From Nicole Kidman to Jennifer Aniston, we’ve seen Reese Witherspoon take no prisoners opposite some of Hollywood’s most celebrated leading ladies in the past two years alone, so it’s no surprise that teaming up with Kerry Washington would prove yet another dynamic duo we’ve been missing all our lives. Well-meaning ignorance meets no-nonsense skepticism and these two are at the top of their game, bringing the spicy drama that upper-class suburbia isn’t prepared for because what lies inside its heavenly walls overestimated its immunity to disturbance.
Little Fires Everywhere, Hulu’s new series based on the book by Celeste Ng, lets us know that the drama is real, opening with a house engulfed in flames and a forlorn Reese Witherspoon watching it burn to the ground in her housecoat. Police tell her and her husband that the fire was purposefully set, and with their youngest daughter having disappeared, it’s implied that she’s the one responsible. It’s not every day that you’re told your child burned your house down with you inside it, so viewers are rapt by what possibly led the girl to do this. But the officer’s (played by Colby French) final question rings in our ears: “If Izzy didn’t do this, then who did?”
If Izzy didn’t do this, then who did?
Who did…?
Four months earlier.
Elena Richardson (Witherspoon) is Martha Stewart meets Kelly Ripa meets Miss Manners, with her perfect balancing act between wife and mother and impeccably-presented workingwoman. In comes Mia Warren (Washington), a closed-off drifter who could stand to let her guard down long enough to see that Elena may be sheltered within the pearly gates of Shaker Heights, but her charitable nature really is just that.
Little Fires Everywhere is set in the late 1990s, in an upscale community that welcomes outsiders as long as they abide by its stringent rules to maintain an orderly visual so that prominence is upheld. Elena and her husband, Bill (Joshua Jackson), are longtime residents of Shaker Heights, unfamiliar with anything less than their six-bedroom house and its manicured lawn and high-society neighbors.
Keeping with a family tradition, Elena rents out a duplex her parents owned and leased at an affordable rate to people not so financially blessed but nonetheless deserving. This is where Mia and her teenage daughter, Pearl (Lexi Underwood), who have been living out of Mia’s car, gain entry to the privileged district of Shaker Heights that would have otherwise excluded them.
Elena and Mia aren’t fast friends, and not because of their difference in social class. Elena tries hard enough, but Mia isn’t receptive to her efforts, which are filled with unintentional slights that result from Elena’s incomprehension as to how people outside of her conventional bubble live. And Mia has no tolerance for it, as well as no difficulty making that intolerance known.
However, as Elena’s tenant, Mia has to get used to her, especially since Elena’s son, Moody (Gavin Lewis), is fond of Pearl and spends more time at her new home than his own. Elena’s reaction to Moody and Pearl’s budding romance is on par with what Mia expects, but Mia reminds herself she has bigger problems. We’re not sure what troubled past she’s trying to outrun, nor are we sure how aware her daughter is of that trouble, but her nightmares of a stalker (Jesse Williams) on the subway and her verge of a panic attack when she notices a police car following her indicate that she comes with many secrets that rule-abiding Elena isn’t going to let fall by the wayside.
As if Elena doesn’t have issues of her own. Her youngest daughter, Izzy (Megan Stott), is going through a rebellious stage that’s alarming on a whole new level when her refusal to wear “normal” clothes escalates to setting her hair on fire. Bill isn’t on board with Elena’s concerns until a humiliating public stunt of noncompliance forces him to take a closer look. And it’s not helpful when Moody and Pearl start breaking the rules as well; although it’s Mia who’s exceptionally pissed off then, reminding her daughter that she’s not privy to the same exemptions from law enforcement as Moody Richardson, whose name grants him special treatment.
But there’s a moment of surrender for Mia when she regrets the harsh punishment she inflicted on Pearl and then sees inside the Richardson’s home for the first time, left dazzled by the overall normalcy and tight bonds among the siblings in such a grandiose haven. Or maybe it’s the generation of a shady opportunity that causes her to concede. With Mia’s jarring approach having spawned our mistrust, we do wonder.
Little Fires Everywhere is going to jerk us through the feud that’s brewing. It’s unlikely that Elena’s social graces will stay in tact when Mia’s fabrications expand into the Richardson household and jeopardize its sanctuary from disorder.
Will Elena be forgiving? And will Mia deserve it?
Find out.
https://www.hulu.com/series/little-fires-everywhere-bce24897-1a74-48a3-95e8-6cdd530dde4c
Also starring Jade Pettyjohn and Jordan Elsass as Elena’s two older children, Lexie and Trip.
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