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Awards Tracker: What Shows Have The Upper Hand After The Guild Awards?

The major guild awards are all announced. What shows have gained an upper hand from the various voting guilds? Jalal Haddad analyzes the recent winners.

Last weekend the guild awards season wrapped up with the WGA awards, and some shows are beginning to emerge as the frontrunners of the year, especially for best comedy and drama series. This time last year, Game of Thrones and Veep gained momentum at the guild awards, and no other shows could beat them once Emmy season began. These shows boast the most momentum heading into spring.

Comedy Series

Veep continued racking up awards from the directing and editing guilds as well as another SAG award for Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It’s hard to imagine the show not entering the Emmy race as the clear frontrunner for its upcoming final season, but surprisingly a clear alternative has emerged with Donald Glover’s Atlanta. The FX comedy won the top comedy award at the PGAs as well as two WGA awards for best comedy series and best new series. Months ago Atlanta seemed too edgy to be embraced by Emmy voters, but after massive support from the Golden Globes, the critics, and various guilds, the auteur-driven comedy seems likely to go head to head against Veep in multiple races including directing and writing.

A big part of being nominated for and winning a directing or writing prize at the Emmys is strategy. Episode selection often proves critical in receiving that coveted nominations. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s WGA win for an individual comedic episode only further proves that element of the race. WGA voters singled out the episode “Kimmy Goes on a Playdate!” as the best comedic episode of 2016, and surprisingly it wasn’t even the Tina Fey penned one. This proves that, if Netflix stopped submitting six or seven Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt episodes in a given season, the show might just earn its first writing nomination.

Other than multiple awards for Veep and Atlanta, the other major comedies failed to earn recognition throughout the winter awards season. Past favorites like Transparent, Silicon Valley, and Black-ish all repeatedly lost various awards. Surprisingly Modern Family continued its streak at the Cinema Audio Society Awards while a string of dramedies (Orange is the New Black, Shameless, Mozart in the Jungle) won random awards here and there. In the end none of them are going to make a dent in the major comedy series races.

Drama Series

When HBO announced that Game of Thrones was going into a yearlong hiatus, the Emmy race for best drama series became its most unpredictable since before the days of Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Guild awards season is basically over, and the most unlikely of frontrunners has emerged, Netflix’s Stranger Things. Both the Producers Guild and the Screen Actors Guild awarded the sci-fi show top honors – very telling seeing as the PGA award has matched up with the Emmy choice twelve of the past sixteen years. Now that the Emmys are decided on a wide scale Academy vote as opposed to a blue ribbon panel, it makes sense that a cultural phenomenon like Stranger Things picks up steam. It may not have the critical appeal like past winners, but it dominated popular culture all of last summer. As with the Oscars, voters seem to be in the mood for something fun and exciting.

Last weekend, the Writers Guild singled out This Is Us’s “The Trip” as the best dramatic episode of 2016, proving that the family network drama is popular and acclaimed enough to go head to head with any premium or streaming network show. Singling out “The Trip” also shows that the show is at its most powerful when highlighting Sterling K. Brown’s Randall. If NBC wants to ensure This Is Us becomes a major Emmy player, they might want to consider sending every voter screeners of the episode as well as last week’s “Memphis.”

The Crown won everything it was expected to including two SAG awards, a Costume Designer’s Guild award, and a bunch of Golden Globes. It proves that the British period drama will fill the void left by the end of Downton Abbey. Now that Claire Foy has swept every actress award, she has also become the frontrunner in the best actress race, especially with Maslany out of contention this year and Viola Davis losing steam. The Americans won the top WGA award hinting that the show’s breakthrough at the Emmys last year wasn’t a fluke.

HBO might want to reconsider a strong campaign for Westworld, the sweeping sci-fi epic that was supposed to be the alternative in a year without Game of Thrones. The Westworld team went home empty handed at the PGA, DGA, SAG, WGA, ACE, and even the Golden Globes, although it did win a couple of awards for makeup and art direction. At the rate, Westworld doesn’t appear to resonate with voters, and it might only be a major contender to win in the craft categories.

