Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Telly addicts

Related: Film discussion forum.

Original poster

Little fires everywhere

58 replies

Horehound · 30/12/2020 01:03

I've watched two episodes. Should I continue?
I really can't stand Mia Warren aka pearls mum. I hate her snarl she does at anything, I hate she acts so awkwardly and is a bitch to people being kind to her..

OP posts:
Procrastination4 · 30/12/2020 01:22

I watched it a few months ago. I liked it.

Titsinknicks · 30/12/2020 01:30

It's very good. Not sure liking characters is necessary in a show being good??

Original poster
Horehound · 30/12/2020 01:33

@Titsinknicks

It's very good. Not sure liking characters is necessary in a show being good??
I think it is?!

But...are we supposed that like her or not?

OP posts:
Titsinknicks · 30/12/2020 01:42

I disagree. Surely TV and film would be very boring if everyone was likeable? What shows that are great are full of likeable characters? Can't think of any. If you stick with it maybe you'll like/not like her or see if it's a bit less binary than that

Titsinknicks · 30/12/2020 01:43

Aka - people generally are neither wholly good nor wholly bad. And I wonder if you might change your view or challenge your bias if you keep watching. Have you read the book?

Original poster
Horehound · 30/12/2020 01:47

@Titsinknicks

I disagree. Surely TV and film would be very boring if everyone was likeable? What shows that are great are full of likeable characters? Can't think of any. If you stick with it maybe you'll like/not like her or see if it's a bit less binary than that
No, I get that but theres just something so totally unbelievable about the way she acts. It's just bizarre really.
OP posts:
MoChridhe · 30/12/2020 01:49

Keep watching. All will be revealed. They are not being nice to her at all, just patronising and she doesn't stand for it.

Original poster
Horehound · 30/12/2020 01:50

Well she puts herself into positions she doesn't want to be in and then snarls and moans about it...

OP posts:
Original poster
Horehound · 30/12/2020 01:52

Oh and she's an arse to her daughter...

OP posts:
MoChridhe · 30/12/2020 02:05

She is flawed, but others even more so. Keep watching.

MoChridhe · 30/12/2020 02:07

I don't think you are meant to like any of the main characters. Even the kids have issues. Mia's daughter is the only decent person there.

Scautish · 30/12/2020 02:11

Yes keep watching. I think finding the characters disagreeable is a main theme.

lakesidexmas · 30/12/2020 02:13

I haven't seen the tv series but have started listening to the audio book yesterday which I am really enjoying.

It is funny and relatable.

mum2jakie · 30/12/2020 22:19

Four episodes in and loving it. I don't like Mia either but she's certainly a fascinating character

Smidge001 · 30/12/2020 23:06

I watched it and agree with OP. I really couldn't connect AT ALL with Mia Warren. I watched the whole series and she never got better. In fact she becomes a total busy body, holier than thou pain in the arse.
I think I'd have enjoyed the series quite a lot more if a different actress had played that part.

DipSwimSwoosh · 30/12/2020 23:08

No don't continue. It is very boring and nothing at all like the book.

DelphineWalsh · 30/12/2020 23:11

Joshua Jackson was the only thing that pulled me through that series.

MarshaBradyo · 30/12/2020 23:13

She was very hard to watch due to the acting

There is one scene where her anger wasn’t ott but the rest was too much

KylieKangaroo · 30/12/2020 23:15

I loved it! She did pull some weird faces but thought the story was great!

Carouselfish · 30/12/2020 23:27

It is good but thought that the way she treats the other character could be read as to do with wealth rather than race. It's meant to make a point about insidious, patronising racism but would Mia have behaved like that had she met a wealthy black woman? Or Asian woman. Both ethnic minorities were seen at least at first as being poor. Could imagine Mia treating a poor white woman in the same way.

Isadora2007 · 30/12/2020 23:28

Is the book different?

MarshaBradyo · 30/12/2020 23:31

@Isadora2007

Is the book different?
I can’t remember all of it but I think they changed the ending, not hugely but less believable
Artesia · 30/12/2020 23:33

The book is very different- Mia is less of a protagonist, calmer and more of an observer,watching all of the characters around her. Plus in the book she's white- the whole race angle isn't there in her story. I enjoyed the tv series but the book is much better, and more subtle

ItmayBeWinterOutside · 30/12/2020 23:34

I still loved this programme, really enjoyed it apart from what you describe - the gurn/ snarl and Mia being so very rude/openly hostile. For me they were very distracting made the show unconvincing. I hated the way Mia talked too, again the snarl was doing the talking.

BenoneBeauty · 30/12/2020 23:37

I'm glad I watched to the end but I can't say I enjoyed it. None of the characters were likeable at all but it did make me think about race and what can be harmful or even just patronising. Reese Witherspoon's character was just trying to help her but should she not have done? Would it have been better had she simply treated her as 'the help' rather than trying to befriend her? Or should she not have offered her a job or allowed her to rent the apartment at all? What should she have done?

Plus when Mia said Reese didn't 'make good choices' but rather she 'had good choices', that I agreed with until we saw Mia's back story and she had good choices too, she just made shit choices that were nothing to do with race but rather through grief. Was this what I was meant to see or have I spectacularly missed the plot?

I did think that Mia deliberately used Reese's daughter against her whereas Reese seemed like she was just trying to be nice to Pearl - but again, am I not seeing it correctly as I'm white and so not fully understanding the racism?