Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/HBO
By Kristi Turnquist | The Oregonian/OregonLive
HBO's limited series "Big Little Lies" has sparked all kinds of lively conversations about female friendship, domestic abuse and social pressures. But there's one element nobody can argue with. "Big Little Lies" is, in addition to its other virtues, a sensational showcase for its female stars. Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern and Zoe Kravitz all delivered performances that skillfully walked the line between funny and tragic.
“Big Little Lies” is the latest example of how dominant TV has become when it comes to giving women the challenging, fully fleshed out roles they still struggle to find in movies.
Kidman, for example, has done interesting supporting work in recent films (including her Oscar-nominated turn in “Lion.”)
But it’s been a long time since Kidman had a film role as powerful, complicated and subtle as Celeste in “Big Little Lies,” a seemingly happily married wife and mother who hides dark secrets. When we meet Celeste, she has what her envious Monterey, California neighbors consider a perfect life.
Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/HBO
But beneath the surface, Celeste’s marriage is tortured and violent. The more we see, the more we realize that Celeste needs to overcome her own demons – toxic codependency, fear, insecurities – to save her life.
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Even in a limited, seven-episode series like “Big Little Lies,” TV allows enough time to tell a story in depth. And each week, female actors are making the most of that luxury, adding layers to characters who can be hilarious and horrible, sometimes in the same scene.
Here are some of our current favorite female actors and characters. A few of the shows (like "Big Little Lies" and "Baskets") just ended their run on TV, but are available via streaming platforms. A few more are coming up soon ("Fargo" Season 3 on FX and "The Handmaid's Tale" on Hulu), but the preview episodes we've screened are so good, we're including them, too.
Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings in The Americans
A Soviet spy living undercover with her husband (Matthew Rhys) and two kids in the Washington D.C. suburbs in the 1980s in "The Americans," Keri Russell's Elizabeth is a steely secret agent willing to kill if need be. Then she goes home and tries to make dinner and navigate the truly daunting territory of being a mother to teenagers. And she does it all while managing not to look ridiculous in a hair-raising series of circa-1980s wigs and disguises.
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Constance Wu as Jessica Huang in Fresh Off the Boat
ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat" is one of the network's pleasant family-friendly comedies, but it has the added spice of Constance Wu's sharp and funny performance as Jessica Huang. Wu's crisp comic timing turns what could be a stereotypical sitcom wife and mother into a character charged with energy and wit.
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Vera Farmiga as Norma Bates in Bates Motel
How did Norman Bates turn into the crazed killer of "Psycho?" The A&E series "Bates Motel" has given us a twisty spin of the tale, with Norman (Freddie Highmore) and his dear mother, Norma (Vera Farmiga) trying to keep the Bates Motel in the (fictional) town of White Pine Bay, Oregon, running. But it's not easy when Norman is becoming so demented that he kills Norma, and then keeps imagining she's there. Even as the dead Norma, Vera Farmiga is a dynamo of maternal love, deception, jealousy and cunning.
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Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer in Veep
Whether serving as a frustrated Vice President, an incompetent President and, in the upcoming Season 6 (premieres April 16), a former President, Selina Meyer of "Veep" isn't an easy politico to like. Julia Louis-Dreyfus' fearless performance never downplays Meyer's narcissism and ambition, and she makes Meyer too stubborn to lose hope, as she keeps pushing forward in a political system that's completely dysfunctional.
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Viola Davis as Annalise Keating in How to Get Away With Murder
How good is Viola Davis? She's so good that she can play, with blazing conviction, a character who started out as a shrewd law professor and attorney and has turned into a walking disaster area, veering from self-destructive behavior to manipulative scheming to bending the law so much it breaks. "How to Get Away With Murder" has gone off the rails, but Davis never turns Annalise into a cartoon, even though she might be tempted.
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Reese Witherspoon as Madeline Martha Mackenzie in Big Little Lies
Reese Witherspoon has shown her talent for playing bossy, appearance-obsessed characters (most memorably in "Election") and her Madeline in "Big Little Lies" looks, when we first meet her, like an upbeat busybody who thinks she knows better than everybody else in her affluent Monterey community. But as the series goes on, Witherspoon peels back the shiny layers to reveal the sadness, mistakes and disappointments Madeline desperately tries to hide.
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Nicole Kidman as Celeste Wright in Big Little Lies
There have been dramatic portrayals of domestic abuse in many TV shows before "Big Little Lies." But what's so exceptional about Nicole Kidman's performance as Celeste Wright is we understand everything that led her to stay in her marriage to Perry (Alexander Skarsgard) and all the reasons she finds it so hard to leave, even as he gets more and more violent with her. Kidman expertly conveys the shame Celeste feels, how much she wants to keep the abuse secret and how willing she is to say she shares the blame for the violence. It's a wrenching, wonderfully perceptive performance.
