BIG LITTLE LIES
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
I’m beginning to think of Meryl Streep’s Mary Louise as the maternal equivalent of Walter White’s in-law and nemesis, Hank, on Breaking Bad. In both cases, Hank and Mary Louise are related to the drama’s protagonist by marriage: Hank was married to Walter’s wife’s sister, while Mary Louise was the mother of Perry, the now-dead husband of Nicole Kidman’s battered wife Celeste. Both Hank and Mary Louise are persistent bloodhounds, he on the trail of a local drug kingpin, and she suspecting her son’s death was not accidental. The difference is that Hank didn’t suspect, until near the end, that the culprit might be an actual relative – while Mary Louise has suspected Celeste and her close-knit female friends from the start. And they’re both right – yet while in some scenes we’re rooting for them, in others we’re rooting squarely against them. Very complicated. Very entertaining. And tonight, Mary Louise’s suspicions get even deeper.