Little Fires Everywhere virtual watch party SPOILERS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kerry Washington and Lexi Underwood barely mustered a single tear in their last scenes. The tearless crying really bothered me. Mia kept wiping her eyes, and I was silently screaming, "There's NOTHING there to wipe!"

Worst acting ever. And Mia came off like a tornado--whipping through towns and destroying people's lives. If she was a sympathetic character in the book, it did not translate into the series.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kerry Washington and Lexi Underwood barely mustered a single tear in their last scenes. The tearless crying really bothered me. Mia kept wiping her eyes, and I was silently screaming, "There's NOTHING there to wipe!"

Worst acting ever. And Mia came off like a tornado--whipping through towns and destroying people's lives. If she was a sympathetic character in the book, it did not translate into the series.

In the book you do feel for her: she needed the money for college so she was a surrogate. Then her beloved brother dies, her family disowns her, so she takes off with the baby. She’s young, so she stays on the move so the father doesn’t find them.

It’s far fetched but works.

[Anonymous]

The characters are far from lovable in the book. On the show, they were downright loathsome. Why the change?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the finale was okay, and liked that Elena actually seemed to learn something, but don't understand why Pearl wanted to see the grandparents who rejected her and her mother instead of the father who had desperately wanted her. Not that I'm totally sympathetic to the latter, given the whole issue of a rich family's "buying" a young poor black girl's body and eggs with little regard for her well being.

Find it totally implausible the adoptive parents wouldn't have had a security system installed ffs. And heartless of them not to let the bio mother at least have limited visitation rights.

I wouldn't describe Mia the college student and the family she came from as poor. And that's literally what a surrogate is - the purchase of a body for the purposes of growing a child. They knew it, Mia knew it. I don't see how the couple could be characterized as having "little regard" for Mia's well being although Mia certainly had little regard for the rights of the biological father.

She was a girl cut off from her family and desperate for money who clearly wouldn't have done it but for the financial exigency. And, yes, my point is precisely that surrogacy exploits people of low socioeconomic status. If they didn't need the money, and had other options, the vast majority wouldn't do it.

She cut herself off from the family. Her parents didn't reject her, so much as they needed time to grieve their son and accept their daughter's choices. She didn't give them a chance to accept her.

Her mother told her not to come to the brother’s funeral. That’s a rejection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the show was really engaging and well done, and I liked all the actors surprisingly. The 90s references were fun nostalgia for me.

A few things I did not really believe - maybe the book explained better..
Mia ran away from her safe haven with Pauline just as she was about to give birth? Don't believe it.
And voluntarily impoverished her daughter, risked their lives living out of a car, when all she ever needed to do was sell a painting? I'm sorry but that is batshit crazy. No sane person would ever make that choice for their child. Pearl was extremely in the right to want to throttle Mia and never speak to her again when she found out.
Mia told the Ryans she had a miscarriage and then she disappeared forever? Yeah I think they would have suspected she kept the baby and hired a PI to find her. They were that desperate and clearly had the means.
I LOLed at how quietly and easily Bebe got into the McCullough's house at the end. You would have a state of the art security system installed to keep that crazy bitch out. No, you would move across the country.
Speaking of Bebe. Sorry but the fire station is not foster care. You don't get the kid back. Especially not after leaving it to get frostbite (kid is lucky she didn't lose her hand). If Bebe were a good mother would have wanted to place her child with loving parents who could give her a nice life. I sympathized with the situation she was in with the newborn but not her dogged pursuit of getting the baby back at all costs.
I liked the kids setting the fire to get through to Elena. Although she didn't seem all that upset about Izzy running away at the end. That should have been more emotional for her and I barely remembered the red feather so I don't think she would have.
What's with the lack of birth control?? I didn't buy that such a smart girl as Lexie would have been that irresponsible having unprotected sex, but I'm biased I guess since I was her age in 1997 and I got myself on the pill without my parents' knowledge. Elena should have known better too before Izzy. The pill was around then and she clearly got pregnant very easily (and clearly could have put her husband off of sex very easily).

Overall I did enjoy the show but it could have been phenomenal if they had shored up some of the far-fetched stuff and given better reasons for some of the stuff that happened.

Lexie decided impulsively to sleep with her boyfriend as a distraction from Pearl.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The characters are far from lovable in the book. On the show, they were downright loathsome. Why the change?

Agree. Kids were perfectly cast. ANYONE other than Reese and Mia would’ve made them less loathsome.

[Anonymous]

In the book, did Elena tell Pearl the truth? I don’t remember that.

[Anonymous]

And why did they take away mias final artwork? Isn’t it supposed to be some majestic mural of the kids...?

