Having determined that limited series with movie stars generally works out great for everyone involved come awards time, HBO has already begun clearing shelf space for Big Little Lies, the new David E. Kelley drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman. First announced last fall, presumably shopped around to other networks who just wanted an expensed lunch out of it, then caught in a bidding war between HBO and Netflix, Big Little Lies is based on Australian author Liane Moriarty’s dark comedy novel about three mothers of varying backgrounds whose lives intertwine around their children’s elementary school—an elementary school that becomes a hotbed of gossip, intrigue, and possibly even murder. And while that sounds just like your elementary school, this one has moms who look like famous movie stars.
Deadline calls Big Little Lies the “the highest-profile limited series package to hit the marketplace since Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective,” so it makes sense that it would also end up on HBO, which presumably has the first right of refusal on all high-profile series packages based on critically acclaimed novels. For Witherspoon, it will be her first recurring TV role since a pair of appearances as Rachel’s sister on Friends. Meanwhile, Kidman will be a TV series regular for the first time since the Australian Western Five Mile Creek. These are facts you can find on IMDb, but you don’t have to because I found them for you.
Big Little Lies actually revolves around three mothers, so it remains to be seen who will join Kidman and Witherspoon in the prestige HBO drama game, and whether it will just be an increasingly cocky Matthew McConaughey in a wig.