We're OBSESSED with Big Little Lies. Loved the book, and so far, loving HBO's adaptaion of it. So we're going to be digging into it each and every week! Join us as we dish on everyone's favorite new guilty pleasure.
Big Little Lies, HBO’s new series, is about a group of mothers who are just trying to provide all the best that life can offer for their first grade children. And in their attempts to win the “best mom” award, tensions flare and emotions unravel, to the point of murder.
The main character is Jane Chapman, played by Shailene Woodley, a young single mom who has recently moved to a new town in hopes of giving her son a better education. Alone, without a husband or partner for a support system, it is quickly apparent that Jane doesn’t quite fit in her new home.
In the first two episodes of the series, we are introduced to the community of Monterey – a place where keeping up with the Joneses becomes a matter of life and death. On orientation day, Jane is befriended by the mother of one of her son’s classmates. The lovable, if maybe a tad overbearing, Madeline, played by Reese Witherspoon. Madeline then introduces Jane to Celeste, another fellow first grader mom played by Nicole Kidman.
The show follows each of the three moms, showing the similarities and differences between their lives, all while leading up to a fundraiser that goes terribly, deathly wrong.
For obvious reasons, I felt immediately connected to the character of Jane. She seems to be the only single mom at the whole school, and she’s also clearly much younger than all the other mothers. One mom at the end of school pick-up even mistakes her for a nanny.
While Jane, Madeline and Celeste are having coffee together during their kids’ orientation, Jane makes a comment about how “exactly right” Madeline and Celeste both seem, and how that makes her in turn feel wrong. I think part of the reason Jane feels that way, is because of the age difference between her and her new mom friends. It’s like she’s on the outside looking in, feeling less-than, or incapable because she’s alone in a whole community of seemingly blissful couples.
I can definitely relate.
When it comes to feeling less-than in motherhood, I know how Jane could come out feeling “just wrong.” Especially when she’s comparing herself to the older, more put together moms at her son’s new school. I’ve felt the inadequacies, I’ve felt the self-doubt based on age. And as a mom whose daughter is about to start kindergarten, I have felt the pull to do whatever it takes to make sure my child succeeds in school, regardless of my birth date.
The more I watch Big Little Lies, the more sure I am that all the moms are going through their own battles with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, regardless of their age.
While Jane is definitely younger than her fellow moms in the show, she is by no means any more dysfunctional. By the end of the second episode, we’ve come to find that Madeline and Celeste, and even perfect-mom-extraordinaire Renata Klein, all have their own parenting troubles and family debacles to try and navigate. None of their families are as perfect as they initially seem.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter how old or young they are, the moms of Monterey are all trying to give their children more – even if they do compete to be seen as the one who gives the most.
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