Big Little Lies: Season One Recap and Reaction

The book is excellent and the mini-series is great too, with one of the best casts ever before seen on the small screen.
Brimming with strong women, the plot starts when Amabella wrongly accuses Ziggy of choking her on the first day of first grade orientation. It sets off a spiral of the secret lives of these women. There’s Renata (Laura Dern) Amabella’s CEO working mother, Jane (Shailene Woodley) the new young single mother whose son was conceived from a horrible abuse of power, not to mention the two main characters: Madeline Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) and Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) whose life appears just one notch of perfect though that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Over the seven episodes, the plot slowly unwinds as the viewer wonders who was murdered and how as the police are doing tons of interviews and learning about the environment that the wealthy community existed. Stay-at-home moms and working moms do not always get along and sometimes, they can be downright nasty to each other.

Madeline also must deal with her ex-husband, Nathan (James Tupper) whose new daughter is in the same class as Madeline’s daughter with her second husband (Adam Scott). There is still plenty of hostility between the two and even Ed and Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) Nathan’s new wife are not immune. Madeline and Nathan bicker over their shared daughter, Abigail (Kathryn Newton) who eventually moves in with Nathan. And Madeline also has a secret, she cheated on perfect Ed with the director of the local musical production which she may or may not reveal to Ed after her near-death experience in the finale.

But Celeste’s secret life is just dreadful. Her husband is the incredibly wealthy, younger Perry (Alexander Skarsgaard) but he is horribly abusive and way to turned on by her in a way unbecoming for a man of his age.

Jane’s life isn’t great, though she seems to have money though she never seems to be working, which is one of the few problems with this mini-series. However, it comes at a cost. She is still deeply scarred from the rape years ago and wants revenge, even going as far as buying a gun. But things seem to be looking up for her as she scores a date with the local barista, Tom (Joseph Cross).

There are a few problems with this mini-series and the main one is in the finale. Perry discovers Celeste is planning to leave him, after the school gala, as she has finally had enough of his abuse, plus, it is rubbing off on their young sons. Perry is livid and can’t have her leave him. So, for the first time, he starts abusing her in public in front of Jane, Madeline and Renata. Bonnie notices something is amiss and she is the one who shoves Perry down the stairs. But you don’t understand why. Bonnie is a spiritual character who is largely non-violent and the mini-series doesn’t go into her background the way the book does. In the book, you learn that her father was abusive so she is especially sensitive to wife-beatings but the film glosses over that. The mini-series also doesn’t go into Ziggy’s (Iain Armitage) conception scene in which Perry mentions his deep desire for children.

That being said, this series is excellent, superbly written and acted, with each actor truly getting under their respective character’s skins. This show deserved all the awards it was bestowed. Grade: A-