Limited Series

Talking about the limited series race at this point is basically futile since the biggest titles haven’t even premiered yet. It is worth noting that HBO’s The Night Of won a few guild awards over the past couple of weeks including a DGA award as well as an ACE Eddie. It’s already been seven months since the crime series premiered, and there was initially some concern that there would be a case of “out of sight out of mind” when it came to Emmy voters filling out their ballots. If the guilds are any indicator, The Night Of will remain a big part of the conversation even up against juggernauts like Big Little Lies, Feud, and the third season of Fargo.

Readers, what were your takeaways from the guild awards? Is Stranger Things unbeatable in drama series? Will The Night Of be remembered nearly a year after it premiered?

Tom Perrotta On Creating, Evolving, and Ending HBO’s Acclaimed ‘The Leftovers’

Author Tom Perrotta talks to Awards Daily, as this April starts the third and final season of the critically acclaimed cult favorite The Leftovers.

Celebrated author Tom Perrotta explores the simple aspects of life. Faith. Marriage. Fidelity. Infidelity. Life. Death. You know, really “light” subject matter. Tackling such heavy topics proved fruitful for the Boston-based writer. His novels Election and Little Children became critically acclaimed films starring the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Kate Winslet, and Patrick Wilson. Co-authoring duties on Little Children brought him a much deserved Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

“It’s kind of an amazing experience, especially for someone like me who never expected to be there,” Perrotta said. “I really was purely a fiction writer for most of my life and was just a fan of movies… It was almost like a Zelig experience.”

But it’s his 2011 novel The Leftovers that brought Tom Perrotta to the small screen. The novel, an hypnotic exploration of a rapture-like event called the “Sudden Departure,” evolved from a public and personal events. Research on Christian fundamentalism for his novel The Abstinence Teacher, the 9/11 tragedy, and the unexpected death of his father all contributed to the story. Perrotta shopped the novel to HBO with an eye toward a dramatic series, and the critically acclaimed The Leftovers premiered in June 2014.

April brings an end to The Leftovers and its touching mediation on grief and loss. For the uninitiated, The Leftovers centers on the Garvey family (led by Justin Theroux and Amy Brenneman) as they navigate life after the Sudden Departure. Unlike most standard network dramas, The Leftovers is one to contemplate and savor bit by bit. Its first two seasons are now available to stream via HBO GO or HBO NOW.

Evolving The Leftovers Beyond The Page

To bring The Leftovers to life, Tom Perrotta partnered with Damon Lindelof, writer/producer of the Emmy-winning ABC series Lost. Their collaboration and the instincts of the talented cast helped to shape the series in ways that were direct departures from the novel. Characters forged new relationships that drove the narrative in compelling directions. Critics Choice Award-winner Carrie Coon’s Nora Durst, in particular, saw dramatic changes from page to screen.

“The book Nora is a very isolated figure. She’s basically just living inside her grief,” Perrotta explained. “In the show, we’ve given her this job with the Department of the Sudden Departure, and it’s been a source of many wonderful episodes for the show.”

The characters differences exist beyond Nora Durst. Patti Levin had a minor presence running the Mapleton chapter of the Guilty Remnant in the novel. However, Ann Dowd’s remarkable performance as Levin led to an expansion of the role, even as certain events made a Season 2 return… challenging. Christopher Eccleston’s Matt Jamison also grew in importance in the transition to screen.

“Maybe there are writers who would be alarmed by this, but to me that’s been the greatest surprise and adventure of collaborating – seeing the novel get transformed in all these interesting ways,” Perrotta said. “Many times it’s by the writing, but it’s also by the actors who bring their own personality into a role and make us see things we might not have seen had a different actor been playing that role.”

Leftovers Down Under In Season 3

Season 1 of The Leftovers took place in the novel’s original setting of Mapleton, New York. Season 2 shifted the action to the fictional town of Jarden, Texas, untouched by the Sudden Departure. The 8-episode final season again relocates, moving the cast to Australia. Shrouded in secrecy typical for the series, The Leftovers Season 3 introduces Scott Glenn as a series regular while adding Lindsay Duncan to the cast. The ending may be bittersweet, but it’s one for which Tom Perrotta and team were prepared.

