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Jul 22, 2019 · Big Little Lies. I Want to Know. So many apologies to Chekhov. Nobody drove off the bridge. That gun in the title sequence never fired (or reappeared this season). Mary Louise’s cross necklace ...
- Hillary Kelly
- Contributor
Jul 21, 2019 · I Want to Know: Directed by Andrea Arnold. With Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern. Celeste questions Mary Louise about a tragic event from Perry's childhood; Madeline worries their lie is tearing the Monterey Five apart.
- (4.5K)
- Crime, Drama, Mystery
- Andrea Arnold
- 2019-07-21
- Sure, we got Meryl - but at what cost?
- Big Little Lies Season 2 Finale
- Verdict
By Alicia Lutes
Updated: Dec 15, 2020 9:10 pm
Posted: Jul 22, 2019 5:10 am
This review contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of Big Little Lies, titled "I Want to Know."
At the end of Season 1 of Big Little Lies, Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgård), husband to Celeste (Nicole Kidman) fell to his death, pushed by Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz). But the story wasn’t as simple as all that: he was abusive to Celeste, behavior that trickled down to their sons. He also raped Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley), who went on to raise his subsequent son, Ziggy. Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) and Renata (Laura Dern) were also there, for comedic and dramatic effect, and the series was scattered with a lot of scenic drives as a visual shorthand for contemplation.
When Season 2 was announced, the series promised to dig into all of that, the waves (both literal and metaphorical, we are in Monterey) that fanned out in the wake of Perry’s death, and the lie that supposedly “set them free,” even though we all knew it would do anything but.
It was supposed to be surprising that Bonnie was the culprit, and it was. But after promising us more contextual information about Zoe Kravitz’s character and her history with abuse (something further complicated by the fact that, in Moriarty’s original novel, Bonnie’s abuser was her father, and both were white), Big Little Lies planted its flag atop Caricature Mountain, turning Bonnie and her relationships with her mother, father, husband, and daughter into little more than fleeting magic tricks. Rather than allowing Bonnie to become a main driver of the story, instead of investigating the real ripple effects of abuse and childhood trauma, or examining the complexities of race, or the layered dynamics between mothers and daughters, David E. Kelley and Liane Moriarty gave us mysticism and visions and unrevealing flashbacks peppered throughout an ultimately unfulfilling season finale.
Season 2 should’ve been a two-pronged story, focused on Bonnie and Celeste. Their traumas, the behaviors learned and developed through experiencing or witnessing the abuse of others, of those who love the ones they hurt: that’s a fascinating story. And they could’ve gone there. Instead we got a stunt-cast Meryl Streep (because what other addition could make the series bigger?) in a new role invented for the show, and lost out on learning anything about the woman who actually killed Perry.
This isn’t to say the Streep of it all was bad — she certainly played her part, and damned if I didn’t enjoy the lot of it — but the show ultimately sacrificed deepening and expanding Bonnie’s characterization in order to give the lion’s share of the abuse storyline to Perry and Mary Louise and the trickle-down therein. To replace real storytelling with prophetic dreams and spirituality and a few flashbacks to Bonnie’s childhood is not only at lazy and offensive, it’s throwing away a story that doesn’t get the prestige TV treatment like the Perrys and Celestes of the world often do.
In the end, Big Little Lies was itself sort of a gaslighter. Will this be the end of its run on TV? One would sincerely hope. Not only has the story run its course, ending where it inevitably should've, but the reports of behind-the-scenes meddling from Kelley, HBO and Season 1 director Jean-Marc Vallee to undermine the vision of Season 2 helmer Andrea Arnold have likely poisoned the well for a potential Season 3.
Big Little Lies’ second season ended with happy endings abounding... so long as you weren’t Bonnie Chapman. Though the actresses on the series did a tremendous job with the often underwritten material they were given, the series did not deliver on the promises it set up in Season 1. An undoubtedly enthralling endcap to the often haunting, beautiful...
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Jul 22, 2019 · Celeste scoffs. She specifies that Mary Louise has seen her get physical with the twins once, and surely she can relate to losing her temper. She asks Mary Louise if, as a young mother, she ever ...
Jul 22, 2019 · What it means when the women of Big Little Lies go running; Big Little Lies’ season 2 finale ends on a lackluster, disappointing note; Big Little Lies tried to justify its second season. It ...
- Aja Romano
Jul 21, 2019 · July 21, 2019 7:08pm. HBO. [This story contains spoilers from the Big Little Lies season two finale, “I Want to Know.”] The promised face-off between Meryl Streep ‘s Mary Louise and Nicole ...
The Bad Mother. Celeste is blindsided by Mary Louise. Bonnie contemplates a relief from her ongoing guilt. 7. I Want to Know. Celeste questions Mary Louise about a tragic event from Perry’s childhood. Stream Season 2 Episode 7 of Big Little Lies online or on your device plus recaps, previews, and other clips.
