ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY AND AWARD NEWS  Big Little Lies Season Two Is Juicy as Ever Some viewers may have balked at the idea of extending Big Little Lies past its neat, mystery-solving first season, initially planned as a limited series—but not TV critic Sonia Saraiya. As she notes in her review of season two, there were plenty of questions left open at the close: “Had Madeline Martha Mackenzie, Reese Witherspoon’s character, really cast aside her explosive, ferocious temper? Had Renata (Laura Dern) lost her overwhelming need to prove her superiority? What does solidarity look like for both wealthy, secure Celeste (Nicole Kidman), Perry’s widow, and significantly down-market single mom Jane (Shailene Woodley), Perry’s victim? And what about Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), the actual perpetrator of Perry’s death—and the only black person in Monterey, except for her own mixed-race daughter? What does sisterhood look like for her?” Happily, season two digs into those and more—and this time Meryl Streep is along for the ride as well. Talk about a win-win. Elsewhere in HWD, Laura Bradley chats with a star of Black Mirror about season five’s most surprising episode; Richard Lawson says Dark Phoenix ends an X-Men era with a whimper; Joy Press peeks through her fingers at a series of well-made but hard-to-watch new shows; and K. Austin Collins wonders why modern movies have so much trouble with the concept of making great trash.

Bigger! Littler! Big Little Lies returns for a second round of dramatic moms sporting athleisure, bolstered by the addition of Meryl Streep. What’s not to love? READ MORE » Through the Looking Glass Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II on his standout episode of Black Mirror season five, a surprising (and surprisingly tender) exploration of masculinity and video games. READ MORE » Fade to Black The X-Men universe as we know it comes to an end in the inert Dark Phoenix, starring Sophie Turner as a good mutant gone bad. READ MORE » Grin and Bear It Chernobyl, When They See Us, and the recent phenomenon of gripping but brutal true-life tales on the small screen—aka Must-Endure TV. READ MORE » Look, Ma The Octavia Spencer–starring Ma could have been an exemplary piece of trash—but like so many pretenders to the throne, it doesn’t understand what makes genre movies great. READ MORE »