TV Series: Big Little Lies

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Alexander Skarsgard, Laura Dern

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Genre: Drama-Comedy

Director: Jean- Marc Valle

Taking on Liane Moriarty’s best-selling book, the mini- series TV adaptation boasts a cast that needs no further validation. With an idyllic setting in a town called Monterrey all is not well as it seems, after all nothing is as it seems. Somebody is dead. Yes, at the very onset someone is murdered and then the whole episode flashes back and forth to the incident. As the story flashes backwards, Madeline Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) is driving with her younger daughter to her first grade orientation.

One thing leads to another and Madeline meets Jane ‘no middlename’ Chapman (Shailene Woodley), a young-shy single mother who has just moved into the town with her six year-old son. The duo is joined in by Celeste (Nicole Kidman), Madeline’s best friend and a former lawyer. As the leading ladies bond over kids and PTAs, the plot gets interesting as a young girl is hurt and upon asking the finger is pointed at Jane’s son.Battlelines are drawn and the jury is out. But Madeline doesn’t give up so easily. She loves to fight for justice after all. The rest of the episode is basically a build up to the rest of the series as the story shows the struggles of the three moms who are fighting their inner demons in their seemingly perfect upper middle class lives.

Celeste comes across as someone with a lot of mystery surrounding her and an unexplained sadness to her character. Married to a younger Perry (Alexander Skarsgard), she seems to be struggling about something, which is not yet explained to the viewers.

Jane Chapman’s character is also enveloped into a dark mystery. Her real motive of moving to the upscale Monterey is still unknown. Most probably she is running from something or is it someone?

Busybee Madeline is all set and sure in her life. At least that is what she thinks. Life throws enough puzzles her way to leave her confused and incompetent at times. Struggling with her teen aged daughter she feels as if her children are slipping away from her.

A couple of present-day murder investigation scenes are thrown in with the flash back sequences as the parents and other members from the Monterey community are interviewed. As the bits and pieces of mystery are dropped into the story and the intrigue is built into the story as no one knows who is killed and the impending homicide right at the beginning has surely set the tone.

Nuanced performances, high-end production and a glossy look, Big Little Lies ticks off all the right boxes to be one of the most talked about TV dramas today. Will it be able to live up to the expectations built with such a star cast? Only time will tell.