[Anonymous]

OK, I just finished the miniseries. I had to go back and re-listened to the last 15 minutes of the book. The book is so well done. Why did they have to change the ending?
It makes no sense that the other kids burned down the house. They weren’t angry enough. And the “TV dialogue“ was so lame: “do you want to be like her?” *realization* and then burn down house? No.

The whole Elena Looking for Izzy for the rest of her life was so powerful in the book. Why didn’t they do a quick fast forward, showing Elena always looking for her...?

In the book, it is Izzy who heads off to mias parents house to track down Mia. We don’t know if they eventually find each other, but it’s generally implied that Izzy is ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the finale was okay, and liked that Elena actually seemed to learn something, but don't understand why Pearl wanted to see the grandparents who rejected her and her mother instead of the father who had desperately wanted her. Not that I'm totally sympathetic to the latter, given the whole issue of a rich family's "buying" a young poor black girl's body and eggs with little regard for her well being.

Find it totally implausible the adoptive parents wouldn't have had a security system installed ffs. And heartless of them not to let the bio mother at least have limited visitation rights.

I wouldn't describe Mia the college student and the family she came from as poor. And that's literally what a surrogate is - the purchase of a body for the purposes of growing a child. They knew it, Mia knew it. I don't see how the couple could be characterized as having "little regard" for Mia's well being although Mia certainly had little regard for the rights of the biological father.

She was a girl cut off from her family and desperate for money who clearly wouldn't have done it but for the financial exigency. And, yes, my point is precisely that surrogacy exploits people of low socioeconomic status. If they didn't need the money, and had other options, the vast majority wouldn't do it.

She cut herself off from the family. Her parents didn't reject her, so much as they needed time to grieve their son and accept their daughter's choices. She didn't give them a chance to accept her.

Her mother told her not to come to the brother’s funeral. That’s a rejection.

No it’s not. She wasn’t going to keep the baby, why show up pregnant and have everyone ask questions. It distracts from her brothers service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the finale was okay, and liked that Elena actually seemed to learn something, but don't understand why Pearl wanted to see the grandparents who rejected her and her mother instead of the father who had desperately wanted her. Not that I'm totally sympathetic to the latter, given the whole issue of a rich family's "buying" a young poor black girl's body and eggs with little regard for her well being.

Find it totally implausible the adoptive parents wouldn't have had a security system installed ffs. And heartless of them not to let the bio mother at least have limited visitation rights.

I wouldn't describe Mia the college student and the family she came from as poor. And that's literally what a surrogate is - the purchase of a body for the purposes of growing a child. They knew it, Mia knew it. I don't see how the couple could be characterized as having "little regard" for Mia's well being although Mia certainly had little regard for the rights of the biological father.

She was a girl cut off from her family and desperate for money who clearly wouldn't have done it but for the financial exigency. And, yes, my point is precisely that surrogacy exploits people of low socioeconomic status. If they didn't need the money, and had other options, the vast majority wouldn't do it.

She cut herself off from the family. Her parents didn't reject her, so much as they needed time to grieve their son and accept their daughter's choices. She didn't give them a chance to accept her.

Her mother told her not to come to the brother’s funeral. That’s a rejection.

No it’s not. She wasn’t going to keep the baby, why show up pregnant and have everyone ask questions. It distracts from her brothers service.

Messed up the quote.

Agreed. But that reaction was part of her general impulsiveness and immaturity that ruled her life.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t love the book It was so-so for me. I watched the series because I thought it might - for once - be better than the book. I’m on the fence about the show too. I liked certain scenes and thought Reese did a great job at playing Elena. I also thought all of the kids were great. Not a huge fan of Kerry Washington as an actor or some of the liberties they took with the script.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the show was really engaging and well done, and I liked all the actors surprisingly. The 90s references were fun nostalgia for me.

A few things I did not really believe - maybe the book explained better..
Mia ran away from her safe haven with Pauline just as she was about to give birth? Don't believe it.
And voluntarily impoverished her daughter, risked their lives living out of a car, when all she ever needed to do was sell a painting? I'm sorry but that is batshit crazy. No sane person would ever make that choice for their child. Pearl was extremely in the right to want to throttle Mia and never speak to her again when she found out.
Mia told the Ryans she had a miscarriage and then she disappeared forever? Yeah I think they would have suspected she kept the baby and hired a PI to find her. They were that desperate and clearly had the means.
I LOLed at how quietly and easily Bebe got into the McCullough's house at the end. You would have a state of the art security system installed to keep that crazy bitch out. No, you would move across the country.
Speaking of Bebe. Sorry but the fire station is not foster care. You don't get the kid back. Especially not after leaving it to get frostbite (kid is lucky she didn't lose her hand). If Bebe were a good mother would have wanted to place her child with loving parents who could give her a nice life. I sympathized with the situation she was in with the newborn but not her dogged pursuit of getting the baby back at all costs.
I liked the kids setting the fire to get through to Elena. Although she didn't seem all that upset about Izzy running away at the end. That should have been more emotional for her and I barely remembered the red feather so I don't think she would have.
What's with the lack of birth control?? I didn't buy that such a smart girl as Lexie would have been that irresponsible having unprotected sex, but I'm biased I guess since I was her age in 1997 and I got myself on the pill without my parents' knowledge. Elena should have known better too before Izzy. The pill was around then and she clearly got pregnant very easily (and clearly could have put her husband off of sex very easily).

