Hulu Mystery Thriller Series Adapts Bestseller Into Relentless Suspense

I never read Celeste Ng’s novel, Little Fires Everywhere, as I am usually hesitant to pick up whatever happens to be most popular at the time. Reese Witherspoon apparently read an advance copy of the novel before it was released in 2017 and included it in her book club.

Then she ran right to Kerry Washington to ask if she’d partner with her to adapt the book to a series. Both women have production companies, and the two decided to not only produce but also star in the show. 

And the results are fabulous. Little Fires Everywhere is one of those series that has you loving to hate almost everyone involved. This domestic thriller opens up with prim and proper Elena Richardson (Witherspoon) in her big, beautiful, brick front home in Shaker, Ohio, a quiet suburb.

Elena is a journalist and a property owner as well as a mother of four children. You can tell from her first scenes that she’s wound way too tight as she spots a car parked on the road and calls the cops to investigate. 

It turns out that Washington’s character, Mia Warren, has been living in that beat up old car with her teenage daughter, Pearl. When she calls Elena to ask about renting a small home Elena owns, Elena feels bad for her and agrees right away, making a point to call her references later.

The very first episode of Little Fires Everywhere is laced with racial and class tensions. You can tell Elena is not necessarily a kind person but rather is helping Mia out of some sense of white guilt. And Mia is clearly aware of the dynamic. 

As Little Fires Everywhere unfolds, Pearl grows close to the Warren children, especially the handsome jock and oldest son, Trip. When Elena makes yet another move to try to “help” Mia by offering to hire her as a house manager for her home, Mia is offended and refuses.

However, when she sees how much time Pearl is spending at the Warren’s house, she changes her mind, hoping to stay close to her daughter. She’s also suspicious of the kind of influence the affluent Warrens may have on Pearl. 

In the background of the ongoing conflict and tension between these two women, we also watch on as the harried, busy, and mostly disinterested husband, Bill (Joshua Jackson), of Elena, comes in and out of the scenes. He at once is too consumed with work to give Elena the help and attention she needs and suspicious of her cheating with a long lost lover from her past.

To make even more little fires everywhere, Mia begins working at a restaurant with a woman named Bebe, who abandons her baby at a fire station only to feel instant remorse and try to get her back. 

GFR SCORE

All of these little dramas unfold between and among characters, and you can’t look away. It’s ugly, it’s brutal, and yet it tells the stories of real people in the real world dealing with real issues. I really should read the book, but I can say for certain that you should watch Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu. Witherspoon and Washington killed it. You won’t be sorry. You’ll be riveted.