“We did know that this was our final season which was a gift from HBO,” Perrotta explained. “We designed the whole season with that in mind. The whole season is about endings.”

For Awards Daily’s full interview with Tom Perrotta, check out the podcast link with this article or by subscribing to the Water Cooler Podcast on iTunes.

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The Leftovers Season 3 premieres on HBO April 16. You can find Seasons 1 and 2 on HBO GO and HBO NOW.

Hulu’s ‘Castle Rock’ Is Really Happening

Hulu teams with J.J. Abrams, Stephen King and for new Hulu Original Series Castle Rock, set in the Stephen King universe

SANTA MONICA and BURBANK, Calif. (February 21, 2017) — Hulu plans to take viewers into the chilling world of acclaimed, best-selling author Stephen King in the new Hulu Original drama series Castle Rock, from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, Warner Bros. Television and executive producers/writers Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason. Hulu ordered a 10-episode first season of the on-going series with production set to begin this year. A teaser trailer for Castle Rock has been viewed more than one million times since it was released on Friday, February 17.

A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional Maine town of Castle Rock figured prominently in King’s literary career: Cujo, The Dark Half, IT and Needful Things, as well as novella The Body and numerous short stories such as Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption are either set there or contain references to Castle Rock. Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that explores the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories.

Castle Rock reunites Hulu, King, Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television, which previously collaborated on event series 11.22.63, based on King’s novel. The series will stream exclusively in the U.S. on Hulu and Warner Bros. Worldwide Television Distribution will distribute globally.

Castle Rock focuses on characters and situations created by Stephen King. Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason developed the project for television and will serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson and Liz Glotzer. The series hails from Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

‘Silicon Valley’ Drops a Season 4 Teaser

Sure hope Season 4 is better than Season 3… Right, Megan? Season 4 premieres April 23rd on HBO.

Oscar Predictions, Big Little Lies, and Grammy’s Lemonade Problem

Episode 117: The Water Cooler Gang makes our 2017 Oscar predictions in all categories, reviews HBO’s Big Little Lies, and talks Beyonce at the Grammys.

This week at the Water Cooler, we tackle some of this week’s biggest entertainment events. First up, we give our full-on, never-fail, 2017 Oscar predictions in advance of next Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. These foolproof Oscar predictions include a highly controversial prediction coming from Megan that gives Joey heart palpitations. Then, we finally talk at great length about HBO’s Emmy-worthy limited series Big Little Lies, which premiered last night. We cover what works, what works brilliantly, and what Emmy nominations we think the series will merit.

But before we gush, we talk about last weekend’s Grammys, the various Adele / Beyonce controversies, and what the ceremony ultimately says about our culture in our TV Tidbits segment. Megan also introduces HBO’s latest comedy Crashing (starring Pete Holmes), and Clarence previews tonight’s premiere of Bates Motel Season 5.

Finally, we close with the Flash Forward to the television we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for remembering to rate us on iTunes!

03:22 – TV Tidbits
35:50 – Oscar Predictions
59:00 – Big Little Lies
01:29:52 – Flash Forward

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‘Crashing’ Review: Pete Holmes’s Life in Pieces is Fresh and Funny

HBO’s Crashing offers a new spin on an established TV genre, and the Pete Holmes series is as thoughtful as it is hilarious.

A lot of TV shows about comedians follow established acts (Seinfeld, Louie), those trying to adapt to changing times (The Comedians), and then those who really don’t give a F*** anymore (Curb Your Enthusiasm). HBO’s Crashing, starring Pete Holmes and from executive producer Judd Apatow, is none of the above, and ultimately a refreshing take on a familiar genre.

Holmes, on the show, is not an established comic. Instead he’s a former pastor who relies on his wife (lovely Lauren Lapkus) to support him as he tries his hand in comedy, something, from the sound of it, he’s been trying his hand at for a while now.

“It’s like a wife supporting her husband through medical school,” he insists throughout the pilot episode.

Only the outcome of medical school is a job with $900,000 salary, says comic Artie Lange, who plays himself in the series and HAS to be what SNL‘s Bobby Moynahan models “Drunk Uncle” after.

