(Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD reviewed in this Blog Post. The opinions I share are my own.)
I'll get this out of the way first--I didn't expect to like HBO's original series BIG LITTLE LIES: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 2019). In fact, I fully expected to find it a test of my endurance. What I didn't expect was that I would thoroughly enjoy it, which is exactly what I did.
This 2-disc, seven-episode limited series is pure soap opera, but it's the good stuff, like a sparkling champagne cocktail soap opera. We vicariously experience the trials and tribulations of a group of middle-to-upper-class women in a toney California beach town, each with her own heartrending emotional problems and all drawn inextricably together by a terrible shared tragedy which occurred in the previous season and which we newbies gradually pick up on through numerous references and flashbacks.
What happened is that Celeste (Nicole Kidman, BMX BANDITS, THE OTHERS) was married to an abusive husband named Perry, and one night when he was being mean to her one of Celeste's friends pushed him down the stairs to his death. The five women present made a pact to swear that Perry had slipped and fallen on his own, a pact that comes back to haunt them in season two in ways that they can barely dream of.
The others are flighty Madeline (Reese Witherspoon, FREEWAY), whose shaky marriage is compounded by a daughter who refuses to go to college; caustic Renata (Laura Dern), a high-powered businesswoman about to be brought down by her husband's criminally bad investments; serious Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), whose relationship with her mother is rooted in turmoil and abuse; and the sweetly-likable Jane (Shailene Woodley), once raped by Perry and now raising a son by him whom she loves while still too traumatized to have a normal relationship with a new beau.
One thing that surprised me was how easily I started getting interested in all these characters' various subplots and their dramatic and romantic interactions. Performances are fine but realistic--very few "big" acting moments to distract us--and what happens is for the most part very absorbing without getting too complicated and overwrought.
What really ties the whole season together and sells it, though, is the arrival of Perry's mom, Mary Louise, played in expertly subtle and restrained form by Meryl Streep (THE IRON LADY). Gradually insinuating herself into the tightly-knit family of Celeste and her two boys, "Grandma" will reveal her real intentions before long, and they involve taking Celeste to court in order to win full custody of her sons.
This results in some of the season's most potent and riveting scenes as Mary Louise throws everything she can dig up on Celeste at her during the trial--odd sexual activities, dependence on prescription drugs leading to erratic behavior, even occasional violence--while Celeste's friends band together to help. What doesn't help is the lingering memory of how Perry really died, and what such a revelation could do to them all.
Direction, camerawork, and editing flow smoothly enough to never draw attention to themselves, and dialogue is both sharp and natural-sounding, with a wealth of good lines. Kidman, Dern, and Witherspoon are standouts, while their male counterparts hold up their end very well. Streep saves her most effective acting for the scintillating, unpredictable courtroom scenes, yet never overplays.
BIG LITTLE LIES: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON goes on with what happened last season and explores it in whole new directions. By the final episode, the series doesn't leave us hanging, doesn't disappoint, but gets right to the good stuff, and it is good stuff indeed. It seems like it should be more melodramatic than it is, and yet it somehow transcends melodrama--a potentially-cheesy soap opera story served up as haute cuisine.
DVD BONUS FEATURES
‘The Lies Revealed: A. Conversation with the Cast’ Meryl Streep, Shailene Woodley, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Zoe Kravitz and Laura Dern share laughs and mimosas as they look back at Season 2.
EPISODES:
1 "What Have They Done?"
2 "Tell-Tale Hearts"
3 "The End of the World"
4 "She Knows"
5 "Kill Me"
6 "The Bad Mother"
7 "I Want to Know"
BASICS
Street Date: January 7, 2020
Order Due Date: December 3, 2019
BD and DVD Presented in 16x9 widescreen format
Running Time: Feature: Approx.420min
Enhanced Content: Approx.36min
DVD
Price: $29.98SRP ($34.99in Canada)
2DVD-9s
Audio –English (5.1), French
Subtitles –English, French
Big Little Lies: Season 1 & 2 Twin-Pack Price: $49.99 SRP($57.99 in Canada) 4DVD-9s
Audio –English (5.1), French
Subtitles –English, French
#BigLittleLies
Own BIG LITTLE LIES: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON on Digital NOW, and on Blu-ray and DVD January 7, 2020. Season 1 and 2 Twin-Pack also available.
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