Big Little Lies: has season two really been a screaming great flop?
Fuelled by reports about behind-the-scenes turmoil, armchair experts have torn into the returning HBO drama. But is it really as bad as people say?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that – as reliably as Renata Klein sets off any metal detector she walks through in the HBO series Big Little Lies – most modern-day fans will ruin the experience of watching a hit TV programme. We can’t help it; we worry away at imperfect character arcs or narrative misfires until the very fabric of the show comes apart in our hands.
The more the first season of a show delivers, the more the armchair commentariat chews through any subsequent offerings, like moths working through cashmere. We saw it most overtly with the final season of Game of Thrones which – while admittedly far from perfect – attracted the sort of furore normally reserved for tax-dodgers or cold callers. Later, the actors who had worked on the flagship HBO show revealed that the experience of seeing the show’s final season ripped apart online had been deeply hurtful.