Big Little Lies (Season 2 on HBO) * * *

Directed by:  Andrea Arnold

Starring:  Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, Adam Scott, Alexander Sarsgard, James Tupper, Jeffrey Nordling

Season 1 of Big Little Lies was high-quality soap opera.   Its characters' seemingly perfect, affluent lives were shrouded in deceit, treachery, and in the season finale: death.    I felt the finale was a bit of a letdown, perhaps because what preceded it was so involving.    We have an A-list cast knocking it out of the park with its performances.   

Season 2 is more of the same, with the addition of the stellar Meryl Streep added to the cast as the grieving mother of Perry (Sarsgard), the abusive husband of Celeste (Kidman) who was pushed to his death by Celeste's friend Bonnie (Kravitz) in the Season 1 finale.    Celeste's friends Madeline (Witherspoon), Jane (Woodley), and Renata (Dern) concoct a story that Perry's death was due to an accidental fall.   Uh huh.   Perry's mother Mary Louise arrives on the scene ostensibly to assist Celeste in her time of need and to care for her two grandsons, but Mary Louise doesn't buy the official version of what happened.   She, in fact, doesn't seem to buy any negative stories about her son, even when Celeste tells of the abuse she suffered.

Perry's death ripples through the town of Monterrey, California like aftershocks.   Bonnie is guilt-ridden and withdrawing from her husband, who is Madeline's ex Nathan (Tupper).   Nathan is so stuck on how to handle Bonnie that he asks Madeline's current husband Ed (Scott) to take her out to lunch to get to the bottom of this.   Ed's reaction is priceless, as is his reaction to the news that Madeline had an affair last year.    Gossip spreads like wildfire in Monterrey, and those affected are the very last to know, with lasting and damaging consequences.   

It is common to say Streep is excellent, and almost more common to follow that with "of course", but her Mary Louise (which coincidentally is Streep's birth name) is a malicious treasure.    She is alternately caring and loving, while offering no holds barred, uncomfortably frank assessments of Madeline and Celeste.    Which isn't to say she is wrong, but the people in Monterrey aren't used to that level of honesty.    Any "honest" statements most of the people say are in the service of covering up their secrets even further.    Mary Louise, however, is also delusional about her son.    She is so blinded by her perception of him that she refuses to believe anything truthful.

The blurred lines of truth and perception are a big part of what makes Big Little Lies tick.   The "Monterrey Five" as Celeste, Jane, Madeline, Bonnie, and Renata are derisively referred to, meet secretly in cars in vacant parking lots to ensure their story about Perry's death stays cohesive.    Madeline's overtures to comfort Bonnie are mostly self-serving.   She isn't as much interested in Bonnie's emotional well-being as she is about whether Bonnie will crack and confess to the police. 
Their very lives are a house of cards, and people like Mary Louise and the FBI (who arrest Renata's husband Gordon on securities fraud charges) are the ones who can bring it crashing down.  

The first two episodes of this season's Big Little Lies are juicy and delicious.   Will the rest of the season follow its route mercilessly?    My guess is yes, because the way these people run their lives, it is nearly impossible to arrive at anything but another tragic ending or two.