The first episode titled “Artie Lange” is written by Holmes and directed by Apatow, and is reminiscent of Apatow’s film Funny People with its candid take on stand-up comedy. But Crashing doesn’t follow standard formula.

After he finds out his wife is cheating on him, Pete heads to a comedy club in Manhattan to get his mind off of it, but soon finds himself on stage when an act doesn’t show. In most TV series, this is the point in the episode where Pete takes the stage and floors everyone with his frank comedy based on actual events in his life. But this is not the case. He flops and does not pull a Tig Notaro (who notably took the stage after a cancer diagnosis), where he’s able to make comedy out of tragedy.

Final Verdict

What makes this show interesting is that in addition to making commentary on the culture surrounding stand-up comedy and what it takes to make it big, it also has a thoughtful plot about a man being forced to start a new life on his own, especially after he confesses that his wife does everything for him and has been the only woman he’s ever really been with.

Sounds like there’s a lot of material for future acts—and episodes.

‘Bates Motel’ Season 5 Premiere A Highmore Tour De Force

Bates Motel Season 5 premieres Monday night with Freddie Highmore delivering career-best work as the troubled Norman Bates.

Bates Motel closed its fourth season by delivering the highly anticipated death of Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga). Over time, this moment evolved into one I’d personally both dreaded and hotly anticipated. It did not disappoint. Instead of Norma falling to a violent end (as originally imagined in Psycho IV: The Beginning), Norman (Freddie Highmore) treated her to a swift and painless gassing. Ultimately, Norman put Norma to sleep as best he could. He offered her a way to live in an idyllic state in which she could never leave him. Bates Motel Season 5 returns us to the Bates Motel two years after Norma’s death, and she lingers still. We’ve had time to grieve, but now it’s time for closure. Judging from the pilot, an excellent closure it will be.

Bates Motel reigns as one of the most underrated television series of all time. With Season 5, the stakes appear as high for the series as they’ve ever been. The modern-set story finally evolves into Psycho-familiar territory. Norman Bates lives alone, managing the motel and catering to the needs of his deceased mother. Most hauntingly, the episode immediately shows Norman living between two worlds. The idyllic world where Norma cooks and cleans for her son dominates his fantasy world, yet we see the sad squalor in which Norman truly resides. Over the two episodes provided for review, Norman interacts fairly well with the residents of White Pine Bay, even if nearby lakes seem to be filling up with bodies.

Bates Motel Season 5 — (Photo: Cate Cameron/A&E)

We’re moving closer to the events of the original film. But now we have the special spin brilliantly re-imagined by producer/writer Kerry Ehrin and team. The Season 5 premiere introduces the iconic character of Sam Loomis, played by Austin Nichols. However, this take somewhat serves as the flip side to the original iconic material. Sam comes across as a bit of a cad, and we meet his wife, Madeline (Isabelle McNally), of course a dead ringer for Norma Bates. You may know Psycho, but you don’t know this side of it.

Final Verdict

I’m hesitant to delve too far into the details of the pilot. Given we know (theoretically) how this ends, any surprises should be nurtured. It’s no surprise, however, that Freddie Highmore continues to deliver an astonishingly frank portrayal of Norman Bates. His performance echoes the nebbish subtleties of Anthony Perkins’s original work. Yet, he layers the take with the frank sexuality that torments Norman. Highmore provides fearless moments throughout both episodes, unafraid to commit to the role. Farmiga remains as great as ever, even if we no longer have her wonderful real-world Norma Bates. I do love, though, the amazing moments of pitch black humor she sprinkles in her line readings. Wait for the moment they open the freezer in the basement. Yup, you know what’s in it. It’s not like they haven’t been here before.

When Bates Motel Season 5 finally closes its doors, it will be a bittersweet moment. But, until then, the show walks a tightrope act as it winds its way through the Psycho lore. We’ve yet to see what Sheriff Romero (Nestor Carbonell) will do once he gets out of prison where he’s been working out with rage for two years. Or Rihanna’s take on Janet Leigh’s iconic Marion Crane. Or that infamous moment she steps in the Bates Motel shower. We’ll all be holding our breath until that happens, but the fun lies in the surprise and anticipation until that moment. Welcome back, Bates Motel. You have been and will be sorely missed.

