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[RatskyWatsky]

Olive Kitteridge is a new four hour miniseries from HBO. It stars Academy Award winner Frances McDormand (“Fargo”) and Academy Award nominee Richard Jenkins (“The Visitor,” “Six Feet Under”). It is directed by Academy Award-nominee Lisa Cholodenko (“The Kids Are All Right,”) and based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name with a teleplay by Emmy-winner Jane Anderson (HBO’s “The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom”).

The miniseries’ first two parts, “Pharmacy” and “Incoming Tide,” debut Sunday, Nov. 2 (9:00-11:00 p.m. ET/PT), followed the next night by the debut of the final two parts, “A Different Road” and “Security,” on Monday, Nov. 3 (9:00-11:00 p.m.).

'Olive Kitteridge' tells the poignantly sweet, acerbically funny and devastatingly tragic story of a seemingly placid New England town wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy, told through the lens of Olive, whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm but troubled heart and staunch moral center.

The story, which spans 25 years, focuses on her relationships with her husband, Henry, the good-hearted and kindly town pharmacist; their son, Christopher, who resents his mother’s approach to parenting; and other members of their community.

Cast

• Frances McDormand as Olive Kitteridge
• Richard Jenkins as Henry Kitteridge
• Bill Murray as Jack Kennison
• John Gallagher Jr. as Christopher Kitteridge
• Peter Mullan as Jim O’Casey
• Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel Coulson
• Zoe Kazan as Denise Thibodeau
• Jesse Plemons as Jerry McCarthy

Videos

• HBO Miniseries: Olive Kitteridge - Trailer #1
• HBO Miniseries: Olive Kitteridge - Trailer #2
• Olive Kitteridge - Impressions of Olive Featurette

Reviews

A soaring, inventive miniseries.

- Emily Nussbaum

McDormand will win an Emmy for this. Already, there's no contest.... Cholodenko's direction is masterful, and so is the bleakly funny script by Jane Anderson, but they clearly have a vision that is both part of--and separate from--the source material.

- Newsday

Few films have tapped into the seemingly conflicting emotions that exist in the human soul at exactly the same moment as HBO’s stellar Olive Kitteridge, a delicate, beautiful mini-series.

- RogerEbert.com

There are many things that Olive Kitteridge gets right, but none so significant as how brilliantly it simultaneously captures the deep, pervasive stillness and the close, suffocating entanglement of small-town living.

- AV Club

Olive Kitteridge explores Tolstoy’s notion that every family is unhappy in its own way, making the particular unhappiness of the Kitteridges universal through a magical combination of great direction, writing and performances. You’ll not soon forget Olive Kitteridge, the woman or the mini-series.

- San Francisco Chronicle

Like the extraordinary Elizabeth Strout novel-in-stories that it’s based on, HBO’s Olive Kitteridge accumulates with steady, earned drama into a searing portrait of quiet desperation. It’s sad, unsentimental, and lovely.

- Boston Globe

A quietly captivating miniseries about a seldom-quiet woman.

- USA Today

 

[Cornballer]

Reviews have been great, and I'll check this out at some point. Looking forward to it.

 

[TripOpt55]

Sounds good. I will definitely give it a watch.

 

[TheOddOne]

Aww yiss. Subbed!

Great cast.

 

[freddy]

I don't mind a bit of Francis.

 

[Cornballer]

- Olive Kitteridge - Welcome to Crosby (youtube featurette from HBO)

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Another positive review:

This is a nuanced, slowly simmering look at bent and spindled lives molded by previous bent and spindled lives. The bright spots are there, but never glowing. Self-realization is the payoff.

- Uncle Barky

 

[RatskyWatsky]

More reviews:

Director Lisa Cholodenko and Emmy-winning writer Jane Anderson take their time, over four engrossing episodic hours, to create a full, believable world around Olive.... McDormand is wondrous, matched by a splendid supporting cast.

- TV Guide

It's an honest tearjerker that treats its characters with respect, according them a great sense of wounded, tattered dignity.

- Slant

The production is exceedingly well put together and boasts a fine cast that also includes Ann Dowd (pivotal figure in HBO's melancholy post-Rapture series “The Leftovers”) and “Breaking Bad” co-star Jesse Plemons. McDormand is nothing less than extraordinary in the title role.

- The Wrap

 

[RatskyWatsky]

The first two episodes premiere tonight

Pharmacy/Incoming Tide

Spoiler

In the first two parts of this four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel spanning 25 years in a small Maine town, math teacher Olive Kitteridge helps Kevin, a smart but timid student whose mom is suffering from depression, a gesture that annoys her son, Christopher. Years later, the twentysomething Kevin returns to the area, and Olive ropes him into attending Christopher's wedding-rehearsal dinner.

 

[freddy]

Good, I'm starting to get excited for this.

 

[Tragicomedy]

I'll try and catch this tonight, if not tomorrow night it is. Looks really, really good.

