Gossipy ‘Big Little Lies’ doesn’t dish on what it’s really like to be an upper-class housewife
The HBO show “Girls” received quite the panoply of criticism shortly after its debut in 2012.
People complained that Lena Dunham’s selfabsorbed, self-proclaimed “voice of a generation” character was whiny and presumptuous, that she showed off her nontraditional body too much and that there was a noticeable lack of people of color in the show.
But for all those 1 a.m. think pieces and livingroom debates, at least “Girls” was worthy of talk. “Game of Thrones” may be HBO’s most successful show, but “Girls” has been its most culturally provocative — at least in recent years.
For something to be controversial, in other words, it first has to be interesting.
For everything that “Girls” is, “Big Little Lies” — another HBO show about four rich white women, et al — isn’t.
The series, which debuts Sunday night, isn’t a biting parody of privileged white women, nor is it a daringly true-to-life humanization of them. It isn’t funny. The sex isn’t authentic. It may be controversial in that some critics like it and others — pretty much anyone who has seen “Girls” and “How to Get Away With Murder” and isn’t interested in a blend of the two that’s inferior to both — don’t.
But it certainly is not worthy of debate.
After all, what is there to say? The plot, which revolves around which unlikable rich white lady got murdered, is mundane. Its characters are bland as rice cakes. Its setting, a first-grade school at a getaway West Coast beach resort, is vanilla (if topped with gold flakes).
Shailene Woodley offers an effortful and sometimes multilayered performance as Jane, a newcomer to the town of Monterey, Calif., where all the moms do yoga, shop at Barney’s and sip cocktails on the docks of their million-dollar seaside homes.
She meets Madeline, played by Reese Witherspoon, who’s the Regina George of the group of moms — a domineering socialite loved by few, hated by most but feared by all in her “Stepford Wives” circle. Like Lindsay Lohan’s character opposite George in “Mean Girls,” Woodley’s character is presumably innocent of this societal jungle but is nevertheless intoxicated by Madeline’s power and confidence.
These portrayals, however, make little attempt to get under the surface of what it’s like to be an upper-class housewife. It fails where “Girls” succeeded, which is to offer a compelling reason to stay with a group of women who are terribly annoying. Where “Girls” offered both tragedy and satire, “Big Little Lies” offers stereotype, via the contemplative, faux-artsy cinematic style of director Jean-Marc Vallée (“Dallas Buyer’s Club”). There’s plenty of thoughtful wine-sipping, snide remarks and icy, judgmental stares, not to mention clichéd conflicts with their husbands and teenage daughters.
These women, who also include those played uninspiringly by Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Zoë Kravitz, are the talk of the town. The locals are obsessed with the squabbles they have with each other — “Is this housewife’s kid going to be invited to that other housewife’s kid’s birthday party?” — as if they have their own homegrown version of scripted reality show “The Hills.”
This Greek chorus of anonymous gossipers serves as a trite narrative device, in which “Big Little Lies” unravels the squabbles that supposedly led to one woman’s demise. But don’t they have something better do to? They can go outside for the ocean air that they’re paying fortunes to enjoy. Or they can stay inside, mind their own business and maybe put on some good entertainment. “Girls” just started its final season on HBO, after all. wchen@chron.com twitter.com/weihuanchen