I absolutely loved the first season of this, it just had everything in my opinion. A stellar cast with great performances all round.

Finished the second season last night and, in my opinion, it was even better than the first. Nicole Kidman is especially amazing and Meryl Streep goes next level. I did read one particularly bad review of season two which surprised me. I couldn’t fault it.

Thought I'd try find a script, what I found was the production script for the whole first season. Yes this is an established writer, yes this is written for a big company, yes this is a script very far down the line of production but it’s still interesting to take a look and see just how many rules/conventions are broken, if this landed in an OWC it would be torn to shreds (and no I don't just mean the camera direction).


https://www.emmys.com/sites/default/files/collateral/BigLittleLies_ScriptCombined_1-7.pdf

God Damn, that's terrible!  Seriously terrible.

I guess I'm all done with screenwriting if this is what it's supposed to look like.

Seriously, I'm all done.

Holy shit. That is borderline unreadable. It's amazing what established writers can get away with.

I actually quite liked it. It has an energy to it and although I haven't seen the show It felt like it had a style of it's own.

Obviously I'm no expert on shooting scripts but I would assume the writer is constantly adapting it and shoving in the notes from directors, producers, actors etc.... With time constraints sometimes it's just easier to write an unfilmable because the director already knows how it's going to be filmed. You're putting into words their ideas, you just need to get it across.

To me this looks professionally written. It's not written for a competition or a reader it's written to be filmed. A spec script is written to be read.

The “rules” are broken but if it works it works.

Thanks for posting it.

Loved both seasons - great cast!

Silly fun, but an acting masterclass.

Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep ripping each other and chewing scenery for 20 minutes is something you'll only find in the series format.

Part of the charm is how much these ladies are obviously enjoying themselves.  Laura Dern, in particular.  Not my usual fare, and surprised how much I enjoyed it.  On board for Season 3.

Quoted from bert Silly fun, but an acting masterclass. Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep ripping each other and chewing scenery for 20 minutes is something you'll only find in the series format. Part of the charm is how much these ladies are obviously enjoying themselves.  Laura Dern, in particular.  Not my usual fare, and surprised how much I enjoyed it.  On board for Season 3.

Me too - looking forward to it.

I did watch season one, episode one, with every intent of shit canning it after that - dude's not going to watch a soap opera - but man - it sucked me in, especially because of the stellar acting.  

David Kelley recently said no to season 3.  Doesn't mean it won't happen, but he indicated it's next to impossible to get everyone on board for a shooting schedule, so it's likely you've seen the last episode, which is fine.  If so, I think it ended on a pretty solid note.

Quoted from Sam I actually quite liked it. It has an energy to it and although I haven't seen the show It felt like it had a style of it's own. The “rules” are broken but if it works it works.

Agreed on both counts. While there are style choices I would never personally use, this is a great read and transferred perfectly to screen.

I'm particularly fond of some of the character descriptions.

Quoted from Gary in Houston David Kelley recently said no to season 3.  Doesn't mean it won't happen, but he indicated it's next to impossible to get everyone on board for a shooting schedule, so it's likely you've seen the last episode, which is fine.  If so, I think it ended on a pretty solid note.

Yes I read this as well. Be great to have one more season for the fallout and to tie a few things up, but I think it ended well if that is in fact all we're going to get.