Big Little Lies: Season 1, Episode 2 "Serious Mothering"

 Big Little Lies: Season 1, Episode 2 "Serious Mothering"

February 24, 2017

In “Serious Mothering,” themes the show is trying to display is coming to life in this season’s second episode. One of the main themes is bravery. Ziggy going back to school after the accusation, Ed standing up to his wife about a relationship that ended fifteen years prior, Madeleine confronting Renata about a birthday party, etc. These characters show exemplary acts of bravery in this episode. The tension is unreal during this episode. I had to double check to see that no act of murder was secretly committed behind everyone’s backs. This episode proved that the pilot was no fluke. I am truly immersed in everyone’s lives now.

People often compare Madeleine to Witherspoon’s character in Election, but all grown up. She is the busy bee who needs to be at the center of attention. Her loyalty to her friends is unwavering, but some people do not like her kind of craziness. Just ask Bonnie or the guy directing traffic. Here, she stands up to Renata after she discovers Ziggy has been denied an invitation to Annabella’s birthday party. She calls it unfair and protests the party, and she won’t even allow her own Chloe to attend. In terms of Celeste, we see how deep the domestic abuse runs. It is one of those simmering, slow burns that terrifies you and makes you feel for Celeste. The tension is unreal just watching Perry pack his suitcase. Then you see how this domestic abuse turns into throes of passion. This is a reminder that domestic abuse comes in all shapes and forms. Will her suggestions of therapy help?

In the last episode, Adam Scott’s Ed was just a supportive husband with nothing much to lean on. This episode is a whole different story. He tells his wife to stop harping on a relationship that ended a long time ago and questions her love. He also stands up to Nathan which creates even more tensions between the families. Jane is still a mystery. It is clear she is running away from something but exactly who or what is she running away from? Ziggy asks about his father. Jane shunts those questions aside.

Overall, this is another fantastic episode. The performances remain the highlight of the series. Witherspoon and Kidman are wowing me with their works. Did someone say Emmy Awards? Despite the rising amount of tensions, director Vallee does interject some moments of levity. Once again, I like how this is a story about everyday lives within a family, not really about the murder. Although, I am fascinated about the case. Also, the editing of this series has been nothing short of excellent. And I love the California landscape views!

My Grade: A-


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Image
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” Ah, wise words from our new young friend, Ferris Bueller. In John Hughes’s 1986 film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , all Ferris wants to do is take a day and have fun. That is the most simplistic theme the movie has. You can go deeper, but the main takeaway is that it is okay to have fun. That is a motto I have taken to heart. I really loved the film. People consider The Breakfast Club to be Hughes’s best and most important movie. That’s a fine statement to make, but I would personally rank the film number two behind this particular one. The teen characters are instantly relatable, it has a memorable antagonist for the children, and this is basically a thirty-year-old travel guide for Chicago. Just how Woody Allen creates his movies as love letters for New York, this is applicable for John Hughes. A Chicago love letter!   Like all of his films, Hughes wrote...
Read more

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Image
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) The James Bond franchise is one of those franchises that will never die. It has been going strong since the first movie rolled out in the early 1960’s, and new James Bond movies are still produced today. What makes this series unique is they use multiple actors to play the titular character over the years. They all bring their own gravitas to the role, and each Bond is a different man when compared to each other (although the martini, shaken not stirred and the beautiful women among other things remain a constant.) So my first James Bond review for this blog is 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me. This wasn’t my first look at the series, but it was my first look at the older movies. I really liked what I saw. This is an old-fashioned story that combines a spy drama and an action-packed war movie into one package. Like many of the older Bond movies, the story can get borderline preposterous. The cheesiness of the plot did come to grow on me after awhile, even...
Read more

Table for Five (1983)

Image
Table for Five (1983) I can guarantee that ninety percent of my readers here have not seen this tear-jerking melodrama 1983’s Table for Five , yet alone heard of it. Hopefully after reading my kind words, you will be somewhat intrigued by this movie. When doing my research for the film, I was shocked to see how vastly underrated the movie is. There are only a few reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, hardly any information on Wikipedia or Google-hardly anything out there in this vast Internet landscape. Then, why on earth is this movie so good? Sure, maybe some folks will say the movie is just a predictable Lifetime TV movie, but honestly it is much more than that. There are some elements that makes this film seem destined for the television at times, but to me it is much more than that. I consider the movie to be an honest, emotional portrayal about fatherhood and family. Directed by Robert Lieberman, this film is about a man named J.P Tannen (Jon Voight) who fails at being fathe...
Read more