Big Little Lies MVPs: Episode 6 "Burning Love"

 Previously: Episode 1 and 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, and Episode 5. 

by Spencer Coile

In the penultimate episode to HBO's actress juggernaut, Madeline comes to terms with her affair with Joseph and discovers Abigail's secret project: auctioning off her virginity to fight against sex trafficking. Celeste adopts an exit strategy from Perry... but also breaks his urethra. The memory of Jane's rape continues to haunt her, even after realizing that Saxon Baker was not the culprit, but when she finds out there's a petition going around school urging for Ziggy's suspension, she takes matters into her own hands and reconciles with Renata. Meanwhile, Avenue Q finally opens and musical theater fans rejoiced! 

With everything coming to a head in next week's finale, there are still so many questions left unanswered. Still, let's take a moment and reflect on the genius that was "Burning Love." 

Click to read more ...

Big Little Lies MVPs: Episode 4 "Push Comes to Shove"

Editor's Note: We're passing the baton around for Big Little Lies so that we keep up. Nathaniel took episode 1 and 2, Spencer looked at episode 3. Lynn Lee takes the baton for episode 4....

Coming off the high of Episode 3, Episode 4 couldn’t help but feel like a bit of a comedown, even as it ratcheted up the multiple tensions just a wee bit more.  Feels like something’s gotta give soon, doesn’t it?  We are, after all, at series midpoint and we still don’t know who the murder victim is.  It doesn’t bother me, though, as long as we’ve got such juicy character dynamics and relationships, not to mention such fantastic actressing, to distract us...

Click to read more ...

Big Little Lies MVPs: Episode 3 "Living The Dream"

Editor's Note: To get us all caught up for Sunday's 4th episode (we'll start covering the series as it airs now), and so that I can get to "Feud" and the latest episode of "Pfandom," I'm handing over the reigns to episode 3 to our new contributor Spencer Coile for a fresh set of eyes.

Top Ten MVPs of Big Little Lies. Episode 3 "Living The Dream" 
In the third episode, Madeline finds out that her oldest daughter Abigail (Kathryn Newton) wants to move in with her dad (James Tupper) and Bonnie. Celeste and Perry (Alexander Skarsgård) attempt to give a another go at counseling. And after a botched family tree project leads Ziggy (Iain Armitage) to ask who his father is, Jane reveals to Madeline that Ziggy was the resut of forced sex with a man supposedly named Saxton Banks. 

"Living The Dream" is Big Little Lies' finest installment thus far, and a list of the episode's major players follows after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Big Little Lies MVPs: Episode 1 "Somebody's Dead"

by Nathaniel R

She's delicious!

Why yes she is, Alexander, she is. So's the show.

Sometimes, on particularly dark-mood days, as your editor sits in the Film Experience HQ, a lonely room high atop a tower, he worries that he'll spot a mob of angry actressexuals with torches gathering on the road below. They scream "Why haven't you written about _________???"

Such has been the feeling each Sunday night when Big Little Lies has aired on HBO, resplendent with actressing and yet, crickets. So before the mob gathers, we'll try to catch up really quick so we're on the weekly schedule...

Click to read more ...

Actressexual Alert: Big Little Lies Trailer Drops

Manuel here starting our Monday with the best of news. "Who knows what lies there beneath the surface?" Reese Witherspoon asks us in the first trailer for her latest collaboration with her Wild director, Jean-Marc Vallée. Yes we finally get our first look at Big Little Lies, the HBO miniseries based on Liane Moriarty's best-selling novel (which I devoured in one day; it is that addictive and appropriately sudsy). 

The project is a smorgasbord for us actressexuals with Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Zoë Kravitz, and Shailene Woodley joining Reese in this suburban mommy thriller. As the trailer suggests, we'll be introduced to an idyllic seaside suburban enclave where certain revelations (it's best not to spoil, and thankfully the teaser doesn't really) send shockwaves throughout the community, leading to a violent, murderous end. It'll be a fine tonal balancing act but the show, written by David E. Kelley looks like it might just pull it off...

Click to read more ...