Big Little Lies season 2: how the series would have undermined the director of season 2, Andrea Arnold

The greatest mystery of Big little liesThe second season is not a murder, it is the question of whether the uneven episodes would have gone better if the director of the season, the renowned director, the acclaimed director Andrea Arnold, had really had his vision of 'program.

According to an IndieWire report, HBO, Big little lies Showrunner David E. Kelley and Season 1 director Jean-Marc Vallée eventually handed over creative control to Arnold. His work has been changed to more accurately reflect the style and tone of the first season, with mixed results.

"The goal was to unify the visual style of seasons 1 and 2. In other words, once all the episodes have been shot, take Arnold's work and give it the style familiar that Valley brought in the first season, which won eight of the 16 Emmys for which he was nominated in 2017, including Outstanding Limited Series, "IndieWire said." According to sources close to the executive producers, it had always been the project, although it is unknown to Arnold, that Valley is again involved in the show last fall. "

This account describes Vallée and Kelley as having confided to Arnold a very big lie about the amount of his work that would actually appear on screen as she wanted. IndieWire explains that Arnold had the full control of the set, but was never informed of the extent to which his work would be tinkered with to fit into Vallée's vision. Arnold and Vallée apparently never spoke, and Arnold never had the opportunity to submit his excerpt from an episode without Valley's modifications.

Worse, Arnold and Valley each have a distinct visual style. "Arnold's ability to create emotional immediacy with his hand-held manual work marks a different departure from Vallée's heavier floating camera that underscores the gravity of the situation," said IndieWire. Any attempt by Vallée to align Arnold's style with his was doomed to failure.

IndieWire cited anonymous sources close to the production, but many details are corroborated by the show itself. Add credibility to this report is that Big little lies'Season two episodes involve so many publishers – the first season only credits five. Here are two screenshots of the opening credits (from season 2, episode 4) showing the names of 12 different editors who worked on an episode of one hour:

This report comes at the end of what some critics, including me, have found a mediocre return for the series, whose first season was broadcast in 2017 in the form of a seven-episode adaptation of Lianne Moriarty's novel.

At first, critical critics of the current season touted the performances, but it was common to think that the sensation was very different from season one. I noticed that although the season started off on a positive note, the series has become a little disjointed, its story seeming perhaps even useless. Season 2 overall has a lighter tone and a little more interest in allowing her star actresses to move on to memorable moments, such as the Renata and Celeste slaps slapping Mary Louise, rather than telling a consistent story.

IndieWire associates this disconnection with the way Arnold's project version was modified during editing without his participation. Of course, a second season of Big little lies without the source material of Moriarty's novel (Season 1 followed it to its conclusion), never seemed a good idea to start.

Whether we like it or what we hate this season, there is something unpleasant to say that a story promoted by HBO is about women's power, featuring some of the actresses the The most talented and powerful of the game (who emphasized the importance of the series is because it is about women), and led by a person as praised and respected as Arnold, was designed to deprive the freedom of creation of a woman – of two men, nothing less.