kind of sums up a lot of how I feel in a serious way
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/the-surprising-generosity-of-big-little-lies
Generous to its characters, even those who begin as clichés, the series becomes a reflection on trauma; at its best moments, it makes risky observations, especially about the dynamics of domestic abuse. Even when it doesn’t dig so deep, it’s still full of strong performances, including those by a terrific set of child actors, whose unforced sweetness is a reminder of who the victims are when family life turns ugly.
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:15 (seven years ago) link
Chloe putting on Pj Harvey in the first episode did pique my interest though ;)
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:17 (seven years ago) link
I loved Ziggy's solo choreographed dance to Papa Was a Rolling Stone for his Mom, it was the fucking BEST
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:20 (seven years ago) link
I guess it would be wise to avoid this thread until I've caught up :)
happy posting everyone
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:22 (seven years ago) link
Y'all come back now, y'hear
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:23 (seven years ago) link
was solid, a touch on the nose and message-y for me idk, hard to discuss w/o getting spoilery
― johnny crunch, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:25 (seven years ago) link
good thread title btw
I thought I was not going to be able to continue watching in episode 1 when the teacher made Amabelle point out her strangler in front of ALL THE KIDS and ALL THE PARENTS yep that is great you are a great teacher excellent job at making this very serious matter a J'Accuseathon jesus christ
Seriously all of the teachers in that dumb town should be fired.
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
I kind of feel like I should have called out the spoilers in the thread title
the whole thing's done I think we should be able to have some real talk about everything that happened
if a mod ever wanders by, it would be nice to get an edit there
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:27 (seven years ago) link
[SPOILERS]
Good interview here with the director on the final episodehttp://www.vulture.com/2017/04/big-little-lies-director-jean-marc-vallee-on-the-finale.html
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link
Okay, the praise here and the revelation of Zoe Kravitz's involvement might be enough for me to overcome the side-eye I've been giving to the previews for that show with Shailene Woodley in a central role. Laura Dern's presence should've been enough, though, I guess.
― Break the meat into the pineapples and pat them (Old Lunch), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:34 (seven years ago) link
2. Monterey scenery-porn holy crap so gorgeousright! almost makes me feel like I could live there but every time i've been there in person I get a strange feeling i'd go mad there after i few months.anyways...
I enjoyed the show a lot. the acting was good all around even Kidman who I don't usually care for had me really buying into her character's situation.
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:39 (seven years ago) link
right! almost makes me feel like I could live there but every time i've been there in person I get a strange feeling i'd go mad there after i few months.anyways...
Huh -- very curious as to why you felt that way! (As mentioned on the other thread where this was discussed, it's where my parents live and my dad grew up -- Carmel rather than Monterey specifically, though, but hey, just on the other side of the peninsula -- and I've always loved the area ever since I was a kid.)
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:42 (seven years ago) link
I've spent a good amount of time up there visiting friends and i can't pin it down other than strange restlessness that comes over before too long .
― (•̪●) (carne asada), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:47 (seven years ago) link
I couldn't make it through the first episode. parents don't talk like this.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:49 (seven years ago) link
feel like I've eaten a mediocre crepe at the coffee place they all hang out at, though it was redone for shooting this? Monterey sure is beautiful as shot in this. I wish I'd spent more time exploring and less time in cannery row when I was there.
― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:50 (seven years ago) link
extremely wealthy and attractive parents might talk like this, I don't know
I would and they don't. And the "Greek chorus" stuff is ridiculous, every rando parent having in-depth opinions about the psychological make-up of others etc. gtfo
― Οὖτις, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:51 (seven years ago) link
oh would you now
― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:53 (seven years ago) link
I am a parent in one of the wealthiest cities in the country and deal with rich helicopter parents all the time so yes.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:54 (seven years ago) link
when the teacher made Amabelle point out her strangler in front of ALL THE KIDS and ALL THE PARENTS
and THIS scene! ugh gtfo that teacher would be fired immediately
― Οὖτις, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:55 (seven years ago) link
seems like the becomes wealthy and stays in the city crowd would be different from the becomes wealthy and moves to monterey, cambria, etc. crowd
― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:55 (seven years ago) link
Mentioned this on the other thread, but it's less of a 'moves there' crowd than a 'commutes there on the weekend' crowd. Trust me, I know.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
Shakes, I really encourage you to try and watch it all the way through. It's so much richer than it seems at first watch
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
drifting into strawman territory here. how about wealthy parents in Marin, I know those people too
xp
― Οὖτις, Friday, 7 April 2017 18:57 (seven years ago) link
hell, just watch the first 10 minutes of the final episode
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Friday, 7 April 2017 18:58 (seven years ago) link
haha I thought of including Marin but thought you probably had a better chance of knowing someone from there. I just don't know how you always extrapolate such distances from your own experience, and so frequently into works of fiction, and manage to enjoy anything ever.
― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, 7 April 2017 19:00 (seven years ago) link
hey shakey it's cool you superficially engaged with the first episode of this show and all. your opinions are noted.
the last episode of this was just gripping.
honestly, i feel that this show was amazingly thought out and structured, to the point where i think the early episodes purposefully cast all these people as the cardboard cutout stereotypes you're prepared to hate watch then slowly unfurls so much emotional and psychological depth.
i think it's the only time i ever felt like a therapy session in a show or movie felt really authentic to me.
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 7 April 2017 19:05 (seven years ago) link
was really cool to see kidman be so good again, i'd kind of forgotten how good she could be
really the whole cast was great\
<3 little ziggy
My partner is a 2ndary school teacher and was *fuming* during those scenes and basically praying the teacher would be the murder victim
She teaches at a helicoptery place in the UK and found the parents quite realistic
How fucking awful that Laura gets stuck with that asshole st the end though
― Chuck_Tatum, Friday, 7 April 2017 19:08 (seven years ago) link
Ums otm - they set everyone up as stereotypes so that they can shade them in more meaningfully as individuals as the story unfolds
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 19:20 (seven years ago) link
and yeah, the therapy scenes are so good. Y'all caught that the therapist is Robin Weigert aka Calamity Jane from Deadwood? I love her. She was great in Sons of Anarchy too. But I loved how direct but sensitive and compassionate she was as a therapist. And Kidman played those scenes so well.
props to Skarsgard too. I was a fan of him as eyecandy because he's so goddamn gorgeous, but I don't know that I've seen him play anything this layered and complicated before. Just goes to show how good material brings everyone to the party.
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 19:57 (seven years ago) link
Y'all caught that the therapist is Robin Weigert aka Calamity Jane from Deadwood?
i know! that was nuts, it was driving me crazy who she was the whole time, my wife told me this morning...just the characters are so different she's so buttoned up and rational in this role
― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 7 April 2017 20:27 (seven years ago) link
yeah it makes you appreciate what she had to do vocally and even physically to get to Calamity as a character
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 April 2017 21:00 (seven years ago) link
omg I remember looking her up after Deadwood to see if I'd seen her in anything else. This was the first one, and I didn't even notice that it's her!
― Sufjan Grafton, Friday, 7 April 2017 22:00 (seven years ago) link
On episode 5, this show is also really funny in its breakdown of human behaviour
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Sunday, 9 April 2017 20:48 (seven years ago) link
This was a really solid show
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Monday, 10 April 2017 20:44 (seven years ago) link
i get why some people didn't like this; I got 'i'm not interested in privileged white people' a number of times. but I still thought it was good. things aren't bad just because they're about rich white people. fuck.
― akm, Tuesday, 11 April 2017 00:02 (seven years ago) link
anyone else think the soundtrack was like a boomer's dream come true? Mostly filtered through Chloe as well, which made me laugh..
