Hit or Miss: Hulu's Little Fires Everywhere
A-list actresses Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington are joining forces on the small screen starring and producing in the drama Little Fires Everywhere. This limited series will premiere on Wednesday, March 18 on Hulu.
Based on Celeste Ng’s 2017 New York Times bestselling novel of the same name, Little Fires Everywhere is about an affluent picturesque family whose lives become overturned upon the arrival of a mother and daughter duo. The series will take place in 1996 in Shaker Heights, a suburban neighborhood outside of Cleveland, Ohio. Reese Witherspoon plays Elena Richardson, the matriarch of the family who is stuck on routine. Kerry Washington plays Mia Warren, who is the exact opposite. Mia is an enigmatic mother who lives a nomadic life and eventually settles down, along with her daughter Pearl (played by Lexi Underwood), in the wealthy Ohio neighborhood. With the city being fueled by upholding a cookie-cutter image, Mia and her daughter stick out like a sore thumb. There are secrets revealed, fires ignited and demonstrates the sociopolitical differences between two cultures.
This fiery trailer opens up with a stunned Elena (Witherspoon) standing in the street in her nightclothes watching her massive house burn down. There is a voice-over of a man who is later revealed as a police officer saying to Elena, “Someone just tried to burn your house down... with you inside. Do you know anyone who would do this?” A distressed Elena is shown and gives the impression that she knows who may have been responsible. The trailer then flashes back to the beginning showing how we got to this moment.
In comes Mia (Washington) who is introduced as a single black mother who is a struggling artist, moving in the white wealthy area. After being spotted sleeping in their car, Elena decides to help Mia and Pearl by offering Mia a job and a place to stay in the Richardson home. Elena nonchalantly offers Mia a job to clean and do laundry in her home. An appalled Mia is taken aback by the offer as a maid, which Elena clarifies her offer as needing a “house helper.” Mia takes Elena’s offer but things start to take a dramatic turn and heat up...literally. We find out Mia is running away from something in her past and a dramatic confrontation between Elena and Mia breaks out and their relationship unravels.
The trailer ends with quick flashes showing intense moments with a lot of yelling, anger, random sex scenes, and consist of melodramatic acting. The very last shot reveals a large hanging photograph of Elena’s face being burned. With so many mishaps in this trailer, it leaves the audience intrigued and wanting more. The trailer did a good job of not giving away too much detail and there are plenty of questions that need to be answered leaving us to tune in to find out.
During the heightened argument between the two mothers, Elena yells to Mia, “A good mother makes good choices.” Mia aggressively responds, “You didn’t make good choices. You had good choices.” With such a convoluted plot with many themes, it will be interesting to see how the show explores the themes of classism, racism, identity, and motherhood.
ABC Signature Studios and Witherspoon’s media company Hello Sunshine will produce the series. Liz Tigelaar who is the creator of the show will also serve as the lead showrunner. For those who have read the book and are afraid the show won’t live up to the book’s name, do not fear, the author of the novel is completely involved in the show and is one of the producers.
Little Fires Everywhere is the second book to TV adaptation produced by Witherspoon and ran by a group of women. The award-winning HBO series Big Little Lies was a widely successful book to TV adaptation that was produced by Witherspoon and Little Fires Everywhere has the potential to follow in its path. Both shows feature some of Hollywood’s most critically acclaimed actresses with a storyline that is sure to keep you at the edge of your seat. Fans wanting to get their Big Little Lies fix and fans of the successful book will likely tune in. Having two beloved Hollywood actresses star in this series along with a complex yet dynamic storyline will surely bring in a large audience making the show a hit and binge-watch worthy.
