Big Little Lies

[Ladybug]

Mar 13, 2005 12:45:42 GMT -4 Ginger said:

He might have been coming out of the police station because he committed some kind of crime. I think Bonnie in her paranoid state will assume that he is running an undercover sting operation, just like she assumed Francie was at the hospital to watch her.

Maybe he's an RSO and has to check in with cops or something. Whatever the case, he's not being truthful with Jane, he's playing her in some way. How can Bonnie tell Jane she saw him there without it becoming a major deal in the group that she was hanging around the police department? I assumed she was there because she's thinking about confessing.

I enjoyed the fact that Renata said "Let me take a crack at Mary Louise" and then got the tables turned on her so damn quickly. We all knew that was coming though, and I was kind of hoping to see her a little more shaken up by ML.

Everything about the school is so unrealistic. I also find Mary Louise's custody filing to be a little ridic also. Celeste is having problems, but I think she's far from an unfit parent. I guess it's all just a ploy to get the women under oath. I'm interested in hearing more about Perry's childhood. It's not surprising that he turned out so screwed up when he had such a sinister, manipulative parent.

[Ginger]

Yeah, the custody filing is ridiculous too. Nicole was a little dazed on Ambien a couple of times and yelled one time at one of the kids. Again, big deal. One would assume that a widow who just lost her husband in a particularly traumatic way is not going to be 100% for a while and not Perfect Mom. It's a long way from there to being unfit and dangerous. "Drugs!" is a big part of the allegation - so have her take some drug tests for a while.

Nothing this season is working for me. I'm not crying for Renata that she won't be as filthy rich as she used to be. As she keeps saying, she's "self made". She's got earning power. And Maddie and Ed - split up or don't split up. It's obviously never been the greatest marriage, so if they decide to ditch it, meh.

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2019 15:31:37 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

I enjoyed the fact that Renata said "Let me take a crack at Mary Louise" and then got the tables turned on her so damn quickly. We all knew that was coming though, and I was kind of hoping to see her a little more shaken up by ML.

Everything about the school is so unrealistic. I also find Mary Louise's custody filing to be a little ridic also. Celeste is having problems, but I think she's far from an unfit parent. I guess it's all just a ploy to get the women under oath. I'm interested in hearing more about Perry's childhood. It's not surprising that he turned out so screwed up when he had such a sinister, manipulative parent.

Every time there's a scene re the custody claim, I sit and roll my eyes. I can't believe a respectable lawyer would take this on for Mary Louise under these circumstances, s/he would tell her to go back home (to wherever the fuck she came from), and take a few Valium. And the idea that her lawyer is, what? Taking guidance from the police? Just wait until the judge-who-hates-bulldog-lawyers finds that out. And Celeste's lawyer should be ashamed of herself for suggesting they share custody, especially when the kids have said they don't want to live with ML.

Celeste actually pisses me off this season. I don't know why the fuck she still takes Ambien. If you're having trouble getting to sleep, drink a beer, like the rest of us, lady.

[Spinderella]

It's still weird to me that Meryl's character is Meryl's actual birth name, Mary Louise.

[luminosa]

Jul 8, 2019 22:55:46 GMT -4 Spinderella said:

It's still weird to me that Meryl's character is Meryl's actual birth name, Mary Louise.

Oh interesting. Good trivia.

I also read or heard somewhere that she got a mouth piece to match ASkars mouth. I’m sure it was her idea.

She is kinda channeling Professor Umbridge to me though.

[Ginger]

I get a kick out of the idea that Meryl Streep thinks an overbite really makes her looks like ASkars. Like that's his defining characteristic. Seven feet tall, blonde, built like an Adonis? Nope, that overbite is the only thing people remember.

[luminosa]

Jul 9, 2019 19:21:18 GMT -4 Ginger said:

I get a kick out of the idea that Meryl Streep thinks an overbite really makes her looks like ASkars. Like that's his defining characteristic. Seven feet tall, blonde, built like an Adonis? Nope, that overbite is the only thing people remember.

Lolol. Touchè.

[Ladybug]

The behind-the-scenes drama of Season 2 might explain why the show has felt a bit off this year. HBO gave director Andrea Arnold creative control, then David E. Kelley and the season 1 director Jean Marc Vallée completely recut everything to make it fit the "look" of Season 1.

It was as Arnold started to assemble scenes that Kelley and HBO started to see there was problem. Before Arnold and her London editing team were able to even complete an official cut of an episode, Vallée, now finished with work on “Sharp Objects,” started to take over. Post-production shifted from London to Vallée’s home city of Montreal, where his own editorial team started cutting what is now airing on HBO. Soon after, 17 days of additional photography were scheduled.

Before the February order of additional photography started, the Vallée-led direction the show was taking was obvious, but sources close to Arnold say she felt obligated to see it through to the end. While DGA rules required Arnold be the director on set, Vallée was now an extremely hands-on EP dictating not only what would be shot, but how it would be shot, oversight that Arnold never had during the initial shoot. The optics were not lost on many associated with “Big Little Lies”: A show dominated by some of the most powerful actresses in Hollywood hired a fiercely independent woman director – who was now being forced to watch from the director’s chair as scenes were shot in the style of her male predecessor.

UGH

Sixty-page scripts were slashed down to 40-plus minute episodes, sources say, largely by chopping up a scene to remove what one source described as Arnold’s character exploration and “ephemeral stuff.”

So yes, the episodes are shorter than originally intended.

Eleven editors are currently credited on the show.

I saw this in the credits and was like "wow!" Wondered why they would need so many cooks in the kitchen.

[scarlet]

The BTS drama explains so much of how this season just hasn't flowed (ironic, since Kelley and Vallee thought what they were doing would avoid that). This leaves such a sour taste in my mouth ("let's hire a woman and then go behind her back and change everything she did").

[Ginger]

Feb 10, 2006 17:47:02 GMT -4 Ladybug said:

Sixty-page scripts were slashed down to 40-plus minute episodes, sources say, largely by chopping up a scene to remove what one source described as Arnold’s character exploration and “ephemeral stuff.”

UGH. Andrea Arnold is all about "ephemeral stuff". Why did they hire her if they didn't want her to do what she does? Was it just so they could get credit for hiring a woman? Looks that way. She's hardly the first female director who has been treated like an incompetent and had her work taken away from her to redone by men. It's infuriating.

I have only seen one of Andrea Arnold's movies (Fishtank) but I absolutely loved it. It was a movie all about "character development" and she made it interesting and exciting.

As this season of BLL has almost nothing going for it in terms of plot or suspense (blame David E Kelley's scripts for that) then character development is where it's at.

I have a feeling I would be enjoying this season a lot more if I were seeing a full hour of what Andrea Arnold wanted to do. Yeah, maybe I'd be saying it's boring. But when I heard Andrea Arnold was directing, I was expecting it to be much different from last season and was on board with whatever her vision was. At least I wouldn't be yelling at my TV every Sunday at 9:42 "THAT'S IT?!?"