“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too.” — Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

Reese Witherspoon’s latest series, Little Fires Everywhere explores the nuances of female relationships, class divides, motherhood, family, lost ambition, gender and identity, among many other things. There’s a lot to unpack in this series based on Celete Ng’s 2017 book with the same title. Both Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, who star opposite each other as two strong matriarchs with radically opposite mothering styles, give gripping, powerful performances throughout the series.

Two contrasting yet same-in-so-many-ways worlds collide in the series when the two main characters played by Witherspoon and Washington — who are also producers of the show — come together. But this ‘collision’ is more like a slow burn. Throughout the series’ carefully curated episodes, you can sense the tension building to a tipping point as each character in the series is revealed and comes undone layer by layer.

The much-talked-about opening scene sets the tone for the entire series. Set in the late ’90s, we meet a shell-shocked Elena Richardson (Witherspoon), her husband Bill (Joshua Jackson) and three of their four children, outside their palatial family house in the wee hours of the morning… watching it burn to the ground.

Little Fires Everywhere is a story about women by women and it shows in its complexity

The fire department informs them that “someone set little fires all over the house.” They suspect Izzy, Elena’s youngest who is missing. Her other children, however, think their mother is just out to get her, no matter what. And that’s what opens the viewer up to thinking that everything is not as ‘perfect’ as Elena would like everyone — and herself — to believe.

We flashback to a year earlier when Mia Warren (Washington), an artist and single mother, arrives with her daughter, Pearl (Lexi Underwood) in the perfect neighbourhood of Shaker. Assumptions have already been made about Mia by Elena, and she’s corrected when Mia thinks it’s needed. Almost out of charity that appears quietly condescending, Elena rents out a pretty generous portion of her family’s property to Mia.

Elena comes across almost like a Stepford wife. She is also a “good mother” who does everything she can for her family. She revels in her administration of her perfectly organised life. Everything is scheduled, including intimate time with her husband, or everything will fall apart. The only person who refuses to play by her mother’s rules and ruins it for her is her rebellious, artsy daughter, Izzy (Megan Stott). But Elena is determined to bend her to her will.

Pearl ends up befriending Elena’s children and is somewhat attracted to Elena’s house and life — which seems far more stable and so different from her own. Mia, who sometimes comes across as a bit intense and ‘unhinged’, for lack of a better word, is constantly shuffling Pearl and herself off to newer destinations for her ‘art’ but, in truth, it feels like she’s always on the run — maybe from herself. She’s very attached to Pearl, almost to a point where it feels stifling. And there is a silent fear that is constantly gnawing away at her. And as much as Pearl loves Elena, Mia has her reservations.

Beautifully filmed, one of the things that stands out about Little Fires Everywhere is the nuance in the portrayal of these women, their lives, the events that led them to become who they are, their relationships, how they transform over this one year… and how their truths are slowly revealed and come back to haunt them. There is an attention to complexity and detail given to the series that makes all of the female characters or their situations, so relatable in some way or another. This is a story about women by women. And it shows.

Little Fires Everywhere isn’t a quick watch. It smoulders until it bursts into flame. Take your time.

The series is available to watch on Amazon Prime in Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 12th, 2020