 

[Cornballer]

- Matt Zoller Seitz's review: Frances McDormand is Perfect in HBO's Olive Kitteridge

Olive Kitteridge is also, in its modest way, a significant advance in television narrative, taking some of the flashback-flashforward devices that were deployed so brazenly in recent American TV series (including Orange is the New Black, season five of Breaking Bad, and season five of Arrested Development) and using them to split open scenes-and sequences-in-progress and completely change what we were about to think or feel about them. This is the sort of thing that novels have been doing for about a hundred years now, but that movies and TV series have often struggled with (mainly because they’re under tremendous pressure to be linear and to drive the plot forward constantly). For all these achievements and so many others, Olive Kitteridge is hugely satisfying, easily one of the best things I’ve seen on TV this year.

 

[Cornballer]

- Promo for tomorrow's conclusion

 

[Cornballer]

- Poniewozik: Olive Kitteridge and Why “Likability” Is for Saps

 

[dead souls]

Wow. Parts 1/2 were great. I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

 

[dead souls]

Finished pretty strong, though I preferred the first two parts to the last two.

It's easily something everybody should watch.

 

[freddy]

It's not going to be shown here in Australia until 2015. Crazy how they think its a good idea to lock things behind a paywall and make you wait so long.

 

[Cornballer]

I watched the first hour last night. Rough viewings just in terms of content, but it's very well acted, nicely shot, and interesting. I'm enjoying it so far. I find myself laughing at some things I shouldn't be laughing at.

 

[metsallica]

This was unsurprisingly wonderful.

 

[Koppai]

Frances McDormand is one of my favorite non super famous actresses.

 

[TripOpt55]

I find myself laughing at some things I shouldn't be laughing at.

I watched the first two hours and was doing this fairly often as well. Pretty good so far overall.

 

[xbhaskarx]

Forgot about this, I'll have to check it out on HBOGo...

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Just finished the first episode. I'll echo that it was very well acted and shot, though I thought it was a tad bit strange that the first episode focused so heavily on the husband rather than the titular Olive.

I'm very much interested to see where things go from here and how Olive arrives at the point where she's putting a gun into her mouth in the middle of the woods.

 

[metsallica]

Just finished the first episode. I'll echo that it was very well acted and shot, though I thought it was a tad bit strange that the first episode focused so heavily on the husband rather than the titular Olive.

I'm very much interested to see where things go from here and how Olive arrives at the point where she's putting a gun into her mouth in the middle of the woods.

I thought the same thing especially since people haven't said much about how great Jenkins is in the role. The balance definitely shifts as it continues on, though, so it eventually makes sense. Still, I thought the performances across the board were perfect.

 

[Cornballer]

The second episode was great. Definitely more or a focus on Olive than the first, and I liked that they brought the son of Rosemarie Dewitt (forgot his name) back to lead into the wedding. As a few reviewers pointed out, the quick flipping back and forwards through time for brief moments was very effective.

 

[dead souls]

Yeah, part 2 was my favorite of the four.

 

[Cornballer]

A few more articles:

- National Post: On the brutally good honesty of HBO’s Olive Kitteridge
- NPR: Like Olive Kitteridge, Actress Frances McDormand Was Tired Of Supporting Roles
- NPR: HBO's 'Olive Kitteridge' May Be The Best Depiction Of Marriage On TV

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Episode two was excellent and much better than the (already good) first. The entire wedding was intense as hell and I felt so badly for Olive when she heard her daughter in law dissing her from outside the bedroom door.

I also was glad that there was a better balance of character focus this week, with Olive getting a lot more screen time than she did in episode one.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Well, episode 3 was thoroughly depressing (and amazing). Excited to watch the finale in a few days to see how it all comes together.

 

[freddy]

Highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys character studies and doesn't mind a slower pace.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Episode 4 provided an excellent conclusion to the series. Great great stuff.

Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins were outstanding throughout and both deserve their respective Emmys.

It's easily something everybody should watch.

Agreed 100%. It's easily one of the best miniseries that HBO has ever produced. It's a shame more people haven't seen it.

 

[TripOpt55]

Finally got around to watching the third and fourth parts. Definitely a good miniseries if a bit too depressing for me at times. I liked the way it finished up though. I totally didn't know Bill Murray was in this until I saw his name pop up in the intro for part 3. Not sure how I missed that (it is in the OP and everything), but I did. Nice surprise!

 

[BertramCooper]

Watched it and forgot to post about it. Oops!

Anyways, awesome, awesome stuff. Beautiful miniseries from beginning to end. Deliberate and contemplative. Beautifully acted and shot.

Honest to God, probably one of my favorite miniseries ever.

 

[Socreges]

Fantastic series. I hope more people see this.

The reviews are kind of funny. It's about small town life! It's about parents affecting their children! It's about mental illness! As if a story has to be about one thing.

 

[CreepingFear]

Watched all 4 episode last night in the middle of the night. Better late than ever. Outstanding performances with a great cast. Depressingly true to life.