It took me longer than it should have, but I finally finished watching the miniseries adaptation of Celeste Ng’s novel, Little Fires Everywhere. Ultimately, I think it took me so long because I didn’t really find it all that enjoyable. Maybe it’s because I read the book first, or because I didn’t wait long enough in between reading it and watching it that it didn’t feel fresh or compelling? Those are both very valid reasons, and probably both true to some degree. Let’s dig in a little bit.
Off the bat, let’s just say that the casting was impeccable. Reese Witherspoon can be both magnetic and grating depending on how she plays something and in this series she sort of tows the line the entire time. Sorry to Joshua Jackson, but he is just unremarkable enough to pull off her husband Bill, who was more involved in the show than he was in the novel, which I was glad for. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Kerry Washington, so I was already pre-disposed to disliking her as Mia, but she did play her with a stiff detachment that was definitely present in the novel. My problem with her was that everything she said was with a grimace or a snarl and I just didn’t feel that she was quite so awful in the book. And even though all those kids were as deplorable in the show as they were in the book, at least they casted teenagers!
Despite doing a decent job with the casting aspect of the show, there were just so many details changed from the novel unnecessarily! Something that really bothered me is what they did with Mia’s backstory. Does she really need to fall for her professor? Also, Elena’s backstory seemed sort of like a moot point. We get it. She wants it all, but the 80’s and 90’s don’t want women to have it all, especially if you’re taking four kids’ worth of maternity leave. Jumping away from the backstory piece is the fact that certain things happened a lot sooner in the show, especially with baby Mirabelle/May Ling. Oh well, not really a big deal I guess. But changing who burnt the house down?! That’s a huge thing to change, but truthfully I’m not sure which take I enjoyed better…remains to be determined.
My least favorite part of the show had to deal with how Elena discovered everything about Mia. Did she really need to be told she’s a bad person? But more than that, her motivation is never really pinned down. Sure, she’s involved with Mirabelle/May Ling’s parenting dilemma it’s clear that Mia is involved, but whenever Bill asks her why she cares so much (a few times), she just says something like “I don’t know…there’s just something about her that doesn’t feel right.” Yes, Mia’s lived a strange life, but nothing dangerous or illegal. I understand the point of it is to draw the line between these two women and their drastically different lives, but come on.
And finally, the book shared its focus on everyone, really, where the show makes it all about Elena and Mia. Which is probably where some of that nonsense I just mentioned came from. It seemed in the show that once a character’s major plot point is addressed and solved, then they are either thrown to the sidelines or completely forgotten about (poor Moody!). Overall, this was not my favorite watch by a long shot, but if you’re skipping out on the book, and are impressed with the heavy hitters as the leads, then by all means, watch this eight-part miniseries. And if you really want to impress your friends, watch Little Fires Everywhere before the Emmys and tell them all that it won’t win anything, because it won’t. Really.