Even before Season 2 of “Big Little Lies” premiered, there was talk about awards. Not about how many awards the HBO drama would get nominated for, but instead, how many awards the series would win. And with Season 2 getting big ratings and even more acclaim for “Big Little Lies,” awards seemed like a done deal. But now, there’s a cloud over the drama after behind-the-scenes turmoil came to light last week.
As we reported Friday, the post-production process of the second season of “Big Little Lies” featured some drama between director Andrea Arnold, who was hired to helm the new batch of episodes, and HBO. Specifically, Arnold was not pleased with how her vision of the series was discarded by the network, producer David E. Kelley, and Season 1 helmer Jean-Marc Vallée. It’s being reported that the second season footage was drastically altered to make it fit more with Vallée’s style and reshoots were ordered where Arnold was being micromanaged by the Season 1 director.
Well, now with fans starting to turn on the Emmy-winning series, HBO has finally made a statement regarding the situation.
HBO’s statement reads (via THR), “There wouldn’t be a season two of ‘Big Little Lies’ without Andrea Arnold. We at HBO and the producers are extremely proud of her work. As with any television project, the executive producers work collaboratively on the series and we think the final product speaks for itself.”
This statement obviously doesn’t refute the nature of the rumors. Instead, HBO seems to justify the treatment of Arnold, by saying that TV is a collaborative process. Obviously, that’s the case on all series. However, the issue that seems to be bugging many fans of the series is just how HBO, Kelley, and Vallée handled the situation, with Arnold being left out of the post-production process and with her having absolutely zero say in what happened, when it was said that she would be able to have creative control.
It’ll be interesting to see how this drama affects the awards prospects of the series. “Big Little Lies” isn’t expected to have a Season 3, so there’s really nothing stopping other people involved with the series to speak out. Perhaps the actresses will make statements as they collect their various awards? We shall see.
Until then, you can watch the final episodes of Season 2 of “Big Little Lies” Sunday nights on HBO.
