Big Little Lies: The End of the World
June 25, 2019 5:35 AM - Season 2, Episode 3 - Subscribe
Mary Louise tries to get closer to Jane; Renata focuses her wrath on Principal Nippal; Madeline is forced to confront her issues at couples therapy; Celeste struggles with her memories of Perry.
Favorite part of the episode for me: Renata's not-that-internal struggle over whether she should go to the stage and intervene during Madeline's meltdown. Is it better if I make a scene but stop her? Or better if I just let it run its course?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:13 PM on June 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 4:13 PM on June 25, 2019 [1 favorite]
I love this bunch of characters, they're so bizarre and they live in such a bizarre world. I'm actually happy not to have tons of intrigue going on yet, it's fun to just watch all these oddballs interact.
Mary Louise is such a fascinating person. She is clinging so hard to her memories of Perry as a sweet little boy, and I feel for her in that, even though it's so destructive for everyone around her.
I also felt for Jane when she started crying at how gentle her coworker was being with her, and it really was touching how he was so eager to do/say the right thing at the end...but he's so incredibly graceless. I don't really get the connection, to be honest.
Madalyn's arc is just goofy to me. I can't believe her as someone who's corrosively insecure to the point that she thinks she's "nothing," let alone that she'd be this tied up in knots over whether she went to college (of all things). She was married to the dumbest guy on the planet, I don't think that book smarts are really that important to her. And she's rich anyway, so apparently not having a degree didn't hold her back in any concrete way. But I guess it's early days in the season yet?
I also am not especially interested in Bonnie's completely understandable and normal depression, but her mom is awesome. I'd like to see way more of Bonnie's mom, please.
Ranata is weird and I guess I'm still sorting that one out. She is so stressful to watch onscreen that, while this whole loudly explicit obsession with being rich is kind of intriguing, I always want every scene with her to end as quickly as possible just so my blood pressure can go back down.
posted by rue72 at 4:35 PM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
Mary Louise is such a fascinating person. She is clinging so hard to her memories of Perry as a sweet little boy, and I feel for her in that, even though it's so destructive for everyone around her.
I also felt for Jane when she started crying at how gentle her coworker was being with her, and it really was touching how he was so eager to do/say the right thing at the end...but he's so incredibly graceless. I don't really get the connection, to be honest.
Madalyn's arc is just goofy to me. I can't believe her as someone who's corrosively insecure to the point that she thinks she's "nothing," let alone that she'd be this tied up in knots over whether she went to college (of all things). She was married to the dumbest guy on the planet, I don't think that book smarts are really that important to her. And she's rich anyway, so apparently not having a degree didn't hold her back in any concrete way. But I guess it's early days in the season yet?
I also am not especially interested in Bonnie's completely understandable and normal depression, but her mom is awesome. I'd like to see way more of Bonnie's mom, please.
Ranata is weird and I guess I'm still sorting that one out. She is so stressful to watch onscreen that, while this whole loudly explicit obsession with being rich is kind of intriguing, I always want every scene with her to end as quickly as possible just so my blood pressure can go back down.
posted by rue72 at 4:35 PM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]
She was married to the dumbest guy on the planet, I don't think that book smarts are really that important to her.
Oh no, that adds up perfectly to me. Of course someone who's generally feeling intellectually inferior for not having gone to college would pick a dumb husband to feel intellectually superior to for a change.
The thing I don't get is, why didn't Madeline go to college? She's, as Renata's husband puts it, a "wanter", a perfectionist, always itching for a challenge and what she wants is tick all the boxes, why leave out that box? Were her parents poor, did she see it as too much of financial risk? (Somehow I don't think so. Renata as a self-made woman, that I can absolutely see; she's the one most visibly glorying in her wealth, it's something that's still new and marvelous to her; you don't get that sense from Madeline and Celeste). Did she have other more urgent amibitions at the time?
Because to me, Madeline always seems like bursting with amibition, like all the outlets she has so far found for it are not quite able to absorb all of it. If Madeline didn't want to excel academically, what other areas did she want to excel in? No one can tell me that Madeline didn't want to excel.
But maybe Madeline didn't go to college_because_ she needs to excel so badly, because she wasn't entirely sure she would excel in this area, because she couldn't bear the thought of being merely mediocre. And that would be a pretty silly reason not to try something, so of course she regrets it now. It wouldn't be surprised at all about such a person being corrosively insecure.
posted by sohalt at 3:27 AM on June 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Oh no, that adds up perfectly to me. Of course someone who's generally feeling intellectually inferior for not having gone to college would pick a dumb husband to feel intellectually superior to for a change.
The thing I don't get is, why didn't Madeline go to college? She's, as Renata's husband puts it, a "wanter", a perfectionist, always itching for a challenge and what she wants is tick all the boxes, why leave out that box? Were her parents poor, did she see it as too much of financial risk? (Somehow I don't think so. Renata as a self-made woman, that I can absolutely see; she's the one most visibly glorying in her wealth, it's something that's still new and marvelous to her; you don't get that sense from Madeline and Celeste). Did she have other more urgent amibitions at the time?
Because to me, Madeline always seems like bursting with amibition, like all the outlets she has so far found for it are not quite able to absorb all of it. If Madeline didn't want to excel academically, what other areas did she want to excel in? No one can tell me that Madeline didn't want to excel.
But maybe Madeline didn't go to college_because_ she needs to excel so badly, because she wasn't entirely sure she would excel in this area, because she couldn't bear the thought of being merely mediocre. And that would be a pretty silly reason not to try something, so of course she regrets it now. It wouldn't be surprised at all about such a person being corrosively insecure.
posted by sohalt at 3:27 AM on June 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Fair play to Celeste, I wouldn't have dared knock one out with Meryl Streep in the house.
posted by biffa at 8:56 AM on July 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 8:56 AM on July 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Principal Nippal is so done with everyone.
Nobody radiates "so done with everyone" like a teacher with a slightly comical surname.
posted by rongorongo at 2:29 PM on December 9, 2021
Nobody radiates "so done with everyone" like a teacher with a slightly comical surname.
posted by rongorongo at 2:29 PM on December 9, 2021
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posted by guiseroom at 5:36 AM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]