Big Little Lies - HBO

Even though he was attacking Celeste, Bonnie coming out of nowhere and shoving him down the steps to his death......that's still probably manslaughter.

 

Watched the finale tonight. This mini-series was so well-done. Glad we watched.

 

Yeah the weekly inserts of detectives and witnesses seemed to add up to something way more and different than an accident.

But I loved the ending. And you could totally see by the looks that he was the rapist. It became quite obvious to me.

 

I learned this and other details that were in the book, but that never made it to the screen, details which could have answered some of the questions that people have raised.

Now, I haven't read the book, so the book details I'm about to discuss come form what I've read elsewhere. So please book readers, correct me if my info is wrong...

With regard to not knowing about Bonnie's abuse backstory acting as a trigger, I think that could have been included, but at the same time, I don't think it's that important. Seeing the scene of carnage that was taking place before her would be ample motivation to push the 'monster' away from his victims, even without a backstory.

However, I feel another omission (from the book) did lead to the criticism about coincidence - that Perry just happened to be the Jane's rapist and that Jane just happened to come to the right town and meet the right people.

As I understand it, in the book Jane was trying to find Perry and she happened across some property sale documents that had Perry's name and she actively moved to the area to find him. If so, then that removes the convenient chance meeting aspect.

On the other hand, if this were to be revealed early on, it would have totally changed the sequence of events and probably would have been less gripping as it would have telegraphed a whole bunch of stuff. I guess to a lesser extent, Bonnie's backstory foreknowledge would also have telegraphed certain information, but not to the same degree as Jane.

 

Yeah David Kelley made some changes some of which were good, some not so good.

 

I'm not bothered in the slightest by any of the back story omission. The amount of implausible coincidences that take place in fictional mysteries is off the charts. I think drama or comedy should be a heightened version of life and not a seamless replication.

 

Interesting. If Jane knew Perry's last name, wouldn't she know that Celeste is Perry's wife? I posted earlier in the thread that there was some unusual exchange of eye contact between Jane and Celeste when they met in the first episode. I stated at the time that I was probably grasping at straws, but it's conceivable that this was a plot point that they were toying with while filming but never followed through with due to time constraints or any other number of reasons. Or perhaps the moment was just a subtle nod from the writers to the fact that the two characters had something in common.

It's also conceivable that they had intended to reveal Bonnie's backstory but didn't follow through with it, hence Bonnie's expression when she noticed that something was happening between Celeste and Perry. I asked about the potential for abuse in Bonnie's backstory with no knowledge of the book. It just seemed kind of obvious based on her expression.

 

I was spoiled by reading so many posts on this and other websites, and I was still on pins and needles at the end. This was so well done and so well acted, I think it's safe to say this will dominate next year's Emmys. There were a few oddities, though: Why the concerned face on Ed as they walked into the party? I get why Madeline was antsy, but what was he worried about? Nathan? And I also thought it was strange when Perry and Gordon were hanging out. I assume Gordon knew it was Perry's kid that was hurting Amabelle, and we know how protective Gordon is of his family. I didn't think Zoe Kravitz's singing was all that good, but judging by the reaction it might as well have been Lenny Kravitz. They used ringers for the other two singers, and it sure looked weird to hear that singing voice coming out of Adam Scott's mouth. You could see by Bonnie's expression what was going on in her brain-no need for any backstory exposition there. David E. Kelley is very good at the snarky dialogue, but he wrote a crackling drama here.

 

A couple of things:

That was Adam Scott singing his song

Gordon had not yet talked to Renata about Max's abuse so he didn't know. He and Perry knew each other socially from being rich guys

 

nope, they tried using his voice but then picked someone else and he lip synched

 

Whoops! My bad.

 

Can I say again how much I hate the opening theme music.

 

The vocal reminds me of Gary Brooker.

 

What was up with Nathan singing “How's the World Treating You?" for his Elvis cover?

The relevance of Ed's "The Wonder of You" & it's impact were all obvious. But it was almost like Nathan was singing his regrets for leaving Madeline.

 

fooled me too!

 

Ok...I'm jonesn' now. Need another series like this to watch.

 

Fargo and the Leftovers start in a week or two.

 

Fargo and Better Call Saul start sooner than you think.

 

And Bosch too. Works out good because Lies is over, and Homeland, Billions are all about wrapped up.

 

Starz Outcast season 2 starts shortly as well. April 10 I think

 

April 3rd it started.

 

Is Bosch good? I couldn't make it through the first episode but I've always wanted to try and revisit it.

 

Honestly, I've watched both seasons and was very lukewarm on both (the first being worse than the 2nd). It's not a bad show but it's definitely not up to the quality of a lot of shows being bantered about.

 

No way. I missed the start. Damn it.

Thanks for the heads up. But now I'm livid with myself.

EDIT: okay. No need to get my knickers in a twist. It started in the UK on the third. Here it starts the 10th. Lividity has been relieved

 

Now that the series is over, I'm still having random thoughts about various aspects of the story. At various points in the season, genetics is brought up as a fear of determining offspring behavior.

Jane is fearful for Ziggy (especially with the accusations) as he was the product of a violent act by an individual who could have all kinds anti-social tendencies. This was a quite prominent fear.

Later we see another manifestation of the fear of genetic determinism when Celeste learns that Max is exhibiting the same bullying behavior patterns as Perry.

But genetics does not mean a person's fate it set in stone - experience is just as important. I said before that I liked the joyous beach scene at the end, but now I appreciate it even more because it shows how positive life experience may be used to help overcome any genetic predisposition for undesirable behaviors. I think that the genetic angle established in the show really enhances the ending scene.