Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies’ And ‘the Good Fight’ Premiere

... and taking his time plotting his revenge against Rhoades, who’s in trouble with the Attorney General. Grimm (NBC, Friday 8:00 p.m.) – The gang celebrates Monroe’s birthday with a surprise getaway but things take a dark turn when a hotel employee targets Nick in order to avenge his father. Last Man Standing (ABC, Friday 8:00 p.m.) – Chuck tries to get used to having more “alone time” after his wife starts work at her new job, Vanessa forms her own lending library, and a conspiracy theorist appears on a vlog with Mike. Mac Gyver (CBS, Friday 8:00 p.m.) – Bozer and Riley busy themselves trying to hack in Jack’s CIA file in order to figure out his history with Matty while Mac and Jack try to rescue a kidnapped fugitive they’ve been tracking using only a hook and a car cable. Rosewood (Fox, Friday 8:00 p.m.) – Rosewood learns some unsettling news about his health as more details about Villa’s ...

Big Little Lies,' 'star Wars,' Twin Peaks

... and director Jean-Marc Vallée in Wild; befriended Shailene Woodley, another Lies star, while acting in 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars; and is a frequent Lynch collaborator (1986’s Blue Velvet, 1990’s Wild at Heart, 2006’s Inland Empire). “It would be completely impossible for me to ever say no to David Lynch, completely impossible for me to say no to Jean-Marc Vallée and working with this incredible group of women and completely impossible to say no to Star Wars,” she says. Review: HBO's 'Big Little Lies' offers big stars, but small pleasures. Dern embraces Renata, a complex character “you love to hate" in Lies, which focuses on the lives and secrets of a group of California women whose community is roiled by a murder. At the school where the Lies characters' children are enrolled, Renata represents “the corporate, powerful woman who needs to be categorized as therefore a bad ...

Big Little Lies’ Tells Uncomfortable Truths

... but only a slight one. In theory, Big Little Lies is a murder mystery. Someone has died at a school fundraiser, though the show declines to reveal who that person is. This starts as a means of generating suspense, but as the seven episodes continue and Kelley steadily refuses to disclose any more details, death fades into the background. A dead body isn’t necessary to hold our focus. Monterey’s petty infighting does that just fine. The battle lines are drawn before there’s even a battle to be had. Maddie, full-time mom, hates Renata Klein (Laura Dern), career mom. Both women feel insecure about their life choices, and both channel that insecurity in equally ferocious fashion: Maddie into social meddling and community theater, Renata into humblebragging and overprotectiveness. They don’t need an ...

Who Plays Nathan On 'big Little Lies'? James Tupper Is Taking On An Important New Role

... bestselling novel of the same name and is filled with amazing characters who are greatly flawed, including Nathan Carlson. So who plays Nathan on Big Little Lies ? Revenge star James Tupper fills the important role. Nathan is the ex-husband of Madeline (played by Reese Witherspoon) and the two aren't exactly close, but then again, what exes are? Nathan has a new wife, Bonnie (played by Zoë Kravitz), just as Madeline has a new husband, Ed Mackenzie (played by Adam Scott). However, things get awkward when his daughter with his new wife is put in the same kindergarten class as his youngest child with Madeline. Making matters worse, for Madeline anyway, her teenage daughter seems to prefer being with Nathan instead of Madeline, which infuriates her to no end. Nathan and Madeline's tenuous relationship will probably only become more complicated when a murder, or terrible accident depending on who you ask, occurs and Madeline (along with some of the other Monterey moms) are somehow involved. No doubt ...

Big Little Lies'; 'billions'; 'bates Motel'; 'the Blacklist

... feels more timely than ever, as the battle between a hedge-fund billionaire (Damian Lewis) and a New York U. S. Attorney (Paul Giamatti) gets even more heated. (10 p.m. Showtime). "Crashing": Stand-up comic Pete Holmes created and stars in a new comedy about a struggling comedian trying to get a break in New York City. (10:30 p.m. HBO). "The Bachelor": This ridiculous season - OK, even more ridiculous than usual - continues when Nick takes the women who have made it this far on hometown dates. Cue the romantic moments, awkward conversations with family  members and maybe some tears. (8 p.m. ABC/2). "Battle for the Pride":  It's time again for "Big Cat Week" on Nat Geo Wild, a week's worth of shows devoted to understanding the beauty, savagery and endangered status of some of the most magnificent creatures on the planet. This documentary looks at a pride of lions in Botswana and what it takes to survive in the wild. (9 p.m. Nat Geo Wild). "The Talk: Race in America":  A new documentary exploring the subject of how parents of color talk to their children about how to behave ...