Overall I did enjoy the show but it could have been phenomenal if they had shored up some of the far-fetched stuff and given better reasons for some of the stuff that happened.

In the book Mia wasn't Pauline's lover. Pauline mentored her and was a friend to her but because she was sick with cancer she couldn't really help her out more financially. And Mia knew Pauline was sick with cancer.

Instead of photographing her pregnant calling photographs her after she gives birth and it's like their way of saying goodbye because Pauline is very sick and about to die. Instead of printing the pictures she gives her the roll of film and tells me if she ever needs financial help she can print off the pictures from the photoshoot. years later Pearl goes to a museum and sees a photograph of her mom and wonders how the hell that got into the museum. We later find out that it is because Mia only sold one photograph when Pearl was so in the hospital to payher medical bills.

I also think the lawyer was working pro bono in the book so it wasn't a big plot point that Mia was paying for the lawyer. Mia was a lot more hands off with Bebe, I think they were friends but not super close

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the show was really engaging and well done, and I liked all the actors surprisingly. The 90s references were fun nostalgia for me.

A few things I did not really believe - maybe the book explained better..
Mia ran away from her safe haven with Pauline just as she was about to give birth? Don't believe it.
And voluntarily impoverished her daughter, risked their lives living out of a car, when all she ever needed to do was sell a painting? I'm sorry but that is batshit crazy. No sane person would ever make that choice for their child. Pearl was extremely in the right to want to throttle Mia and never speak to her again when she found out.
Mia told the Ryans she had a miscarriage and then she disappeared forever? Yeah I think they would have suspected she kept the baby and hired a PI to find her. They were that desperate and clearly had the means.
I LOLed at how quietly and easily Bebe got into the McCullough's house at the end. You would have a state of the art security system installed to keep that crazy bitch out. No, you would move across the country.
Speaking of Bebe. Sorry but the fire station is not foster care. You don't get the kid back. Especially not after leaving it to get frostbite (kid is lucky she didn't lose her hand). If Bebe were a good mother would have wanted to place her child with loving parents who could give her a nice life. I sympathized with the situation she was in with the newborn but not her dogged pursuit of getting the baby back at all costs.
I liked the kids setting the fire to get through to Elena. Although she didn't seem all that upset about Izzy running away at the end. That should have been more emotional for her and I barely remembered the red feather so I don't think she would have.
What's with the lack of birth control?? I didn't buy that such a smart girl as Lexie would have been that irresponsible having unprotected sex, but I'm biased I guess since I was her age in 1997 and I got myself on the pill without my parents' knowledge. Elena should have known better too before Izzy. The pill was around then and she clearly got pregnant very easily (and clearly could have put her husband off of sex very easily).

Overall I did enjoy the show but it could have been phenomenal if they had shored up some of the far-fetched stuff and given better reasons for some of the stuff that happened.

In the book Mia wasn't Pauline's lover. Pauline mentored her and was a friend to her but because she was sick with cancer she couldn't really help her out more financially. And Mia knew Pauline was sick with cancer.

Instead of photographing her pregnant calling photographs her after she gives birth and it's like their way of saying goodbye because Pauline is very sick and about to die. Instead of printing the pictures she gives her the roll of film and tells me if she ever needs financial help she can print off the pictures from the photoshoot. years later Pearl goes to a museum and sees a photograph of her mom and wonders how the hell that got into the museum. We later find out that it is because Mia only sold one photograph when Pearl was so in the hospital to payher medical bills.

I also think the lawyer was working pro bono in the book so it wasn't a big plot point that Mia was paying for the lawyer. Mia was a lot more hands off with Bebe, I think they were friends but not super close

Thanks for filling in the blanks! That makes tons more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kerry Washington and Lexi Underwood barely mustered a single tear in their last scenes. The tearless crying really bothered me. Mia kept wiping her eyes, and I was silently screaming, "There's NOTHING there to wipe!"

Worst acting ever. And Mia came off like a tornado--whipping through towns and destroying people's lives. If she was a sympathetic character in the book, it did not translate into the series.

In the book you do feel for her: she needed the money for college so she was a surrogate. Then her beloved brother dies, her family disowns her, so she takes off with the baby. She’s young, so she stays on the move so the father doesn’t find them.

It’s far fetched but works.

You do realize that’s exactly what happened on the show, right?