What is it? Olive Kitteridge, miniseries, four hour-long episodes on two discs from HBO
How much? $39.98
When? Now
Who is Olive? When the series (based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Elizabeth Strout) begins, Olive (Frances McDormand) is a math teacher, wife and mother in a small coastal town in Maine. As the series progresses, audiences follow Olive through key points in her life over many years.
Olive is harsh. She's gruff. She's no-nonsense. She's demanding and unaffectionate with her son, Christopher (Devin Druid and John Gallagher Jr.). She brushes off her kindly husband, Henry's (Richard Jenkins), attempts at affection and sentiment. She has no time for people she sees as weak. People see her as unfeeling, heartless and uncompromising.
But Olive is far more complicated than that. She actually does mean well. And she genuinely loves her son and husband -- obvious from moments the audience witnesses but the other characters often do not. She also has a keen ability to see when other people are in pain and need help and to know exactly how to address the problem.
While Henry is a loving, considerate man, loved and highly regarded by all, he's not a saint and he's not just Olive's long-suffering, pushover husband.
Each episode focuses on an important point in Olive's life:
• Henry's (maybe not entirely) paternal interest in his sweet young assistant irks Olive, while she walks a line of her own with a fellow teacher (Peter Mullan) as they try to help a young man (John T. Mullen) with a troubled home life.
• Years later, now-retired Olive and Henry catch up with old acquaintances as their son Christopher, now a doctor, gets married.
• A few years later, Olive and Henry's marriage nearly unravels when they're caught in a hostage situation and then another crisis sets them on a new course.
• Four more years pass and Olive reaches a crossroads and forms an unexpected bond with a local widower (Bill Murray).
What's it like? At first, it seems sort of slow and meandering. There are tragedies, betrayals and unhappy endings, but despite the occasional surreal imagery, it's all presented in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way. No soap opera melodrama here. But, like the title character, there's more than meets the eye.
What's really exciting about it are the key insights into human nature, family, community and people in general -- particularly Olive.
She starts out seeming almost comically unlikable -- a bitter, gruff person who might be amusing to watch but not someone you'd ever actually want to meet. But very quickly, she begins to grow on the viewer. Thanks to McDormand's performance, the layers of this complex woman show through. She's not just a curmudgeon. She's genuinely heartbreaking.
She means well, but she goes about things the wrong way. When she reacts with an offhand comment about her son's attempts to connect, it's frustrating. But we see what most of the characters can't. The result is beautiful and painful at the same time.
The rest of the cast is fabulous too, particularly Jenkins as Henry.
Are there extras? No.
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Style on 03/08/2015