TV series Triple Crown: Acting, Writing, Directing - Olive Kitteridge

Let me join the chorus in praise of the HBO/Cholodenko series (4 parts) Olive Kitteridge, a rarity in that it's an American series based on serious literature and manages to bring the book up to a higher level - most American TV adaptations - think Empire Falls - that attract an entourage of stars earn a bunch of Emmys from TV industry inferiority-complex types who are just thrilled to have a movie star step into their world for a moment, a bit of media slumming. This one's the exception - there are a # of pretty high-caliber stars - Macdorman, Jenkins, Bill Murray notably - and they only add to the quality of this excellent series. I have a few quibbles w/ the ending of part 4 - a little too pat in how it brings us back to the beginning point, and maybe a little too cute-meet and too optimistic when OK seems to find a new relationship (w/ Murray), although of course we have to wonder, as she says about her husband's flirtation, it wouldn't have lasted two weeks. That said, so many strengths in the series, esp in the big 3 components - writing, acting, directing - but also beautiful yet never flashy cinematography and art direction that captures a period and place, evocative but never overwhelming musical score. The scenes in the last 2 episodes between mother and son, especially OK visits her son's family in Brooklyn, could be worthy of study and emulation in a screenwriting class - and in fact would make great exercises for an acting class as well. Part of the strength of this series is the complexity of character, Olive's especially (but not exclusively): she's blunt almost to the point of being "on the spectrum," seeming to have no understanding of the effect of her observations and recriminations on others (her son painfully calls her out on this), yet she's not exactly unlikable - she's witty and most (not all) of her critiques are on the money and justified. We shake our heads in wonder; she's the teacher you hated but respected (and feared), grudgingly. As her husband, Henry (Jenkins, in maybe his best performance ever) says: How fortunate I am to have you, Olive, to always tell me what I'm thinking.

A rare TV series adaptation that improves on the original

I liked the novel - collection of linked stories, actually, Olive Kitteridge when it came out some years ago but didn't completely warm to it as others did, finding it hard to sympathize w/ the ever-bitter OK and finding Elizabeth Strout's overwhelming interest in darkness and despair - the novel is filled with sudden deaths, suicides, suicide attempts, and the silent suffering of many - to be almost too much: a gorgyle view of life on the coast of Maine. It's very rare that an adaptation actually improves a work of serious fiction but the HBO 4-part series on OK is the rare exception: condensing the novel into four episodes (I've seen only the first two so far) sharpens the story line advances the narrative. The screenplay is extraordinary - full of wit of the rarest sort, the kind of things that smart people actually so to one another, and also unflinching about moments of cruelty, despair, and serious mental illness. The two leads - Frances McDormand as OK and Richard Jenkins at her husband, Henry - are fantastic, bringing these characters to life in a way I've almost never seen in a TV dramatic series: they are deep characters, with a complex and ever-shifting relationship, hard to pin down and hard to anticipate, but always credible. The supporting cast is fine as well, especially challenging as the series covers a fairly long span of time - so we see the characters age and mature (or the opposite) yet the characters seem whole and unified. The director, Lisa Cholodenko (had to look up name) deserves much credit. The series in no way diminishes the darkness of Strout's vision of the world but does make this dark story more more vivid and case-specific by presenting everything through dialogue and action rather than narration and evocation.