'LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE'......REESE IN PIECES

Little Fires Everywhere (2020)   Unlike "Big Little Lies", we never got around to reading the best selling book this 8 episode series is based on........

                   But we're reasonably certain that just as in "Big Little Lies", the book is probably infinitely better than the series.......

                     Once again, Reese Witherspoon trots out what's now become her signature role......the Type A Powerhouse, the all powerful self centered control freak who's fairly oblivious to the hurt, chaos and collateral damage she wreaks upon those in her orbit..... (usually family members)

                      You got your first sneak peek at this character when she played the minor role of Christian Bale's fiance in "American Psycho"........prattling on  to herself while unaware Bale's musing out loud about his addictive compulsion to slaughter people.

                       We can only wonder why he didn't get around to Reese......

                       In "Little Fires..." she rules the roost of a suburban McMansion, micro-managing the lives of her weary, slowly-getting-fed-up lawyer husband (Joshua Jackson) and their four angst-ridden teenagers............the youngest of whom (Megan Stott) suffers under Reese's deep, repressed resentment at the inconvenience of having to give birth to her at all.

                        What could possibly go wrong here? (Heh, heh, heh, heh.....)

                       A Duel Of The Titans quickly ensues between Reese and the town's new arrival, a struggling artist-photographer (Kerry Washington).....a single mom to a teen daughter.....and you'd better believe Washington's harboring a truckload of secrets and emotional baggage......

                        Witherspoon's condescending, white-privilege attempts to befriend Washington and her daughter backfire explosively on just about everybody in the cast.......and the two iron-willed women find themselves implacable foes in the middle of wrenching custody battle involving one of Witherspoon's equally wealthy entitled friends.......(the woman has adopted the Chinese baby that one of Washington's illegal immigrant co-workers was forced to abandon)

                          We won't detail any more plot intricacies, which also involve all the teens.......because let's face it, the only thing anyone would endure this for are the face-offs between the  force-of-nature Witherspoon and the edge-of-hysteria Washington.

                         It becomes a overwhelming tiresome back-and-forth between Witherspoon's overbearing harpy and Washington's almost perpetual agonies.  On a guilty pleasure level, Reese's endless machinations are fun to watch.......but Washington's one-note monotone wails of woe will tire you out after 8 long hours......

                          BQ's advice:  unless you're a rabid fan of the two actresses, read the book. Skip the show. 1 & 1/2 stars (* 1/2).....if only we'd done that.
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