Awards Tracker: Bring on the Ladies! Limited Series Actress Race Is Hot!

Sorry Sarah Paulson, you’re last year’s news. This year’s Limited Series Actress race is jam-packed with serious contenders.

Remember last year when we commented on the stuffed category known as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie? It turned out a moot point since Sarah Paulson spent most of her time these last few months snatching trophies, but it was refreshing to see a lot of strong work from many fine actresses. It’s only February and it appears that 2017 might have 2016 beat in terms of the number contenders (to be fair, anything beating 2016 in any form is a welcome thought) competing for this year’s prize in the Limited Series Actress race.

The Women Of Big Little Lies

We aren’t going to stop talking about the juicy HBO series any time soon, so just take a seat and let me gush over the cast of this remarkably addictive show. Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern are the holy trinity for me right now. I expect Dern to receive a hardcore Supporting Actress campaign, and Shailene Woodley might receive the same even though she’s one of the main characters. She might get pushed to the supporting race since both Witherspoon and Kidman are much bigger names (helloooo category fraud), but the entire cast is top-notch. Witherspoon is better here than she has been in some of her big screen projects (she’s loose, charming, and looks like she’s having a ball) while Kidman really grounds her scenes when her arc could have been a total cliche. Both women rightfully earn their buzz.

The Gaggle Of Feuding Starlets

You can’t talk about the Limited Series actress category without mentioning Jessica Lange. Thanks to Ryan Murphy (and, you know, her legendary acting chops), she’s received two Emmy Awards for her performances in American Horror Story. She has a slot pretty much saved for her for Feud: Bette and Joan where she plays Hollywood royalty Joan Crawford. The highly anticipated show is wall-to-wall actresses playing actresses, so this one is going to be a doozy (early word is that it’s an accomplishment). It’s not that Lange will go unchallenged, however. Susan Sarandon plays Bette Davis, and we don’t need to remind readers that Davis was the one nominated for an Oscar for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Sarandon hasn’t really had a significant role on a television series before, so her involvement is pretty big. A word to the Television Academy: have the balls to put both women up for lead Limited Series Actress. Don’t pull some bullshit and try to put one in Lead and one in Supporting. That would be a disservice to the story. Also, the cast features Sarah Paulson, Judy Davis, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, so don’t be surprised if Feud leads the limited series nominations (being a period piece with gorgeous costumes and sets can’t hurt either).

Third Time’s A Crime

ABC’s American Crime is the only limited series from a major network that can hold its own against its cable counterparts. After the critically lauded second season, John Ridley’s American Crime returns in early March with a cast of respectable performers. Felicity Huffman has been nominated the last two years, so she’s a threat to be honored again while we don’t know the size of of the other actresses’ roles (Huffman has been given top billing in the first main trailer). Lili Taylor, a deserving nominee from last season, will return as will Emmy winner Regina King. Sandra Oh and Cherry Jones also join this year. The trailer shows us that the third season will focus on labor issues in North Carolina, and it feels like it will land a definite punch.

Shots Fired Across The Bow

While ABC has cornered the limited series market for network television, FOX is throwing itself into the ring with the 10-part miniseries Shots Fired from Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood. When an African-American officer shoots a white college student, things start to fall apart in a small North Carolina town (sheesh, what’s going on in North Carolina). Sanaa Lathan plays a special investigator who tries to piece together the entire story, and Helen Hunt appears as a governor who is trying win a re-election campaign. Hunt is given top billing but listed on FOX’s site as a guest star, and that Southern twang is mighty inviting. Is Lathan going to get a push? FOX isn’t known for getting into the Limited Series categories at the Emmys (no performer for the network has ever been nominated in this category), so is it time for them to step up? Or is Shots Fired a more commercial play?

Give Her A Hand… And An Emmy!

Fact: Elisabeth Moss has never won an Emmy Award. We all should be ashamed of ourselves! Ms. Peggy Olson may have strutted down the hallways at the end of Mad Men, but she never managed to take home any gold for her role on the respected AMC drama. She returns to television for Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, and audiences are dying to see this one. Set in a dystopian future where men stripped women of most of their rights, and they use handmaids strictly for fertilization. Could these troubling times make Handmaid’s a huge hit and usher Moss (finally) to the Emmy stage? NOTE: This series may be submitted as a Drama Series.

