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Big Little Lies – Season 2, Episode 1 What Have They Done?

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Big Little Lies – Season 2, Episode 1

What Have They Done?

Aired Jun 9, 2019

Drama

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100%

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29 Reviews

Following first-day-of-school events, Madeline is worried by Bonnie's behavior and is shocked when Abigail says she doesn't want to go to college; Mary Louise, Celeste's mother-in-law, offers her unvarnished assessment of Madeline's character.

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Critics Consensus

Armed with a killer bob and a quietly unhinged personality, Mary Louise proves to be an intimidating force for the Monterey Five in the season 2 premiere of Big Little Lies.

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Andrea Arnold

Director

Reese Witherspoon

Madeline Martha Mackenzie

Nicole Kidman

Celeste Wright

Shailene Woodley

Jane Chapman

Laura Dern

Renata Klein

Zoë Kravitz

Bonnie Carlson

Big Little Lies: Season 2 Episode 1 Clip - Coffee Shop

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Ben Travers

IndieWire

Jun 19, 2019

B+

Season 2 doesn't feel like a necessary addition so much as an enjoyable epilogue - but it's still proven this group has plenty more to say.

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Rebecca Nicholson

Guardian

Jun 19, 2019

On the basis of this first episode, it is very much top-quality business as usual, with an added and welcome garnish of Meryl Streep at her absolute Streepiest.

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Serena Davies

Daily Telegraph (UK)

Jun 19, 2019

Big Little Lies, essentially, turns the eliciting of schadenfreude into an art form.

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Swetha Ramakrishnan

Firstpost

Oct 9, 2023

Even though it may seem like not much has changed in the Big Little Lies universe, so much is simmering under its "normality."

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Christopher Hooton

NME (New Musical Express)

Jul 14, 2021

Andrea Arnold taking over is an exciting replacement, not that we should expect an auteurist touch from her as TV directing is invariably more about visual and tonal consistency across episodes.

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Fiona Flynn

entertainment.ie

Dec 13, 2019

Whichever way this season goes, the opening episode has done enough here to prove this show was worth resuscitating for another run.

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Synopsis

Following first-day-of-school events, Madeline is worried by Bonnie's behavior and is shocked when Abigail says she doesn't want to go to college; Mary Louise, Celeste's mother-in-law, offers her unvarnished assessment of Madeline's character.

Director: Andrea Arnold
Executive Producer: Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandrea, Nicole Kidman, Per Saari, David E. Kelley, Jean-Marc Vallée, Nathan Ross, Gregg Fienberg, Andrea Arnold, Liane Moriarty
Screenwriter: David E. Kelley
Network: HBO
Rating: TV-MA
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date: Jun 9, 2019

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