David E. Kelley Breaks Down Murder Mystery And Biggest Book Changes

... Lies' series premiere, changes made in adapting the book of the same name and working with HBO. You have said that adapting Liane Moriarty's book was both easy and challenging with the easy part being you staying faithful to the story. What changes though did you feel were important to make. There were no fundamental changes that needed to be made. The architecture of the plotting was very good. The characters were well crafted. My main goal was to live up to a lot of the execution in the book. The biggest challenge was tonal. There was a mix and match of both comedic and dramatic elements. It was important as we told the story that we keep the audience leaning in, wanting to know what's going to happen next dramatically and not letting the comedy dilute the dramatic impact of the show. That was always a tightrope walk. The other challenge of course was you can't keep it all. You've got to make judicious choices on what part of the book is going to survive and what part ...

Big Little Lies

... from Renata’s daughter’s sixth birthday party. Indeed: The characters know each other because their children all attend first grade together. The story of “Big Little Lies” is a story of mothers living through, for, and around their doted-upon and organically fed children. It means that the drama is more often than not driven by the vagaries of spoiled six-year-olds wielding i Phones. At the same time, the children are guilty mostly of being too much like their parents — of repeating their mothers too accurately. When Jane is asked, again, why she and her son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), moved to Monterey, Ziggy interrupts to deliver her too-pat explanation with weary, word-for-word familiarity. And in another scene, Madeline’s daughter Chloe (Darby Camp) cheerfully yells “motherf—cker!” from the backseat of their SUV. Madeline’s best friend is Celeste ( Nicole Kidman ), far more reserved, with twin boys and a younger husband. Outside the life she obsessively curates for her Facebook page, Celeste is being abused — and is strangely aroused by it. She is being boxed into a life that doesn’t make her happy. But on some deeper ...

Big Little Lies Is All Surprise, No Suspense

... projecting their psychological baggage onto their kids, who attend a public-school district so awash in wealth that it might as well be a coalition of private academies. The show’s other three leads — Laura Dern’s queen bee, Renata Klein; Nicole Kidman’s Celeste Wright, who’s stuck in a passionate but volatile marriage to a domineering stud (Alexander Skarsgård); and Zoe Kravitz’s Bonnie Carlson, a much younger woman of color who married Madeline’s ex-­husband, Nathan (James Tupper) — are also obscenely rich but carry themselves with the granola-and-yoga-mat intensity of suburban soccer moms. The only ­working-class regular character is Shailene Woodley’s single mother, Jane Chapman, a wary loner who moved to Monterey with her young son. Except for that pesky killing, the injuries depicted here are of a type you’re more likely to see on a CBS sitcom, but the characters treat them as struggles for the soul of American life and give rousing speeches about the necessity of ...

Who Plays Ziggy On 'big Little Lies'? Iain Armitage Is A Very Accomplished Child

... is Jane (Shaliene Woodley), who's a single mom and new to town with her son, Ziggy. So who plays Ziggy on Big Little Lies ? Young actor and theater You Tuber Iain Armitage got the role and he's already incredibly accomplished, especially for his age. Though Armitage is relatively new to acting, you may have seen his face before. Besides appearing in Big Little Lies, he also appeared in a recent episode of Law & Order: SVU  and will appear in the films The Glass Castle, Our Souls at Night, and I'm Not Here, which are due out later this year and next year, according to IMDB. However, Armitage made his first appearance on television when he appeared on The View in 2014, to discuss his popular You Tube channel, Iain Loves Theatre. Armitage saw his first play when he was only 3 years old, and is now one of the most knowledgable theater critics out there. Oh, and did I mention that he's not even 10 years old yet? On his channel, Armitage does reviews of musicals and plays, and also performs some of his favorite songs as well. During a recent interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Woodley revealed that it was ...