“Big Little Lies” is coming back with more drama from the seaside community of Monterey. HBO has announced that season two is coming back in June, but hasn’t formally set an official date. Perhaps most excitingly, it’s been confirmed that Andrea Arnold, the filmmaker behind “Red Road,” “Fish Tank” and “American Honey,” and more recently many directed fantastic episodes of Jill Soloway’s “Transparent” and “I Love Dick,” will be directing all of the seven episodes of season two. Arnold helming was the original mooted idea of course, but you never really know until you see the final product as things change. Given her work has been strictly indie up until this point with few stars, landing all of “Big Little Lies” is a gamechanger for Arnold and hopefully opens up her career to all kinds of more high profile work.
READ MORE: The 50 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of #2019
Returning to the “Big Little Lies” fold are Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz. New to the cast is Meryl Streep (21-time Oscar nominee! Three-time winner!), who will play Kidman’s character’s mom. Also returning to the cast are Adam Scott (“Parks and Recreation,” “Black Mass”); James Tupper (“Men in Trees,” “Revenge”); Jeffrey Nordling (“Sully,” “Motive”); and Douglas Smith (HBO’s “Big Love”; “The Bye Bye Man”). Alexander Skarsgård is rumored to reappear in flashbacks, but so far, HBO hasn’t mentioned in their press releases.
READ MORE: The 50 Most Anticipated TV Shows & Mini-Series Of #2019
Here’s the synopsis for season two.
On the surface, in the tranquil seaside town of Monterey, California, everything seems the same. The mothers continue to dote, the husbands support, the children remain adorable, and the houses are just as beautiful. But the night of the school fundraiser changed all that, leaving the community reeling as the “Monterey Five”— Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie – bond together to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.
Currently, there’s no plan for a third season. “There’s no such plan now [to do Season 3]. We like our closure at the end of Season 2, and that would probably be it,” producer David E. Kelly said at the Television Critics Association winter event yesterday. Yet, that’s what they said the first time and Witherspoon joked to that effect.
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, he swore there would be no season two, but Witherspoon, who produced the material and optioned the book, found a way forward with David E. Kelly (Vallée did not return, but remains as an executive producer).
Thankfully, the intentions remain pure. As Kelly suggested to USA Today, it’s not like any of these actresses need the work “Everybody [in the cast] can get jobs,” he said. “We didn’t want to do this unless we had a fair shot of living up to the bar we all thought that we set in year one.”
Stay tuned for a date, and probably a trailer. Both should be revealed soon. Here are some first look photos of season two, love the bangs Shailene.
