Big Little Lies: What Have They Done?
June 9, 2019 8:21 PM - Season 2, Episode 1 - Subscribe
Following first-day-of-school events, Madeline is worried by Bonnie’s behavior and, later, is shocked when Abigail says she doesn’t want to go to college. Mary Louise, Celeste’s mother-in-law, offers her unvarnished assessment of Madeline’s character. Jane learns from her new coworker, Corey, that she’s known in town as one of the “Monterey Five.”
Directed by: Andrea Arnold
Teleplay by : David E. Kelley
Story by : David E. Kelley and Liane Moriarty
I'm so happy I got caught up on the previous season to watch this one as it airs. Jesus Christ Meryl Streep freaks me out. I couldn't help but think "if she raised your husband to be such a sociopath, then maaaybe it's not a great idea to give her so much influence over your kids!!"
posted by Liesl at 6:33 AM on June 10, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by Liesl at 6:33 AM on June 10, 2019 [8 favorites]
Some very interesting pieces. And great performances all around again, of course.
Still not sure I'm tracking everything they're laying out out for the season though. At times, it just felt like more stuff happening.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:08 AM on June 10, 2019
Still not sure I'm tracking everything they're laying out out for the season though. At times, it just felt like more stuff happening.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:08 AM on June 10, 2019
well I think this season has started off with a bang! of intensity!! and yes Meryl Streep is incredibly creepy and perfect as Mad MIL. can't wait to see more!!
posted by supermedusa at 10:48 AM on June 10, 2019
posted by supermedusa at 10:48 AM on June 10, 2019
Every line Meryl delivered was solid gold. I would love to know her points of reference for this character, because it feels so specific.
Jeffrey Nordling as Renata’s husband, playing with his train set with drunken malevolence - that gave me goosebumps. Bad things coming from that guy.
(And I could not stop laughing at Madeline’s INEPT ex asking her current husband to talk to Bonnie for him, and Ed’s WTF reaction!)
posted by sallybrown at 3:14 PM on June 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
Jeffrey Nordling as Renata’s husband, playing with his train set with drunken malevolence - that gave me goosebumps. Bad things coming from that guy.
(And I could not stop laughing at Madeline’s INEPT ex asking her current husband to talk to Bonnie for him, and Ed’s WTF reaction!)
posted by sallybrown at 3:14 PM on June 10, 2019 [5 favorites]
I imagine Meryl Streep reading the script for the first time and just giggling uncontrollably in anticipation of bringing this character to life.
posted by doctornecessiter at 5:31 AM on June 11, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by doctornecessiter at 5:31 AM on June 11, 2019 [6 favorites]
> sallybrown: (And I could not stop laughing at Madeline’s INEPT ex asking her current husband to talk to Bonnie for him, and Ed’s WTF reaction!)
All I know is "You're a snide fuck" is my go-to insult from now until eternity.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:56 AM on June 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
All I know is "You're a snide fuck" is my go-to insult from now until eternity.
posted by Rock Steady at 5:56 AM on June 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
As if the performance wasn't terrifying enough, they also had her teeth done to look more skarsgardian. Shudder.
posted by ominous_paws at 11:41 PM on June 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ominous_paws at 11:41 PM on June 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'm not super impressed with the implication that Perry was an abusive rapist because of his mother.
It's remarkable how much Shailene Woodley has not improved, and it's painful to see her acting with Kidman or the any of the other excellent actors -- it's going to be killer to see her in a scene with Streep.
Here's to more Laura Dern!
posted by jeather at 4:04 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
It's remarkable how much Shailene Woodley has not improved, and it's painful to see her acting with Kidman or the any of the other excellent actors -- it's going to be killer to see her in a scene with Streep.
Here's to more Laura Dern!
posted by jeather at 4:04 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I thought all the acting was great, but Meryl Streep was from another planet. A great show that seems to be about so many different things all at once, all of it complicated.
posted by xammerboy at 8:14 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by xammerboy at 8:14 PM on June 12, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm not super impressed with the implication that Perry was an abusive rapist because of his mother.
Where did you see that implication? It hadn't really occurred to me that Perry's relationship with his mother had anything to do with him being a rapist and abuser, or that his mother might be abusive/dangerous, too, but now I feel like an idiot that it didn't.
posted by rue72 at 8:40 AM on June 13, 2019
Where did you see that implication? It hadn't really occurred to me that Perry's relationship with his mother had anything to do with him being a rapist and abuser, or that his mother might be abusive/dangerous, too, but now I feel like an idiot that it didn't.
posted by rue72 at 8:40 AM on June 13, 2019
The implication I caught was that something shaped Mary Louise into the live wire she is, and we’ll learn this season what that was and how it affected her son. The show has focused on how the husband character modeled violence to his sons, who then acted that out in school. So I would guess we’ll be getting more information about how the husband learned that pattern. We haven’t heard much about Mary Louise’s husband yet, I don’t think...
