Big Little Lies

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, and featuring tour de force performances by several top Hollywood actors, Big Little Lies is a darkly comic drama set in Monterey, CA that begins with a suspicious homicide at an elementary-school fundraiser. Though the victim and the perpetrator initially remain a mystery, it seems likely that the murder was spawned by rivalries and secrets surrounding three mothers: type-A stay-at-home mom Madeline Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), who harbors jealousy towards her ex's new, younger wife Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz), a yoga instructor with a Zen attitude; Madeline's best friend Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman), a former corporate lawyer with a seemingly perfect marriage to a younger man (Alexander Skarsgard); and Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley), a single mom with a dark past, whom Madeline and Celeste take under their wing. Intercut with interrogation-room insights of other parents and school staff -- who offer up a Greek chorus of gossip on the town's allegiances and rivalries, particularly revolving around Madeline and her nemesis, tech-exec career mom Renata Klein (Laura Dern) -- the story unspools over seven tense yet subversively funny episodes, revealing how each of the women had something to hide leading up to that one fateful night.