Big Little Lies: A Review of Controversial But Emotional Season 2

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The series has lost many of its attractive features, but continues to raise important topics.

The second season of one of the main projects of HBO - "Big Little Lies" has ended. Its plot directly continues the story that was presented two years ago in the first season: after the accidental murder of Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgard), the heroines try to hide their involvement, passing off his death as an accident.

But each of them is very upset about what happened. And on top of that, Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep), the murdered man's mother, comes to town. She decided to take care of her grandchildren and is trying with all her might to get to the bottom of the truth.

Even the very beginning of the second season looks simpler and differs from the original idea of the series. And there is a simple explanation for this.

They wanted to end Big Little Lies in Season 1.

This project is based on the book, and its plot was completely retold in the first seven episodes, leading to a logical ending. But the series became a real hit, winning the love of both the public and critics, and then the producers decided to renew.

This is what turned out to be the main disadvantage of the continuation. It just seemed unnecessary. Director Jean-Marc Vallee created an integral seven-hour film in his own non-linear manner, presenting the audience with a new kind of detective: the entire first season, not only the name of the killer is not known, but also the victim herself.

And in the finale, it turned out that it was not the crime itself that was more important here, but the past of Jane (Shailene Woodley), which flashbacks obsessively reminded of.

It seemed that then they put an end to it. But now there is a second season. And with him everything is far from so unambiguous.

Filming difficulties and comparison with the original

In the first episodes, it is immediately striking that the sequel has lost almost all the trademark features of the original. Even the video sequence has changed. Valle refused to shoot new episodes, and instead of him, director Andrea Arnold was hired, who brought her vision: she added a manual camera, abandoned non-linearity and, in addition, dealt with the color scheme differently.

This idea is even good. Since the director is different, there is no point in copying his style, it is better to show a new approach. But, as it turned out later, the same Jean-Marc Vallee was responsible for the final editing. And therefore, from about the middle of the season, standard flashbacks, non-linear narration and the inclusion of a soundtrack in the plot return.

But if earlier it was a significant part of the story, now it only creates a feeling of too abrupt transition between scenes and a broken plot: it still feels that the source material belongs to another author.

Perhaps Arnold's approach was a little simpler and more "head-on", but still he added freshness to the picture. And closer to the finale, the action sometimes becomes a frank copy of scenes from the first season.

And this created even more problems. After all, the sequel is inevitably compared with the original. Even at the time of the release of the second season of "True Detective", which was criticized by many, a saying appeared among the audience:

The main problem with the second season of this series is the existence of the first.

And Big Little Lies gets into an even more difficult situation. After leaving the project, Valle released a mini-series "Sharp Objects" with Amy Adams, largely devoted to the topic of childhood trauma and the relationship between children and parents.

Consciously or not, the writers of the second season of Big Little Lies took up the same theme: Bonnie's parents (Zoe Kravitz) and, most importantly, Mary Louise Wright appear in the plot. A similar issue compels one to compare the series with Valle's new work. Again, not in favor of Big Little Lies.

Lack of dynamics and intrigue

The lack of a literary basis presented the authors with a daunting task. The first season was built as a detective story, it smoothly led the heroines to the final point - murder - and at the same time showed the investigation of the crime. And already in this captivating shell, the dramatic component was unfolding.

To arrange a new tragedy in the second season would be akin to turning the series into Murder, She Wrote: such a move would destroy all the realism of the situation. Therefore, the writers chose an honest, but not the most profitable way - they simply left the heroines to experience what happened.

Honest, because it fits with the very idea of a continuation. Since the second season is, in fact, a reflection of the authors on the popularity of the first, then let the characters try to figure out what happened.

And this is unprofitable, since the continuation has lost all the intrigue and now captures not the plot, but only familiar characters. They repeatedly return to the themes of the past and try to delve into the chain of rumors and suspicions that are spreading in society.

Each of the heroines has their own problems. Celeste (Nicole Kidman) is trying to cope with an obsessive mother-in-law who is obsessed with the death of her son, Jane is trying to start a new life, but rumors about her child's father have already spread, Madeleine (Reese Witherspoon) is quarreling with her husband, and Renata (Laura Dern) finds out that their the family went bankrupt. But the worst of all is for Bonnie: she can not get away from what happened and completely withdraws into herself.

Only one thing unites them - a lie. And in this regard, the second season fully justifies the name of the series. It is mostly devoted to how deception and inability to open up affect family relationships. Or rather, they destroy them, leading to the understanding that the truth, no matter how terrible it may be, gives the main thing - trust.

But, unfortunately, such a plot structure divides it too much into lines, which now have almost nothing in common. The heroines sometimes intersect, but most of the time, each of them deal with their own concerns. And there is no talk of a holistic history.

And yet this is a very important story

But all these shortcomings are visible only when comparing the continuation with the first season. You can talk about problems and shortcomings as much as you want, but "Big Little Lies" still remains one of the most important statements about domestic violence and relationships on television in recent years.

The first season brought up several very important topics. And first of all, he spoke about emotional attachment to the rapist and the constant attempts of the victim to justify him in his own eyes.

The second season develops this idea further and shows that the tormentor, oddly enough, can not let go of the victim even after his death. First, because the usual way of life has been disrupted. Second, because society is still striving to justify it.

And the role of "society" here is Perry Wright's mother. And the authors acted quite wisely, taking on this role Meryl Streep. Her acting talent made it possible to create such a realistic character that from a certain moment she just wants to be hated.

She asks the same eerie questions over and over again, which, unfortunately, are so fond of repeating in reality when discussing such troubles:

Why didn't you leave your husband? Why didn't you go to the police? Or maybe you yourself wanted it that way?

All this, coupled with the pressure on the brightest memories and the appeal to family ties, turns into a real torture for the victims.

This line is, of course, centered on Celeste and Jane. But the rest of the heroines do not turn into a simple background. After all, the lies that unite them alienate women from their families. As a result, it turns out that Madeleine can sincerely talk to the not very pleasant Renata, but hides everything from her husband.

And Bonnie is actually left alone with her experiences. They don't really like to talk about such topics in films and detectives. For some reason, it is generally accepted in scripts that just killing or self-defense is easy for a person. In fact, such a trauma is experienced very hard and literally destroys the heroine from the inside.

In addition, Bonnie has another problem - a difficult relationship with her mother. Here the contrast with Mary Louise Wright looks vivid: Bonnie's parents want only good, but they do not even try to listen to their daughter's opinion.

These lines will not converge at the end in some bizarre and unexpected way. “Big Little Lies” has finally ceased to be a detective. Now it is a very emotional drama about PTSD and the heavy burden of lying.

It cannot be denied that the sequel takes on less than the first season. There are too many drawn-out scenes in it, there are several dramatic lines that are not very necessary, and the characters sometimes look too grotesque.

But still, this series can be forgiven even for such shortcomings. It was shot amazingly beautifully. And most importantly, he frankly talks about many of the most secret and shameful moments of life. Those that are usually hidden behind external well-being.

How necessary the continuation was - it is up to each viewer to decide. But still, this season is worth watching. Although, despite the open final, the third would definitely be superfluous. The story has come to an end.