Big Little Lies may not return for its second season until June 9, but after two years of waiting, one week feels like nothing. However, it's still made difficult by the fact that the first reviews for the HBO show's follow-up have started trickling out — and it's safe to say the season is worth the wait.
While the idea of a second season was somewhat controversial (wasn't the season 1 ending already perfect?) it was the addition of Meryl Streep that got any remaining skeptics on board. She joins the show as the late Perry Wright's (Alexander Skarsgard) mother, who's arrived in Monterey to get to the bottom of his suspicious death. We already knew she was going to be great in the role, but The Hollywood Review takes it further, describing her performance as like "adding an infinity pool onto the balcony of your mansion that's already overlooking the bay."
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
That should be all you need to hear to know that season 2 is going to be nothing like the one that proceeded it. Not only is the central conflict of the first season solved, but the show also has a new director, Andrea Arnold. While it's not going to be the same story we're used to, Indiewire says we shouldn't be skeptical.
"Under the urgent eye of new director Andrea Arnold, Big Little Lies Season 2 is a wholly different beast — but it’s still very, very good," critic Ben Travers wrote, who also later couldn't help but praise Meryl Streep's performance, writing, "Mary Louise isn’t going to sit back and mourn when she feels there’s more to learn, more to do, and more to scream about. (At one point, Streep really does scream, and it’s glorious.)"
Not everyone loved it, with Variety describing it as "messy," but the outlet couldn't help but give props to the show for exploring what can be the most difficult part of a story: what happens after.
Kidman rejected the notion that they shouldn't have explored that very concept at a panel conducted at The Wing Soho in New York City by Vanity Fair's Radhika Jones.
"I had a lot of people say to me, ‘No no no, that’s it. You did only one. It was fantastic as one season.’ And a friend of mine, a male, said, ‘Those women deserve their stories to be told beyond what was just that first season,’" she told the eager crowd. "I was so touched by that and I went, 'Yeah, that’s what we’ve actually got to fight for now.' We don’t have to just be shut down and told, ‘No, that was good and you did well and off you go.’"
And thank God they didn't. Season 2 of Big Little Lies returns on June 9.