HBO’s Big Little Lies miniseries: reviews and recaps

Among Big Little Lies’ many motifs — waves crashing along the Monterey coast, Leon Bridges crooning, Laura Dern (in her role as maniacal rich lady Renata Klein) shrieking — is sending its female characters for a run. HBO’s melodrama, which concluded its second season on July 21, loves to depict its female stars in motion — a signifier of their refusal to yield to the forces conspiring to control them.

The women of Big Little Lies live in a state of constant conflict, dealing with abusive, or recklessly feckless, husbands, and meddling mothers and mothers-in-law, all while attempting to shield their children from the fallout from all the bad behavior (which they’re guilty of, too!).

Big Little Lies capped off a controversial second season with a self-destructive finale that ripped apart the tenuous bonds of the “Monterey Five,” as the city has dubbed its conspiratorial suburban moms.

Throughout season two, the show has never seemed to know exactly what its theme really was or, more crucially, how that theme might relate to its ensemble of characters. With Meryl Streep joining the cast, all other characters — with the meme-able exception of Laura Dern’s Renata — seemed to be pushed aside for her character Mary Louise’s personal battle with her ex-daughter-in-law Celeste (Nicole Kidman).

Perhaps the biggest lie Big Little Lies ever told was that it needed a second season. With six episodes down and the finale on deck for Sunday, what was an engaging miniseries in its first go-round has softened into storytelling pudding upon its return. Bursts of crackling, cackle-inducing humor and satire have shined through (thanks in large part to the inimitable Laura Dern), but they have failed to outweigh the show’s dull, redundant mush.

It’s not the actresses’ fault — the talented cast have done their best to elevate what they’ve received. Nor is it director Andrea Arnold’s folly. As reported last week, Arnold’s true vision of the show was never seen, as HBO, showrunner David E. Kelley, and season one director Jean-Marc Vallée edited Arnold’s work in post-production.

It’s been difficult to say what the focus of this season of Big Little Lies has been. A lot has happened — a stroke, a proposed revenge threesome on Madeline, Renata’s bankruptcy, Jane’s issues recovering from Perry, Amabella’s panic attack, Celeste slapping Mary Louise — but everything has felt rather redundant, even inconsequential, when compared to the mystery death of last year.

By accumulating a larger mass of drama, season two has found itself with more detritus, and it’s led the show to lean into its soapier, more satirical side. And that doesn’t always work as well as that propulsive central mystery did in season one, when the show was still a miniseries.

So far, one of the great things about Big Little Lies’ second season is how Meryl Streep’s character, Mary Louise, plows through the intricate web of shared secrets and lies around her.

The fourth episode, “She Knows,” makes it clear that she’s opposed to the Monterey Five for reasons beyond just generation gaps, fashion sense, and a distressing willingness to gaslight rape victims; she’s quite gleefully setting herself up as their enemy No. 1, and it’s kind of wonderful to watch.

Every single time I think of Big Little Lies, I think about my love for Renata Klein. Played by Laura Dern, Renata is known to her daughter’s school principal as the “Medusa of Monterey” — a reputation earned by, among other things, Renata yelling at school officials; Renata throwing her husband out of her Tesla; Renata screaming at Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) for staging a rival birthday party; Renata wearing a shade of red that would make Satan blush to a court date; and Renata stating with unflinching anger that she will “not not be rich.”

And, episode three, “The End of the World” contains, in one line, a perfect crystallization of the Gorgon that is Renata Klein: “You deconstructed my little girl into a coma.”

If Big Little Lies’ second-season premiere was the calm before a storm of consequences, then the second episode, “Tell-Tale Hearts,” is a whole new maelstrom of melodrama.

This episode sees our five scheming socialites falling deeper into the web of secrets and lies that have surrounded them, as family tensions, spousal betrayals, and devastating reveals about sexual assault and domestic violence all churn to the surface. It probably shouldn’t be as fun to watch as it is, but Big Little Lies has always been pretty gleeful about its sordid affairs.

