Big Little Lies 2.5: Little Red Riding Hood

I thought Big Little Lies 2.5 was the best yet of this powerhouse second season.  It had Madeline riffing on "Natural Woman" (Reese Witherspoon did a great job as June Carter in Walk the Line in 2005, it was great to hear her sing again), Mary Louise yearning for "an app like that," i.e., one which would enable people to just enjoy each other's company, and all kinds of good stuff like that.

But the centerpiece, like a gathering hurricane, of course concerns Perry's death.  Celeste worries that she and her friends will be called to testify in her custody hearing.  Renata assures her that they can all go down for perjury if they are asked about Perry's death, and they stick to their story - which Madeline still insists they keep adhering to as the best way to move forward will no ill effects, as they've been doing.  And this discussion takes place right in front of Bonnie.

The nub of this elephant in the room is why should they all protect Bonnie?  They didn't ask Bonnie to push Perry down the stairs, let alone kill him, though none of them were unhappy that that happened.   We the viewers still don't know the deepest reason that Bonnie did this.  Neither do her protectors.   This means that, sooner or later, this ring of protection will come apart.

Bonnie clearly has homicidal tendencies.  It looked at the end of tonight's episode that she's on her way to mercy-killing her mother.  But I'm going to go out on a limb and make a prediction for how this season will end: someone, maybe more than one, is going to kill Grandma Mary.  Like a new version of Little Red Riding Hood, in which the grandmother/wolf is killed by one or more women from the town.

Anyway, great episode tonight, and we'll see what next week holds in store.

See also Big Lies 2.1: Grandma On a Mission ... Big Little Lies 2.2: Perry's Progeny ... Big Little Lies 2.3: Together ... Big Little Lies 2.4: Bonnie's Deepest Motives

And see also Big Little Lies: Big Good, Truly ... Big Little Lies 1.5: Multivalent Whodunnit ... Big Little Lies: Elvis and Answers

 

Defiance: Alien DJ, Great Music, Star Wars Bar on Earth

I caught the first season of Defiance over the past few nights.  The new SyFy post-apocalyptic drama joins The Walking Dead, Falling Skies, and more in this now flourishing television genre.   But Defiance has a few special facets going for it:

• The music is just fantastic, starting with the Johnny Cash - June Carter "We Got Married in a Fever" (aka "Jackson") in the first episode to Raya Yarbrough's outstanding cover of Cindi Lauper's "Time after Time" near the end - and even a fine cover by Yarbrough of The Five Stairsteps' "Ooh Child" somewhere in the middle.   Bear McCreary, of Battlestar Galactica fame, has done his customarily brilliant job with the music throughout.
• Speaking of BSG, there's a lot of its flavor and feel in Defiance, which I take as a good thing.
• There's even a kid in a radio station in Defiance - making a pair with the DJ in Under the Dome - but in Defiance the kid is an alien.   Anything that harkens to Alan Freed, Murray the K, and Wolfman Jack is a plus in my book.

But speaking of aliens, there's a tad too many of them - seven different alien species, that is, which came to Earth as part of the Votan collective.   I'd be happy with just the three major brands, Irathient, Castithan, and Imogen.   The additional species, including Earth mutants which add to the seven, give Defiance the ambience of a Star Wars bar scene, and an everything-but-the-kitchen sink effect, which has the unintentional consequence of giving Defiance a slight touch of parody.

The sex, though, is pretty good - between Castithan Datak Tarr and his wife, and Irathient Irisa and Tommy, her human lover.   Thanks to our childish, unconstitutional FCC, we see no real skin - and the Castithan custom of bathing privately in bathing suits is inconsistent with their otherwise hedonistic culture.   But expecting our television networks to stand up to the FCC is a hopeless case, even if the FCC has never tried to exercise power over cable television.

The plot works well, with a good mix of unexpected heroes and villains, and characters you can care about.  I'm looking forward to season 2.

#SFWApro