If season one of Big Little Lies was all about the events that led up to and, perhaps, justified the cover-up at its heart, season two (Mondays, Fox Showcase, from 11am) is more about the ripple effect generated by that lie.
It's a year on, but each of the five women who were present when the abusive Perry (Alexander Skarsgard) tumbled to his death – a fall, they claim; a push, many suspect, rightly – is plagued by the memories of that night.
But none is more troubled than chief shover Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz). She wonders what the point of the lie was. If they'd just come clean about what really happened, it would all be done by now – no cover-up, no guilt, no risk of being outed.
That very point was made by the detectives whose investigation framed the entire first season. If Perry was attacking his wife Celeste (Nicole Kidman) as everyone claimed, and she pushed him to his death in self-defence (as they suspected), she'd have got a 12-month community sentence at worst, likely suspended. "Why bother to lie," Detective Gibson (Tim True) said.
"That's what’s bugging me," his partner, Detective Quinlan (Merrin Dungey), echoed. "Why lie?"
The answer, you suspect, has something to do with the concentric circles of falsehoods emanating from that central one, which if exposed would shatter the perfect facades the denizens of Carmel are so intent on preserving.
The co-conspirators: (l-r) Jane (ShaileneWoodley), Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), Madeleine (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste (Nicole Kidman) and Renata (Laura Dern). Credit:HBO/Fox Showcase
Celeste would have had to come clean about the long history of abuse in which she had been both victim and participant. Madeleine (Reese Witherspoon) risked having her affair with the school drama teacher exposed. Jane (Shailene Woodley) might have had to reveal that her son was the product of a rape, at the hands of Perry, no less. Renata's reputation in the business world might have been at risk. As for Bonnie? Well, she remains an enigma.
As it happens, pretty much all of their fears come to pass anyway. The lie was pointless, in other words, but its implications are endless.
The very last image of season one was of the women and their kids frolicking on the beach, seemingly rejoicing in Perry's death. Someone was spying on the scene through binoculars. Was it the detectives, who seem no less sceptical as this season unfurls? Or was it perhaps Mary Louise (Meryl Streep), Perry's mother?
She has turned up, ostensibly to help Celeste and her twin boys through this difficult time, though clearly she has other reasons to be close to the scene of her son's death. She doesn't buy the "accident" story, and the more she learns – about the abuse, about Celeste's plans to move out, about the sexual assault – the more she smells a cover-up.
Streep is, of course, magnificent, a quietly menacing presence whose maternal instincts are as understandable as they are misguided. And Mary Louise is a much better detective than anyone on the Carmel police force, to boot.
As Perry’s mother Mary Louise, Meryl Streep is, of course, magnificent.Credit:HBO/Fox Showcase
"The case isn't closed closed," Renata tells her co-conspirators. "But, like, they've got nothing. We're good."
Oh, but they're not good at all. There is more than one loose thread threatening to unravel this tapestry of lies, and one by one they are being tugged. Three episodes in (all that's been made available for preview), I'm willing to predict there's a lot more unravelling to come.
First-season director Jean-Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club, Sharp Objects) is gone, but in his place Andrea Arnold does a sterling job of maintaining the visual style, circular storytelling and vaguely Country Road-catalogue vibe of the whole thing.
Occasionally it feels like the gorgeous visuals and major talent on display are there primarily to distract us from the fact this is really just a superior soap. But for the most part, Big Little Lies is an engaging thriller with a simple and compelling moral at its core.
Don't lie, kiddies. It will only come back to haunt you.
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