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Wednesday, 12 April 2017 00:15 (seven years ago) link
that hurts, I'm only 40 ;_;
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 12 April 2017 03:02 (seven years ago) link
Ah VG, you're so awesome
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Wednesday, 12 April 2017 19:55 (seven years ago) link
A lot of it was still boomer music though
― It's always (sunny successor), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 15:42 (seven years ago) link
A couple of things:
Had Perry and Jane met before the fundraiser (besides the rape, of course)? I cant remember.
Also I was partly convinced the whole time that ed was going to be the killer. Just with the staring at Madeleine's oldest daughter then the quick looks away and whatnot. Seemed like something was going on there.
― It's always (sunny successor), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 15:53 (seven years ago) link
Also: Ziggy ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
― It's always (sunny successor), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 15:55 (seven years ago) link
Yeah I totally expected Ed to end up schtupping the stepdaughter, there were a lot of weird lingering looks & furtive glances between them
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
Don't think Perry and Jane met before the fundraiser
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Tuesday, 18 April 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
Has anyone read one of Liane Moriarty's books? Could def give one a go after this (I've read that it's a fairly literal adaptation)
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 20:10 (seven years ago) link
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.
― akm, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:02 (four years ago) link
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).
― Logy Psycho (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:06 (four years ago) link
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.
― akm, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:12 (four years ago) link
I can see Bonnie smothering her mother just to get caught and take the punishment.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:14 (four years ago) link
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?!?
― Logy Psycho (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:16 (four years ago) link
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
― Dan S, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:20 (four years ago) link
Woodley is better this season than last, I'll grant you that.
― Logy Psycho (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:27 (four years ago) link
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
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:35 (four years ago) link
streep is the most awful character ever in this tho, brava to meryl
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:37 (four years ago) link
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.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 16:42 (four years ago) link
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.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 17:42 (four years ago) link
Also for real Ed is like the Usain Bolt of passive aggression.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 16 July 2019 17:43 (four years ago) link
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
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 01:06 (four years ago) link
Yeah. Even the remixed theme tune is a slow bummer
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 01:13 (four years ago) link
I love that song
― Dan S, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 01:14 (four years ago) link
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
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 01:19 (four years ago) link
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
― Dan S, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 01:21 (four years ago) link
it could be so much better thoi mean, Laura Dern is amazing & i love seeing her character go nuclear & lose her shit, but in ~every~ scene? i dunno
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 July 2019 01:36 (four years ago) link
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
― Dan S, Wednesday, 17 July 2019 01:47 (four years ago) link
Well, that wraps everything up, I guess.
― nickn, Monday, 22 July 2019 04:57 (four years ago) link
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.
― akm, Monday, 22 July 2019 12:57 (four years ago) link
Yeah, this deflated really badly. I didn't want a second season and I am actively against the idea of a third.
― shared unit of analysis (unperson), Monday, 22 July 2019 13:52 (four years ago) link
i liked some of this season (ok maybe only meryl) but the finale was pretty bad
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 23 July 2019 02:14 (four years ago) link
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.
― akm, Tuesday, 23 July 2019 02:17 (four years ago) link
david e. kelley gonna david e. kelley
― adam the (abanana), Tuesday, 23 July 2019 05:28 (four years ago) link
The euthanasia plot really took care of itself huh. And that judge really allowed herself to be interrupted for some monologues
― Jeff Bathos (symsymsym), Wednesday, 24 July 2019 07:33 (four years ago) link
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.
― blatherskite, Monday, 29 July 2019 18:38 (four years ago) link
honestly this show is just bad
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Monday, 29 July 2019 18:43 (four years ago) link
I assumed that Madeline came clean to Ed offscreen. I mean you figure her confession to the police would probably get back to him.
― my but is not working it kept telling me device not found. (Old Lunch), Monday, 29 July 2019 18:45 (four years ago) link
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.
