Big Little Lies: Somebody's Dead

February 19, 2017 9:57 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

A suspicious death at a costal elementary school fundraiser draws attention; An incident with the children at school causes battles lines to be drawn.

The first episode of HBO's miniseries - sorry, "limited series" - based on the Liane Moriarty book. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman (both of whom co-produced), Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, Alexander Skarsgård, and Adam Scott.

posted by lunasol (7 comments total)

I hoovered this book up on vacation last week (it's light and fluffy and pretty much the platonic ideal of a beach read). I think I enjoy the show more - it feels a bit darker some of the characters are more nuanced than in the book.
posted by lunasol at 9:59 PM on February 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

I need to get into the book. Sounds like a good read I'd really enjoy. Also, I love reading stories first and watch screening versions afterward to extend an enjoyable experience, live in the story a bit longer and compare my vision with someone else's picture.
posted by HelenShepl at 9:00 AM on February 20, 2017

My wife really enjoyed the book, so she was really looking forward to it. I was so-so going into it - no-one in the cast other than Adam Scott thrills me - but was sufficiently dragged into the mystery by the end. It is interesting that the mystery is both who died and who the murderer is. I will warn that we watched the About Big Little Lies featurette and my wife said she spotted a major spoiler. I rewatched it and spotted it as well, but I'm still a bit confused.
posted by noneuclidean at 9:01 AM on February 20, 2017

Watched about half of it. Having lived in Monterey, I struggled to get past a lot of stuff they did with the geography. "No one would commute up from Big Sur to drop their kids off at public school in Monterey!" "That house is clearly in Carmel Highlands - that's not part of the MPUSD!" "Sure, the views at that cafe are great, but what about the sea lion stink?" I can turn off my brain when something is set in LA, but apparently not in Monterey...
posted by rednikki at 8:52 PM on February 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

I was on board with this show the moment Reese Witherspoon started evoking Tracy Flick.
posted by cazoo at 4:03 PM on February 21, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is a good show. Sort of like The Slap with less pedestrian writing and even better actors.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:59 AM on March 15, 2017

Just watched this. I'm interested, but I'm kinda hoping that at some point the fact that some of the characters are insanely wealthy enough to afford beachfront property in Monterey becomes somehow part of the story, and not just something I'm supposed to ignore because it makes prettier TV this way. I mean just looking at those gorgeous houses I could hear some viewer somewhere griping about "boring white people problems." It does feel to me like it can become more than that, so I'm gonna stick with it for a bit.

But at it's aced the Bechel Test already, which is a pretty big deal for HBO which gets criticized for how much it loves to toss in excess female nudity.
posted by dnash at 7:24 PM on March 26, 2017