Few shows achieve what Big Little Lies achieved.
The HBO limited series gave us eight episodes of iconic characters, incredible performances, a mommy war for the ages, and a death hardly anyone could argue was undeserved. It ended perhaps more perfectly than any other show ever has, leaving us more than incredibly satisfied. There is nothing else we could want from those women, frolicking on the beach together, bonded by their perfect secret.
Sure, there were hints of more police investigation to come, but they were hints we do not care to take. We don't need more of this story. And yet the rumors and the questions of a season two keep going and going and going, and now there are reports that production on a second season will begin in the spring of 2018. (HBO had no comment.)
If this is a thing that has to happen, there's absolutely no need to revisit those Monterey moms. Leave them on that beach for the rest of time, but take that cast somewhere else. Turn Big Little Lies into an anthology series a la American Horror Story—same cast, same general themes, but different characters and settings each season. We'll even let Laura Dern keep her tiger jumpsuit, as long as she's wearing it somewhere else.
We could get to know some midwestern moms in a small town in Indiana or the suburbs of Chicago. Take us to the Upper West Side, or Nebraska, or even to LA and turn them into showbiz moms. There are a thousand stories to be told in a group of mothers holding onto their identities and declaring their self worth amid everyone else's expectations, a thousand stories about people who deserve a little karma, none of which will ruin what the first season gave us.
There are even a thousand potentially iconic soundtracks to accompany each of these stories, and we will buy those soundtracks. Just please don't destroy that ending.
Executive producer David E. Kelley told TVLine, "where we left it, I felt like it did open the opportunity for a lot more storytelling," but we beg of you, David E. Kelley, please rethink that statement. Or rethink what you mean by that statement. There is a lot of opportunity for more storytelling, but it doesn't have to be the same story.
Give us the David E. Kelley writing, the Liane Moriarty plotting, the gorgeous Jean Marc Valee directing. Give us every little bit of Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Zoe Kravitz, and Shailene Woodley that you can, but somebody needs to recognize the fact that the story in Monterey is over, and it's for the best.
Big Little Lies aired on HBO.