― my but is not working it kept telling me device not found. (Old Lunch), Monday, 29 July 2019 18:46 (four years ago) link
she didn't confess to the police?
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Monday, 29 July 2019 18:46 (four years ago) link
Didn't she?
― my but is not working it kept telling me device not found. (Old Lunch), Monday, 29 July 2019 18:51 (four years ago) link
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..."
― blatherskite, Monday, 29 July 2019 18:57 (four years ago) link
bonnie didn't go with madeline to the police station?
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Monday, 29 July 2019 19:06 (four years ago) link
i mean the other way around
like the text she sends "hey guys I'm confessing" happens at the time the ceremony is happening?
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Monday, 29 July 2019 19:07 (four years ago) link
just seemed like a straight bit of dramatic irony "oh things are all happy and great with everyone (apart from bonnie)" oh no here comes this news to undercut it for all of them
didn't seem to me like things were happy and great for everyone, despite the resolution of some story lines. I thought the final scene of them going to the police station together to confess was the absolutely necessary ending, they needed to put all of the lies and related misery to rest
― Dan S, Saturday, 10 August 2019 00:54 (four years ago) link
yeah these bitches needed to go to jail for killing that upstanding young man
― akm, Saturday, 10 August 2019 17:36 (four years ago) link
hmmm
― Number None, Saturday, 10 August 2019 18:33 (four years ago) link
Won't read anything till I get through the rest, but I thought the first two episodes were fine--although I died a little when "Down by the River" was cut short after 30 seconds at the precise moment the volume should have been turned up.
― clemenza, Sunday, 11 August 2019 03:38 (four years ago) link
Two episodes left. Streep is so creepy (Streepy?)--and definitely, at least in part, based on Kael.
― clemenza, Monday, 12 August 2019 21:32 (four years ago) link
I liked most all of the second season. The finale for me was probably the weakest episode--not terrible, but a little pat in spots, and Dern with the baseball bat seemed redundant (her rage had been made quite clear by that point). Kidman is such a great actress sometimes. Streep, Dern, Witherspoon, even Adam Scott I'd say, all excellent. Somebody posted something earlier about Arnold having control taken away from her...I don't doubt it, but I've liked/loved three of her movies, and this seemed to fit with her earlier work.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 13 August 2019 01:38 (four years ago) link
finale was trash, the entirety of the courtroom stuff was a joke
every time nicole kidman insisted on what a good mother she was i was like... wellllll...
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 3 October 2019 23:22 (four years ago) link
Yeah! Obviously Streep was conniving and awful re: her son, but it's not like there wasn't cause for concern, from the pills to the slapping. (I haven't seen the show since it aired--did any character express more than a passing concern about all that? I mostly recall Witherspoon treating it like not that big of a deal.)
― blatherskite, Thursday, 3 October 2019 23:38 (four years ago) link
i thought i had no interest in this show (rich white people, parenting, women who snipe at each other) but i actually really thought it was good! i thought S2 gave Bonnie a lot more depth and her moments of intrusive memories were very realistic. I also identified with her aimlessly walking through the woods looking dour.
and lil Ziggy <3 i figured whoever wrote the screenplay (and maybe the original author) had read Far From the Tree, where there is a long and difficult-to-read chapter about children of rape.
anyway, i enjoyed both seasons in spite of my original misgivings. the theme song grew on me too.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 27 November 2019 20:28 (four years ago) link
Great show
― treeship., Saturday, 12 September 2020 03:32 (three years ago) link
I find madeline very sympathetic, despite her flaws. Still in the middle of season 1.
― treeship., Saturday, 12 September 2020 03:37 (three years ago) link
I loved this series, both seasons, it wasn't perfect but in the end I wish I could find other tv shows that would mean as much to me
― Dan S, Saturday, 12 September 2020 04:04 (three years ago) link
i can’t believe i watched THE UNDOING in full
― maura, Monday, 30 November 2020 04:29 (three years ago) link