The Big O To Land The Big E? (Ok, I’m done…)

Oprah Winfrey doesn’t need another Emmy (she’s won 10 for work on her daytime talk show and one Primetime Emmy for producing), but she’s never won for acting . With The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Winfrey stands a chance to get nominated for playing the daughter of the medical pioneer. It was adapted and directed by George C. Wolfe, and it stands a chance to be a front-runner in the TV Movie category (get out of here Sherlock). The cast is rounded out by Hamilton star and Tony Award winner Renee Elise Goldsberry as the title character, Courtney B. Vance, and Rose Byrne.

Surprise! More Moss! More Kidman!

The second season of Top of the Lake (titled China Girl) hasn’t been given an official release date for a US release on Sundance, but I just wanted an excuse to look at Nicole Kidman in that wig again. I can’t imagine that Elisabeth Moss would land more than one nomination, and it’s probably not within the window of eligibility. But, seriously, that wig. Yes.

Uh…Sure…Why Not?

I don’t think Lauren Graham will get nominated for Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, but never say never right? Are Emmy voters missing Stars Hollow that much? They never seemed to care before…

Viola Davis For Every Category, Please

Davis made history two years ago for winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, but can she take another one home for Lifetime’s Custody? I’m sorry, I said Lifetime and threw up in my mouth a little bit. Excuse me. The plot of Custody is textbook Lifetime (Davis plays a judge who presides over, you guessed it, a custody hearing), but the film played at the Tribeca Film Festival to lukewarm reviews. Davis received most of the praise, natch, so maybe she can be the shining star from this drama? Or maybe she wanted a change from playing a devious, slick lawyer and wanted to sit on the other side of the courtroom for a change. Hey, if I can sit through Suicide Squad for Davis (here comes that vomit again…), I can check out Custody.

Awards Return For The Pfeiffer?

Sweet merciful crap let this happen. Michelle Pfeiffer, one of the most beautiful and underawarded actresses EVER, will play Ruth Madoff alongside Robert De Niro in The Wizard of Lies. Last year, we had the great Madoff starring Richard Dreyfus and Blythe Danner, but that didn’t go anywhere near the Emmys. Will she campaigned in Supporting? Is she only a supportive wife? All I know is that I need to see her at some awards shows pronto.

Tell Me Lies, Tell Me ‘Big Little Lies’

Jean-Marc Vallée directs an all-star cast in HBO’s take on Liane Moriarity’s Big Little Lies. Is there substance to the style of this Monterey-set drama?

Parents of troubled children will tell you that they often hold their breath. A lot. Waiting for “the call.” Waiting for the looks from daycare/school employees. Waiting for a parent to accost you in the parking lot. I know it all too well. I’ve been there with my son, formerly a biter. He grew out of it fairly quickly. Different story for his parents. That connection propelled me through Liane Moriarity’s 2014 breezy novel Big Little Lies and, now, the HBO-pedigreed limited series adaptation from Jean-Marc Vallée. I liked the novel, flaws and all, but I loved the adaptation, a textbook example of how to expand and deepen the world of a beach-read novel without compromising its integrity.

Big Little Lies stars Reese Witherspoon as Madeline, an opinionated firecracker of a mother who never backs down from a fight. Nicole Kidman plays Celeste, her impossibly rich and beautiful best friend with (naturally) a dark secret. Shailene Woodley rounds out the main trio as Jane. She’s a single mother new to Monterey whose son Ziggy (Iain Armitage) may or may not have strangled Amabella, the daughter of power mom Renata (Laura Dern, an Emmy-worthy scene stealer for sure). The central story gradually reveals itself over the course of the series through the gossipy voices of other parents, a Greek chorus of sorts. There’s a Desperate Housewives-y murder at an “Audrey and Elvis” school fundraiser, but the series smartly focuses on relationships over the whodunnit. Think True Detective for the soccer mom set.

