#funny enough I think I related to Nathan & Ziggy

[shippingfangirl013]

Strangest thing I’ve ever done (probably):

Listening to an audiobook narrated by Finn Wolfhard while scrolling tumblr for stranger things theories, and coming across Mike gif sets.

[theenetflixnerd]

REVIEW Big Little Lies Episodes 1 -3

A PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE

That’s for damn sure!! It did not even take the first few minutes of this show to have me hooked. In fact, I was so intrigued and curious that I went straight onto the apple store download the e-book which I then proceeded to finish that same night. You may have gathered that I’m not such a patient person hehe. Any ways if you’re a reader yourself and haven’t yet read the book - I truly recommend it, it’s an excellent story and incredible writing. I’ve since read another three of Liane Moriarty and they’re all amazing. (I’ve done an author spotlight on her on my other blog if you want to give it a read  https://www.tumblr.com/blog/candyc0at3d ). Absolutely massive recommendations on Liane Moriarty’s works all around. She’s an extremely skillfull story teller and I couldn’t put her books down. 

So of course HBO is blessed with an incredible story to tell. David E. Kelly did a fantastic job at adapting this book into a TV show as well. So far the first three episodes have done the book major justice and I think that the casting is magic. I couldn’t imagine anyone else in these roles - but naturally who doesn’t love the three powerhouse lead females. Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley are all amazing and I love them all individually in what they’ve done before this - but having them all together on the same screen ... It’s just incredible. Absolutely perfect casting. 

Seeing as I am rolling three episodes into one here let me try and condense this as much as I can by breaking up the recap / review into characters & families. (From Monday I’ll be reviewing episodes individually, weekly as they are released).

I’ll start with the lead character : Madeline Mackenzie.  I LOVE the character of Madeline she is awesome and delivers some amazing quotes some of which I honestly feel describe my own life.  For example:  “ I love my grudges, I tend to them like little pets.” 

Maddie is entertaining and extremely relatable as a person, wife and mother. I think Reese is portraying her absolutely perfectly. I adore her. 

I loved this quote from when her daughter wanted to move in with her father ... 

Maddie: “She wouldn’t leave if I had cancer” 

Ed (Maddie’s husband): “But you don’t ...”

Maddie: “Well I’d be willing to get it.”

So Maddie is married to Ed, and their daughter Chloe is in Kindy (the parents of the Kindy group is what the story centres around). Maddie is divorced from Nathan (more on him later) with whom she has a now teenage daughter, Abigail.

Ed is a fabulously cool husband and father and he really supports Maddie and stands up for her (even against Nathan!), despite her (at times) crazy antics and refusal to butt out of other peoples business and let bygones be bygones. 

Abigail is being a typical rebellious teenager who is just driving me insane and I can’t stand her to be honest. But whatever, she’s not really such a crucial part of the story. She decides to move in with her father and his new family because she ‘can’t be herself at home’ with Madeline.

Chloe is cute and funny. I love her grown up kind of sass she has for her age (maybe it’s a little too grown up at times?) but it’s unfailingly hilarious.

Side note - In the book Maddie also has a son ( I assume with Ed), who is in between Abby and Chloe - but I don’t think his presence is really missed to be honest. He didn’t actually add anything to the main storyline.

Then we have the family of Maddie’s ex , Nathan. He is now married to Bonnie and their daughter, Skye is also in the same class as Chloe. Talk about awkward!! Nathan is not a bad guy (I don’t think) and Bonnie is a lovely lady, she is kind, caring and compassionate and a total earth child, hippy complete with vegan diets and yoga. Abigail likes this lifestyle and seems to have a better relationship with Bonnie than her own mother. I feel a bit of tension with Maddie’s jealousy here - but it’s also understandable - Bonnie had taken Abby to get ‘the pill’ without consulting Maddie first and I personally think that’s a line that as a step parent you just shouldn’t cross. 

Maddie has a best friend Celeste. Who, according to the books is effortlessly beautiful, so no wonder Nicole Kidman was cast in this role. I mean, does the woman ever age? Celeste has a seemingly amazing marriage and family she is married to the handsome and charming Perry White and they have twin boys Max and Josh, who are also in the same class as Chloe and Skye. However, as the story develops it turns out that Celeste’s marriage may not be all that it seems, and this is where the story touches on a rather deep issue - that of Domestic Violence. Behind closed doors things are not great for Celeste as she has to walk on egg shells around Perry who although charming, has a dark side, that is controlling, violent and cruel. Of course, he is always apologetic after and showers her with gifts and flowers but this isn’t enough for her to threaten leaving him. (Only the reader or viewer gets this insight into Celeste’s life however, and she maintains the facade in the community and her friends (even Maddie doesn’t know). They do try and see a counsellor in the third episode but who knows where the relationship will go from there. 

In the beginning of the series, Maddie meets new single mum in town Jane. They meet at the school, obviously, where Jane’s son, Ziggy is in the same class as the others. Jane is lovely, but you can see she is haunted by some tragic events of the past and is harbouring some dark secrets of her own. (Although all this is only later, slowly revealed).  Jane is besotted with her little boy, and you can see the love she has for her son, and she’ll do anything to protect him. My heart breaks for Ziggy in the first episode when on his orientation day at school a little girl, Amabella, accuses him as being the one who tried to choke her. He maintains his innocence, and I totally believe him. I mean .... how easy is it to just target the new kid to pick on right? .... Of course this is kind of the start of the feuding and drama as naturally the parents begin to take sides. (Maddie is obviously Team Jane and Ziggy). This storyline touches on another deep issue of BULLYING (well I guess Domestic Abuse is also a form of Bullying) but what saddens me most here is that even grown ass ‘adults’ can stoop so low as to bully a young child and make them feel excluded and inferior. I’ve had much personal experience with being bullied myself and despite that, I could never imagine ever wanting to make even my own bullies feel as horrible as they made me feel. Why would any decent human being want to make another person feel like that? I don’t get it, and I don’t think I ever will understand how anyone can be cruel to another person. 

This leads to the final ‘core’ family which is that of Amabella and her parents, more particularly her mother, Renata. Renata is hard core, business woman. Renata immediately has it in for Ziggy since her daughter singled him out as the one who tried to choke her on orientation day. She becomes totally anti-Ziggy and excludes him from Amabella’s birthday - although Maddie isn’t having it and finds away to sabotage the birthday by taking Ziggy and another group of children to Disney on Ice on the same day as the party.  I do kind of enjoy the casting of Renata and think that the relationship between her and her hubby is kind of sweet and they have an interesting dynamic going there.

This whole conflict between parents only gets worse and more intense as the story goes on and well as we know from the little snippits that one of these parents was MURDERED at a school function. But, and I find this an extremely interesting twist on the classic who-dun-it, we have no idea WHICH OF THE PARENTS WAS MURDERED. 

Naturally, each character has their own reasons for why they could possibly be the victim (or murderer) as their is no shortage of fueds and drama between various different groups and individuals through out this story. As I said before, extremely masterfully thought out and written.

I can’t wait for Monday’s episode. So tune back in for my in depth recap of Episode 4!