The limited series is more than your standard suburban whodunit.
Little Fires Everywherebegins, as so many stories do these days, at the end.
Elena is the kind of woman who is never fully dressed without a string of pearls.
Credit: Erin Simkin/Hulu
But in a spasm of compassion and white-liberal guilt, she ends up renting Mia and Pearl an apartment.
“You know what felt good?”
Elena tells her family.
Helping, that is?
But the life Mia has framed as a liberating, free-spirit adventure is based on a lie.
The fragile peace between them explodes into open hostility.
Washington’s Mia is a fierce and prickly protector, forever teetering on the edge of a rage breakdown.
There’s also a rich and satisfying teen drama nestled insideLittle Fires' saga of adult ennui.
The young cast especially Stott as the angsty Izzy and Lewis as the lovelorn Moody is impressive.
(Tiffany Boone, who plays young Mia in flashbacks, is uncannily Washington-esque.)
For Elena, loving her children means keeping them on a well-manicured path.
“If you follow the rules, you’ll succeed,” she tells Izzy.