Throwing stones in glass houses

Swift pacing and entertaining set pieces elevated Moriarity’s novel above its occasionally one-note characterizations, my major issue with it. In the series, writer David E. Kelley (Picket Fences, Ally McBeal) takes the novel’s events and smartly creates subtext. Working extraordinarily well with Vallée, Kelley gives the actresses meaty material on which to feast. Witherspoon’s Madeline rages both beneath the surface and openly, publicly – raging against her growing children, her ex-husband, and her sense that life is moving too quickly. Woodley’s Jane fears the world thanks to a bad one-night stand which resulted in her biggest joy, her son. She’s a brittle, isolated woman unable to trust.

The most intriguing evolution from page to screen centers around Kidman’s Celeste. Married to the good looking, wealthy Perry (Alexander Skarsgard), Celeste finds herself attracted to and repulsed by their toxic, abusive marriage. Perry’s unconfined anger results in bruises and in hot, dirty sex. Celeste’s shame in both deepens the material in fascinating ways. The book’s Celeste was defined by her abusive marriage, but, in the series, Celeste feels torn between the idyllic family and real danger. Kidman’s scenes in marital counseling provide some of the best acting she’s ever done with Skarsgard going toe-to-toe.

Vallée frames his actresses in and around as much glass as possible. Glass houses on the beach. Glass windows in cars and glass iPhone surfaces. You have the sense that, if anyone breathed too hard, everything would shatter. These characters fight against the seemingly perfect trappings of their high class surroundings. That theme is a bit of a cliche, of course, but it still works incredibly well here. You simply have to understand the environment – one where a birthday party omission is akin to a horse’s head in the bed. Yes, these are white, privileged families, but they still have stories to tell. Their kitchens may be better than ours, but, at the end of the day, we all face the same central issues with life, love, families, and the safety of our children.

Final Verdict

Big Little Lies ultimately feels like an incredibly well made, thematically rich throwback to old ABC miniseries. You could ignore it or dismiss it as too white bread for your time. Doing so would mean you’re missing some of the best acting on television this year. Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman are revelations in their roles, digging into the nuances like the great actresses they are. And I will never ignore a Laura Dern performance after HBO’s great Enlightened. The men turn in strong performances as well with Skarsgard shading the abusive Perry to shockingly good effect and Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) makes Madeline’s doormat husband Ed a soulfully supportive presence, haunted by the insecurity he feels against his wild wife.

I love Big Little Lies because it balances the bitchy, big moments with gentle moments of real contemplation. Thank Vallée and Kelley for breathing much needed nuance into Moriarity’s robust story. There may be better limited series this year, but there likely won’t be as grand an entertainment that literally delivers on all fronts. It’s a dark little gem that digs much farther beneath its glassy surface than you’d ever imagine it would.

Big Little Lies premieres Sunday, February 19, at 9pm ET.

Our Big Little Lies Book Club Podcast

Episode 116: The Water Cooler Gang kicks back with a bottle (or three) of wine for our Big Little Lies Book Club. Plus, we dish the premieres of Legion, Girls, and more!

This week at the Water Cooler, we’re embarking on a first – the Water Cooler Podcast book club. As you’re well aware, popular novels are often adapted for screens both big and small. It’s a whole “pre-sold concept” thing. HBO’s hotly anticipated adaptation of Liane’s Moriarity’s 2014 “chick lit” novel Big Little Lies captured our attention, so, with that, we kick off our Big Little Lies Book Club. We talk about what the novel does particularly well, what it doesn’t, and what themes we took away from it given our varied backgrounds. Follow the Big Little Lies book club at home! Please feel free to post comments or questions here to start the conversion leading up to next weekend’s premiere of the limited series.

But before that, we talk briefly about Wednesday’s premiere of FX’s Legion, the return of HBO’s Girls, and the unveiling of the opening credits for FX’s upcoming Ryan Murphy miniseries Feud: Bette and Joan in our TV Tidbits segment.

Finally, we close with the Flash Forward to the television we’re most anticipating in the upcoming week.

Thanks for listening and thank you, in advance, for remembering to rate us on iTunes!

10:31 – TV Tidbits
35:29 – Big Little Lies Book Club
01:05:14 – Flash Forward

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