"Big Little Lies" returns with more (and more) of its exquisite sufferings upscale

Meryl Streep, who did it all, has already played the role of a woman stoically dying of cancer, who opposed the aesthetic notion that less is more. "Less is not more," said his character. "More It's more. This is one of my favorite quotes, even though I do not live by it, believing that less can be a good thing, especially when it comes to television.

Which brings us to the doubts that viewers may have about the extension of HBO's drama "Big Little Lies," chronically satisfying and compulsive, which had been portrayed as a "limited series" in seven episodes at its broadcast in 2017. that in this case, more can really feel more. Have we need more? Did we ask for it anyway? According to HBO, we did it.

With a considerable fanfare – and the addition of Streep to his triumphant-casting cast – "Big Little Lies" returns Sunday with the same expert dissection of the exquisite fight of a seaside community north of London. California with wealth, grief, parental hyperactivity and general dissatisfaction. How they suffer so much. They suffer just how bad. It's great if you only come on the show for Spotify's immaculate playlists and some proxy gossip among those 1% who send all their kids to Otter Bay Elementary School. so desirable who bows to their demands and who seems unexpected. to worry that it is public.

If, however, you come back to "Big Little Lies" for a well-blooded plot and the tension around holding his biggest lie, then you'll probably notice a desperation in the first three episodes (which have been made available). for this review) to extend a story that was not so long to begin.

From her bestselling novel, Liane Moriarty collaborates with showrunner David E. Kelley on a basic framework for this sequel. As before, Kelley wrote the seven episodes. Jean-Marc Vallée entrusts his tasks to Andrea Arnold, although his editing style remains his trademark (a tight macramé of dense flashbacks, foamy waves, pink sunsets). The crime and concealment that concluded Season 1 are still present, when Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) reflexively pushed the villain (Alexander Skarsgard in the role of Perry Wright) into the fundraiser at Audrey Hepburn and Elvis theme. attack a group of women.

Perry, the sadly abusive husband of Celeste (Nicole Kidman), had turned out to be the man who raped Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley), which meant that he was the father of his little boy, Ziggy (Iain Armitage of "Young Sheldon", Iain Armitage), who attends Otter Bay with Celeste's twins as well as Bonnie's daughters Madeline Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) and Renata Klein (Laura Dern).

After attending Perry's dive, the women all agreed to stick to the same story when the police arrived, saying that he had slipped and fallen. The show ended on a note of female connection: the abuser / rapist was dead and the five women put aside their complicated rivalries and wandered together on the beach.

It could have been that. But now that we're back, a few months have passed, the kids are starting their second year and, belatedly, Bonnie is tormented by the fact that she did not admit to pushing Perry, which never seemed to be a murder. . A bake sale in Otter Bay would have paid a stellar defense lawyer; At worst, Bonnie would have spent two weekends picking up trash on the 101.

Instead of the gloomy clouds of tedious remorse, the city's rumor mill dubbed the "Monterey Five" women and Bonnie retired from her friends and frustrated husband (James Tupper) to take long, guilty walks.

Fortunately, Streep was also invoked by Mary Louise Wright, Perry's mother still irritating. She came to help Celeste and the boys to mourn, but she found her daughter-in-law in a state of insufficient loss. Kelley gave Streep every piece of passive-aggressive dialogue that he can conjure up, and she performs it as if she were in paradise – saying all she thinks, looking for answers on what really happened to his son and refusing to see him as a violent spouse or rapist. His scenes with Kidman can be deliciously uncomfortable when two of the most sublime moviedom actors demonstrate the great white ritual dance around feelings. (Less is more!)

As one would expect, "Big Little Lies" must find a way to find more interesting crises. Some new threads of the plot at the height; some no. At Witherspoon's Madeline, they added a conjugal earthquake, sending her along with her husband, Ed (Adam Scott), to Celeste's savvy therapist, Dr. Amanda Reisman ("Deadwood & # 39; s, Robin Weigert), who always puts on the worst heart. questions from his patients. This therapist is so good (and Weigert is so perfect for playing it) that I would like her to have her own HBO show – maybe in a "In Treatment" restart?

Only one other support character is as good at cutting in the snobbish veneer of "Big Little Lies": P.J. Byrne as Mr. Nippal, principal of the Otter Bay School. After a particularly vicious confrontation with a parent, Nippal tells a new teacher, "I told you, these second-year mothers are Shakespearean. This woman, she is the Monterey Jellyfish. "

He is talking about Renata, Amabella's mother, the most talented and gifted, whose world is upset when the FBI stops her husband (Jeffrey Nordling) for fraud and the combined fortunes of the couple are seized. Who is Renata if she is not rich? It is unbalanced and each time Dern plays a character who is unbalanced, viewers know they must sneak into a raging race. (More is more!)

Although "Big Little Lies" does not seem entirely sure of its direction, it can still turn into a state of delusional privilege and anger. It seems very likely that someone will be pushed back into some stairs, metaphorically or otherwise. And is not that why we are all here?

Big little lies(one hour) returns on Sunday at 9pm on HBO.