“Big Little Lies” deserves its award success

BY TAMARAH WALLACE

HBO’s limited television series adaptation of the best-selling novel by Liane Moriarty of the same name, “Big Little Lies,” first exploded onto the award scene at the primetime Emmys, where lead actress Nicole Kidman, supporting actor Alexander Skarsgård, supporting actress Laura Dern, diretor Jean-Marc Vallée and the show itself all won in their respective categories.

From there, the show and its cast have gone on to win countless Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Television accolades, making the question of its success all the more intriguing.

From #MeToo to the Time’s Up movement, sexual misconduct has been a prevalent topic of discussion recently and a large contributing factor to the content awarded in the few months. “Big Little Lies” is no exception, with many of its contributors citing its portrayal of sexual abuse as a reason for its fortune.

To understand the success of “Big Little Lies,” evaluating the timely issues that lie within are pivotal. Ultimately, the plot begins by following three women, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) in an upper class neighborhood, whose inhabitants seem to lead perfect lives. However, as the storyline progresses, the audience realizes that things are not always as they seem.

The women are linked in many ways as the show goes on; however, the main way is through their children. Most of the people in the town of Monterey Bay, California reside there because they are able to provide their children with a private school-like education through a public school at no cost. This actually seemed a bit ironic considering that the piece went to great lengths to express just how successful everyone in Monterey is, with characters like Renata Klein (Laura Dern) being on several councils for major companies.

The series begins with all of the aforementioned mothers having children go to the town’s elementary school and from there, chaos ensues.

A main theme of the show is its underlying commentary on physical abuse as Celeste is frequently beaten and sexually abused by her husband, Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgård) and Jane is plagued by the memory of the night she was raped by an elusive figure she keeps trying to find, as he is the father of her son.

Overall, the show was well-written, but not particularly witty, and tried to throw viewers for a loop with an ending that was meant to be surprising, but was in fact quite implausible and somewhat foreseeable.

Photo courtesy of HBO