Olive Kitteridge (2014)

This show (technically mini-series) is incredible. I first heard about it while watching the 2015 Emmys, and decided to watch it after it dominated there, winning 8 awards, out of its 13 nominations. And there is a reason for those awards. This show is phenomenal. I've never seen anything like it. It's simultaneously super depressing and of a certain quality standard that you don't see too often, although to be fair, it is only four episodes. I won't tell you what it's about because it already says on the IMDb page, all I'll say is the story revolves around depression, emotions, and family. If you are debating watching it, do it. HBO Now gives users a 30 day free trial, and honestly, this is an example of how excellent HBO shows can be. Even if there wasn't a free trial, it's worth paying for a subscription to watch this.

Olive Kitteridge is a fable regarding original people in original situations. The subtlety with which Lisa Cholodenko carries the four-hour mini-series is what emphasizes the story about a woman who is childish yet cruel, sappy yet caring, wildly honest yet deeply depressed.I like Frances McDormand very much. Her cheekbones speak more than her mouth, and in here, the air she adopts of the titular character is splendid. She makes you wanna hate her and love her at the same time. Supported by the great Richard Jenkins and amusing Bill Murray, the story of the life of Mrs. Kitteridge is what we can relate to with our own lives. Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize winning novel gleams originality and its adaptation doesn't lag any behind.The four episodes each talk about certain periods of her life and it ends with a very good moral. The characters hold truth in them and we start becoming judgmental, without even knowing it. Themes such as bereavement, depression, and paranoia is rampant in the series and you will be stunned to find connections between them.The actors have been directed and shot well. The countryside locations serve as the perfect background for the story. I must say I am impressed by the whole cast and crew for giving me a piece of pie called Olive Kitteridge.BOTTOM LINE: Not many people know about this series, and it will be my duty to recommend it to people who love original dramas that are not just crime-related a la Fargo (2014) and True Detective (2014).Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

I sat through all four episodes last night, drawn in by the two leads - McDormand and Jenkins are of course worth watching in anything. All the performances in the piece are excellent,in fact, beautiful casting across the board. I haven't read the book (nor do I plan to), but the biggest hurdle for me to come to terms with in the story is why such an exquisitely compassionate man like Henry would fall for and marry Olive in the first place.He's not actually portrayed as a masochist, so that couldn't have been his underlying and perhaps subconscious reason for teaming up with this repugnant and relentlessly horrific sociopath; maybe when they were younger he saw something in her that appealed to his compassionate nature, who knows. I just had a problem accepting it. And it wasn't like she was mean and unappreciative just to him (as some spouses are, or come to be - they treat everyone outside the relationship relatively decent and save their ugly side for the one closest to them, because that's the only person who would put up with it). Nope, she was an equal-opportunity abuser who caused serious pain - or at the very least, horrendously negative vibes - to everyone in her path, including her son Chris, who finally told her to take a hike after relaying how miserable and utterly worthless she had made him feel his entire life.I had very little sympathy for this worm of a woman, even though I understood that she was apparently 'clinically depressed' and she was shown with glimpses of humanity, cracks in the stoic facade. On some level she did care about others, like when she helped save someone from drowning. And toward the end, her interactions with Bill Murray's nearly-equally-bitter character were at least bordering on something human, so perhaps there was hope for her - again, who knows.It was sort of superficial, the teleplay, in that it never delved into why she was like that and of course why Henry chose to marry her. They just laid it out for us with a take-it-or-leave it attitude, and at the end, I was relieved that it was over. There was one really good black-humored line: ~-~ SPOILER ALERT ~-~ It came toward the end, when Olive grunts to Bill Murray's character, 'I'm just waiting for the dog to die so I can shoot myself.'

I love Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins since I saw them both in Burn after reading. That was when I started to collect (and see) all movies from the Coen brothers, including Fargo, where Frances McDormand was very good. And I always see every movie which has Richard Jenkins as well. But that here was when I realized how incredibly good actors they both are, it just was magic. Like I was spying on some family somehow, you never felt it was just acting. The story was sad, and sometimes embarrassing, but it had wonderful pictures and it was so.... human. I had to keep looking. And in the end there was hope as well. So maybe I should have given more than 8 points, for the acting was definitely 10/10.