Big Little Lies’ season two premiere, “What Have They Done?”, had a lot of work to do to silence skeptics and lure fans of the show back into the world of the “Monterey Five” — the name residents of the California town have given to the women at the story’s center who are suspected of being involved in a murder.

Fortunately, for fans of this tale of intrigue and secrets among a cadre of wealthy suburban moms, there’s good news to be had: Episode one not only delivers a fresh crop of storylines but also establishes a largely lighthearted, even cheeky tone for the rest of the season. Even better, it unearths all kinds of new drama, as its scheming socialites try to resume their lives after the events of season one, while evading the scrutiny of the cops, the town, and the mother of the man they may have killed.

(Warning: This article contains major spoilers for the entirety of HBO’s limited series, Big Little Lies.)

For all of the lethal barbs, snappy comebacks, and compliments dripping with poison condescension that first defined Big Little Lies, the show’s most powerful moments came when no one was speaking at all.

In a spectacular display of acting talent and the most gorgeously filmed elementary school fundraiser possibly ever, HBO’s Big Little Lies aired its gripping final episode on April 2 — or did it?

“You Get What You Need” has (rightfully) received stellar reviews across the board for how well it wrapped up seven episodes’ worth of dark and tangled suburban webs. But the finale’s brilliance has also inspired demands for another season of Big Little Lies, even though it was never intended to be anything more than a miniseries, and even though its season covered just about everything that happened in the Liane Moriarty novel that inspired it. Big Little Lies was so good, the argument goes, that it would be a shame not to let it continue.

This article discusses the season finale of Big Little Lies, “You Get What You Need,” and contains major spoilers.

“You Get What You Need,” the seventh and final installment of HBO’s Big Little Lies miniseries, is profoundly gripping, arguably one of the most engrossing and uncomfortable TV episodes of this young year.

Between movies, books, music, comics, podcasts, and the ever-growing glut of TV, there’s a lot of pop culture out there.

It can be a lot to keep up with. So we here at Vox Culture — where our current obsessions include the wealthy Monterey housewives of HBO’s Big Little Lies, a new Southern Gothic podcast from the folks behind Serial, and an excellent new YA novel — have a few suggestions for how to make the best use of your pop culture-consuming time.

Spoiler warning: This article discusses and recaps the sixth episode of Big Little Lies.

There will be a void in my television schedule when Big Little Lies ends next week.

Spoiler alert: This article discusses the plot and happenings of “Once Bitten,” the fifth episode of HBO’s Big Little Lies.

Now that we’re getting toward the conclusion of HBO’s Big Little Lies miniseries, it’s time to stop pretending this show is merely guilty pleasure TV.

Spoiler alert: This article discusses the plot and happenings in the fourth episode of Big Little Lies.

Last week’s episode of Big Little Lies, “Living the Dream,” felt like a break from the homicide looming over Monterey — it even included a day trip to Disney on Ice. This week’s episode, “Push Comes to Shove,” feels like someone grabbing the steering wheel and getting us back on track.

Spoiler warning: This article recaps the third episode of HBO’s Big Little Lies and discusses specific plot details at length.

On Big Little Lies, behind every strong woman is a pretty terrible spouse. “Living the Dream,” the series’ third episode, gives the dads of Monterey a sliver of the spotlight. And each one does his best to disappoint.

Spoiler warning: Because of the Oscars airing the same night, HBO made this episode available to watch on HBO Go and HBO Now ahead of Big Little Lies’ usual airtime of Sundays at 9 pm. Accordingly, this article contains spoilers and discusses the plot of the second episode.

“Serious Mothering,” the second episode of HBO’s Big Little Lies, makes you forget the show will involve a murder at some point. It’s a dive into the politics of parenting in Monterey, a pulpy look at how high school melodrama can carry on into adulthood. The episode really leans into its Heathers/Mean Girls nastiness.

Spoiler warning: This article recaps the first episode of HBO’s Big Little Lies and discusses specific plot details at length.

“Someone’s Dead,” the series premiere of HBO’s Big Little Lies, was designed to lure you in with some big mysteries. The biggest one, of course, is which character will end up dead and who will kill them.