This is a spoiler-free review for the first three episodes of Little Fires Everywhere, now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes released weekly on Wednesdays. For more from Hulu, check out our review of Devs.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Hulu’s coming for HBO’s neck with Little Fires Everywhere, starring and executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Though Hulu’s slate of original programming is often compared with Netflix, the streaming service takes an approach far more similar to HBO (and recently, Apple TV+), enticing viewers with gritty limited series starring an A-list cast of actors with a reputation for seeking out big-budget films and prestige TV. Netflix, on the other hand, is more freewheeling, in part thanks to a large subscriber base willing to watch any program offered. But star power worked for Hulu with The Handmaid’s Tale and The Act, and it’s going to work for this highly anticipated adaptation of Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller.
In the opening scene of Little Fires Everywhere, set in the affluent town of Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1997, Witherspoon’s character Elena Richardson speaks to a cop as her house burns to the ground. He suspects arson as the cause — it’s also clear he believes the culprit is Elena’s youngest daughter, Izzy (Megan Stott), whose whereabouts are unknown — because “there were little fires everywhere.” Yes, the title is spoken out loud in the opening minutes.
[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=feel-good-movies-and-tv-shows-to-watch-on-netflix-amazon-disney-hulu-and-hbo-go&captions=true”]
Little fires everywhere, indeed. Each episode simmers with small injustices and tensions between Elena and Kerry Washington’s Mia Warren and their children, beginning with their introduction a few months before the flames. As Elena shows an apartment in her family-owned duplex to Mia, an artist, and Mia’s 15-year-old daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood), she spots their car and realizes she’s speaking with the woman she called the police over earlier that day, believing her to be a homeless loiterer. Feeling immense guilt, she rents to them on the spot without checking their references, despite Mia’s clear contempt and inability to sign a year-long lease.
Watching this show is frustrating at first, as Elena’s white savior complex and Mia’s mysterious edge and ability to see right through Elena’s bias escalates with every awkward meeting, raising the question: why do this landlord and tenant keep interacting, even given the seemingly small suburban town setting? It gets worse when Mia’s daughter becomes entangled with Elena’s son Moody (Gavin Lewis) and his siblings, prompting Mia to accept the role of “house manager” (read: the help). Mia clearly doesn’t like the family’s influence on Pearl, but sees no problem striking up her own kinship with the most troubled Richardson, Izzy.
At 59 minutes, the pilot episode feels too long, too slow, and frankly, too similar to Witherspoon’s HBO series Big Little Lies for comfort, but it’s worth sticking it out. Yes, the Hulu series echoes many aspects of BLL; upper-class women and privileged children clash with a poor, free-spirited single mom and her kid in an affluent town leading up to a big, violent mystery. Even Elena’s strained relationship with her angry, rebellious daughter Izzy comes off, at first, as a cheap imitation of Madeline Mackenzie (Witherspoon) and her daughter Abigail (Kathryn Newton).
Yet, as the series continues to expand in the next couple of episodes, the Warrens form roots in Shaker and Little Fires Everywhere’s exploration of racial and class divides sets the series apart from its competition. There’s a particularly compelling B-storyline surrounding a stolen college essay that highlights issues of white feminism in a particularly cringe-inducing, but enlightening way.
Even further, the performances — particularly Witherspoon’s —are exactly the caliber viewers expect from prestige TV. Many aspects of Elena’s characterization — she literally schedules sex with her husband (Joshua Jackson) two days a week — could have easily come off as caricature or cliche, but Witherspoon plays her with agonizing heart. Her motivations are clear throughout: she deeply loves her children and, though she fumbles the ball more often than not, wants to do right by Mia… which actually makes her ignorance even more disheartening.
When Little Fires Everywhere finally introduces its central conflict in episode 3, viewers will find it less simple to choose a side. Without getting into spoiler territory, we’ll just say that suddenly, Mia and Elena find themselves on opposing sides of a fraught battle with the potential to shake the town of Shaker Heights to its core. All those little fires are starting to add up, and there’s no telling how far they’ll spread.