posted by sallybrown at 9:47 AM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sallybrown at 9:47 AM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
That implication was possible in the show, it isn't clear why she is so creepy about things and that will I assume be elucidated this season, but overt in the comments here.
posted by jeather at 10:29 AM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by jeather at 10:29 AM on June 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
It feels like the show's really made a turn in tone in the space of one episode, and I don't like it so much. Everybody's so intense compared to how they were in the entire past season, and a bunch of stuff that was incompletely resolved (Madeleine sleeping with Joseph and confiding in Abigail, Jane rediscovering her interest in men and Tom, Nathan and Ed beefing with each other) seems just swept under the rug. And that's not to say that those are super-important plots that need to be expounded on at length, but the suddenness with which everyone's focus has changed is unsettling.
posted by coolname at 10:56 PM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by coolname at 10:56 PM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
Well I suppose I'll watch this fanfic, even though officially there is no S2 and they all lived happily ever after. Though reading coolname's comment just above, I think there's a lot of stuff I forgot from S1.
Streep is so good, though of course they handed her an excellent role. The little smile she gave Kidman in the car after scolding the kids, that little flash, was so amazing. And Kidman is good in a subtle role, like after Streep's scream when she's asking Kidman isn't she angry too, and Kidman does this very weird kind of uncomfortable head shaking and nodding thing, not even for a second thinking of standing up for what she really thinks, all of that far far hidden from the real situation being endured.
They still don't seem to know what to do with Shailene Woodley's character, although the box she's in feels very reasonable. She's not affluent like the other Five, and she is a bit of a loner anyway. She's a natural person to be friends with Kidman's character but they reject that, showing Woodley's character pushing her away. Child support aside I think Kidman's character might also suggest paying for therapy for Woodley's character.
Dern's husband playing with his trains in that train room while drinking and cradling a baseball bat was hilarious, while the whatever the hell song, "This is my house, I live in it," is going on outside.
posted by fleacircus at 3:12 AM on July 29, 2019
Streep is so good, though of course they handed her an excellent role. The little smile she gave Kidman in the car after scolding the kids, that little flash, was so amazing. And Kidman is good in a subtle role, like after Streep's scream when she's asking Kidman isn't she angry too, and Kidman does this very weird kind of uncomfortable head shaking and nodding thing, not even for a second thinking of standing up for what she really thinks, all of that far far hidden from the real situation being endured.
They still don't seem to know what to do with Shailene Woodley's character, although the box she's in feels very reasonable. She's not affluent like the other Five, and she is a bit of a loner anyway. She's a natural person to be friends with Kidman's character but they reject that, showing Woodley's character pushing her away. Child support aside I think Kidman's character might also suggest paying for therapy for Woodley's character.
Dern's husband playing with his trains in that train room while drinking and cradling a baseball bat was hilarious, while the whatever the hell song, "This is my house, I live in it," is going on outside.
posted by fleacircus at 3:12 AM on July 29, 2019
And I could not stop laughing at Madeline’s INEPT ex asking her current husband to talk to Bonnie for him, and Ed’s WTF reaction!
Yes, that was hilarious. Nathan's SUCH a loser that even his best efforts at constructive action are farcically awful. Madeline is so bitter about Nathan leaving her, and so jealous of Bonnie... I don't know why she can't get it through her head that Ed is an immeasurably better man than Nathan and she's therefore more fortunate than Bonnie.
Which leads me to ask why the hell Bonnie would marry Nathan. She's way too good for him, and she is surely too smart not to know that.
I mean, just throw the whole guy away, ladies.
posted by orange swan at 7:00 PM on December 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
Yes, that was hilarious. Nathan's SUCH a loser that even his best efforts at constructive action are farcically awful. Madeline is so bitter about Nathan leaving her, and so jealous of Bonnie... I don't know why she can't get it through her head that Ed is an immeasurably better man than Nathan and she's therefore more fortunate than Bonnie.
Which leads me to ask why the hell Bonnie would marry Nathan. She's way too good for him, and she is surely too smart not to know that.
I mean, just throw the whole guy away, ladies.
posted by orange swan at 7:00 PM on December 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
Every line Meryl delivered was solid gold. I would love to know her points of reference for this character, because it feels so specific.
In the opening scene - where it was unclear whether her role was MIL, mother to Celeste or nanny - I was getting shades of "Mrs Doubtfire".
posted by rongorongo at 10:04 PM on December 5, 2021
In the opening scene - where it was unclear whether her role was MIL, mother to Celeste or nanny - I was getting shades of "Mrs Doubtfire".
posted by rongorongo at 10:04 PM on December 5, 2021
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posted by nushustu at 8:36 PM on June 9, 2019 [9 favorites]