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Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford in Feud: Bette and Joan
"Feud: Bette and Joan" is the first installment in a new FX anthology series co-created by Ryan Murphy ("American Horror Story.") In telling the story of how screen legends Joan Crawford and Bette Davis came to costar in the campy hit movie, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" the miniseries offers the juiciest of roles to its stars. Lange makes Crawford, who's trying to pretend that Hollywood doesn't now see her as an aging caricature, full of pride, denial and a definite drinking problem. It's a lively portrait of a star not known for her spontaniety.
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Susan Sarandon as Bette Davis in Feud: Bette and Joan
Susan Sarandon also resists the urge to turn Bette Davis into a mannerism-laden stereotype, although she does smoke a mean cigarette. In "Feud: Bette and Joan," Sarandon captures Davis' clipped, precise speaking style without going overboard and, like her costar Jessica Lange, shows us both the strong survivor and deeply flawed woman beneath the Hollywood facade.
Maggie Siff as Wendy Rhoades in Billions
Maggie Siff was memorable in supporting roles in "Mad Men" and "Sons of Anarchy," but as Wendy Rhoades in Showtime's "Billions," Siff really shows what she can do. Rhoades is a brilliantly self-possessed professional, who works as a psychiatrist and a performance coach specializing in high-achieving, high-pressure clients like the employees at the hedge fund run by billionaire Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis.) But Siff's performance also shows the turbulence beneath Wendy's silky surface, as she battles her own conscience, and her feelings for Axelrod and her estranged husband, Chuck (Paul Giamatti), an ambitious U.S. Attorney in New York.
Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart in The Good Fight
We may question the wisdom of CBS putting "The Good Fight" on its streaming platform, CBS All Access, but there's no doubt that it's great seeing Christine Baranski once more playing Diane Lockhart, her fabulous character from "The Good Wife." Though Diane's circumstances have changed -- her money vanished thanks to a shady investor, and she's at a new law firm -- Baranski's confidence, style and smarts always make Diana Lockhart a winner.
Elisabeth Moss as Offred in The Handmaid's Tale
We already know Elisabeth Moss as a creative, versatile actor from her work in "Mad Men" and "Top of the Lake." But, based on the premiere episode of "The Handmaid's Tale," Moss surpasses herself. The new adaptation of Margaret Atwood's novel about a U.S. transformed into an oppressive, totalitarian, extreme religious regime has uncanny echoes of today. And Moss is riveting as Offred, a woman captured and held in sexual servitude. "The Handmaid's Tale" debuts on Hulu April 26. Don't miss it.
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Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in Homeland
Oh, Carrie, Carrie, Carrie, what are we going to do about you? The current season of "Homeland" has once again featured the former CIA agent making any number of hasty decisions that have a way of costing other people their lives. But, once again, this season is improving as it goes on, and the parallels to contemporary politics and media ("fake news," bots and a demagogue talk-show host) are impossible to miss. And through it all, Danes remains the center, as passionate and committed as ever. Carrie may have her flaws, but Danes always comes through.
Carrie Coon in Fargo and The Leftovers
Carrie Coon is so talented, it's a treat for viewers that this spring brings a Carrie Coon twofer. On April 16, she returns as Nora Durst, a much-needed grounding presence in the ever-vague apocalyptic goings-on in HBO's "The Leftovers." Then, on April 19, Coon is part of the terrific cast in "Fargo" Season 3. Based on the premiere episode, we'll want to see a lot more of everyone, including Coon as Gloria Burgle, chief of police in another frigid Minnesota town with a crime problem that's about to break out.
Louie Anderson as Christine Baskets in Baskets
All right, this isn't technically a female actor, but Louie Anderson's performance as Christine in the oddball FX comedy "Baskets" is far and away the best thing about the show. While Zach Galifianakis is more annoying than amusing in dual roles as twin brothers Chip and Dale Baskets (Chip and Dale, get it? Yuk, yuk), Anderson is simply marvelous playing the mother to these two self-involved creeps. Considering Anderson is playing a woman, you'd suspect he might overdo the female qualities. Instead, Anderson plays Christine with total respect, and her earnest attempts to try and unite her fractured family are funny and touching. Anderson's Emmy win for the role was well-deserved.
Spring TV premiere dates for new and returning shows
The Spring TV schedule offers more shows worth watching. Here's our list of premiere dates, including some we're especially looking forward to, such as "Better Call Saul" Season 3, the HBO TV movie adaptation of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," and the return of "Twin Peaks," on Showtime.
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