What we want to believe. What we want to see. What we want to become or not to become. It is fear that makes this want desperate and that covers the sky with clouds. A sky that is sunny and cloudy and light and dark altogether. I have rarely seen a better use of characters to support the painting of a greyshaded picture with two moms in the center that couldn’t be more different, one black the other white, one an artist with an only child the other a career-driven mother that manages four children, one a traveler sleeping in the car, the second a settler sleeping in a villa. But both have their secrets and decisions of the past. Decisions that have been too demanding at that time, that have never come to a peaceful rest. We follow the show tracing back these decisions, unpacking the mystery of Elena the journalist and Mia the artist and gaining a deeper understanding of why they do what they do, why they struggle with what they struggle and why they fight for what they fight for in their outer world but also what they fight with in their inner world, in their own psychology and with their children. The character development of these children and the two main characters go hand in hand. Elena who seems to never have a nice word for Izzy the youngest girl who is just not like the other kids in school, Mia who cannot stand her daughter Pearl to become friends with privileged white kids.
Because the show is about the complexity of being a mom, of raising children and of all the beauties and pitfalls that can and will come with it with all their consequences because it is not just fear that makes us want to believe, want to see something but because it is love as well, a third Mother Bebe is another pillar in this show. She lives in poor circumstances as an illegal chinese immigrant. Her child Mai Ling was left and abandoned by her in front of a fire station in big despair and taken in as an adopted child shortly after by Linda, a good friend of Elena. Mia meets Bebe at the fast food restaurant where she starts to work. Both mothers love the Mai Ling but who is the rightful Mother of her? Who should raise her? A conflict that sets the stage for Elena and Mia and for a show that takes itself exactly the right amount of time, for each knot of the web of character relations to evolve. A web that starts to spin in Shaker with the arrival of Mia and of Pearl. The setup strongly reminds me of the intricate psychologically beautiful story named “Eating with Gilbert Grape”.
We follow Pearl and the other kids in this very exciting age of first loves, kisses and relationship-conflicts and rebellion against the parents. The show is enjoyable in those moments where we see Pearl making new friends, where we see Izzy rebel and excel in music class or where we see Lexie the oldest of Elena quarrel about the future and making out with her boyfriend. But the show does not rest on those moments too long. It never loses sight of where it wants to go: It wants to explain why it’s called “little fires everywhere”. A scene that is shown at the very start. Along the way the directors play with the different perspectives that we get through the main characters and let us viewers judge what we think is right. And once we judge the show gives us not just once a new turn. Leaving me with the deeply rooted feeling that there is not this one truth, one good, one bad, but different pasts, decisions and wants that I can emphasize with, because I can see the struggle and the arbitrariness (chance) behind them. This deep feeling of the complexity of the human psychology and of the human world is what the good shows of the present day like Mad Man can portray. Little fires everywhere is right in the middle of them. The acting of Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington is flawless as we see them in a wide range of different interactions and emotions at home, at work, and only with themselves. But the rest of the cast isn’t bad either. Some say a good writing makes most of good acting. This is how an adaptation of a book should look like, I think… because I didn’t read the book. The great adaptation is even more impressive considering the fact that every of the eight episodes was written by someone else. Among them seven women.
What about race? Although race is a big theme in the show, it is not the main theme. It is like the third voice in a choir that is always accompanying the main voice. “Little fires everwhere” is much more than a show about race struggles, privileges and structural discrimination although it is also that show. It is about two moms facing a truth they fear to face, a truth they want to avoid but that is with them the whole time like their own children. The show begins with these little ones growing old, questioning the authority of their mothers, igniting a spark that cannot be taken back. Welcome to “little fires everywhere”.