How Little Fires Everywhere Uses The Past To Inform The Present

Little Fires Everywhere is poised to be the next Big Little Lies. It has all of the ingredients: a central mystery, complex neighborhood dynamics, an all-star cast; both are based on popular books and share Reese Witherspoon as an executive producer. The most notable distinction in Hulu’s newest mini-series is that the adults aren’t the only ones getting involved with the drama; it gives legitimate storylines to the show’s five young actors, highlighting that high school is more than homecoming and pep rallies. Yet it has those too.)


The series opens with an ending: Reese Witherspoon as Elena Richardson watches, distraught, from the side of the street as her cute residence burns. The next scene shows Elena and her hubby Bill, played by Joshua Jackson, talking to authorities in the aftermath of the righteous blaze, while three of their four children — Lexie (Jade Pettyjohn), Trip (Jordan Elsass), and Moody (Gavin Lewis) — sit in the vehicle, guessing what their mom is saying. “She’ll probably find a way to blame Izzy,” Lexie says, of their youngest sibling, the so-called problem child, played by Megan Stott.


From the initial scenes, it’s clear that the teens are planning to play a pivotal role in the narrative, nevertheless first, the show must define their central adult rivalry: local busy-body Elena versus Kerry Washington’s elusive neighborhood newcomer, Mia Warren. It’s a truly fierce dynamic. Nevertheless while Washington and Witherspoon slowly build from the sort of passive-aggressive tit-for-tat that can only happen in the face of extreme privilege and ignorance to a stunning legal showdown, the show’s teens — the four Richardsons plus Mia’s daughter, Pearl (Lexi Underwood) — allocate a fresh lens on the social issues we right now hold in the forefront of our minds.


Jade Pettyjohn's Lexie, Lexi Underwood's Pearl, Jordan Elsass's Trip, and Gavin Lewis's Moody on Little Fires Everywhere.


“Our objective with teen storylines was to treat them and hold them in the same way as we treat and hold the adult storylines,” showrunner Liz Tigelaar tells MTV News. Whereas Witherspoon and Washington joked on set about playing versions of their own mothers, the writers really saw their own coming of age in the teens. Well, the majority. “No one has the confidence of Trip or Lexie so they're out,” Tigelaar laughs. “But there is a lot of Izzys, Pearls, and Moodys, basically. So that's the writers in a nutshell.”


Set mostly in 1997, think of the high school storylines as history lessons, of sorts, about how young people understood race, sexuality, feminism, and privilege two decades ago. Izzy stands at that specific intersection while figuring out who she is why as well as how to express herself.


“Izzy is rebellious and outspoken,” Stott describes. “She's going to fight for what she wants to, and she's going to believe what she wants to believe in. Although if she has to do it at the cost of herself, it's not going to happen.”


Izzy’s stubborn authenticity both assists the and hurts her as she starts her freshman year. It opens her up to exploring parts of herself that she may not explore if she were, mention, more like her older sister Lexie, who is practically a carbon copy of their prim-and-proper mother. Izzy becomes the aim of bullying. Their jab of choice: calling her a lesbian.


Nevertheless Izzy doesn’t address the rumors, her presumed sexuality totally ostracizes her from her companions and her family member, driving the wedge between Izzy and Elena even deeper.


Megan Stott's Izzy refuses to be anyone although herself.


Bullying isn’t specific to any decade — Stott was able to infuse her role with the loneliness her own childhood bullies made her feel — yet that Izzy was bullied so intensely for her sexuality took her by surprise, forcing her to analyse her own privilege. “In today's times, if you're any piece of the LGBT community, we visualize you as who you are and we accept that,” she says. “And back then, it was a lot harsher. … People were very cruel about it.”


The starkest reminder of the variation between then and right now comes throughout a Richardson family member dinner in Episode 3. Throughout a conversation about inclusivity, racism, and feminism, Izzy brings up Lilith Fair, the all-female music festival that made its triumphant debut in 1997. “No wonder they call you Ellen,” Trip says. Izzy looks at him, pained, and leaves the table in a huff.


Elena, revealing one of her several social blind spots, needs clarification, and Moody assures us all, Izzy isn't compared to Ellen DeGeneres because she’s funny. It’s because that same year, in 1997, DeGeneres (along with her sitcom character) came out as a lesbian on her widely watched sitcom, Ellen. Despite the show’s enduring popularity before “The Puppy Episode” aired, viewers at the time criticized the series. Ellen was cancelled the following season. DeGeneres’s career suffered, as did that of the episode’s visitor star, Laura Dern.


“Part of the reason we wanted to put that Ellen [reference] in is because naturally Ellen today, and even 10 years right after that, became so beloved by — I mean, definitely white suburbanites — yet everybody,” Tigelaar says. “And to think that there was a time once she was so just shunned … and have the ability to look back and think, ‘Oh, that's how people reacted back then.’”


Reese Witherspoon's Elena looks delighted as Izzy tries to find her identity.


Little Fires Everywhere offers an option reality to the one we’re currently living in Izzy’s coming-of-age story. It highlights that it's never easy to be judged for something you can’t control, without consideration of your other circumstances. All with each other, the teen storylines paint a nuanced portrait of privilege that feels both illuminating and validating for any person who’s felt adversity.


Tigelaar hopes these compounded experiences will encourage crowds to think critically about the privilege and prejudice that’s been passed down to them. “You wish to take the good and not repeat the bad, although initially you should to be able to see it clearly,” she says. “Maybe they'll visualize themselves, they'll think about how they think about things, and maybe by the end, they'll visualize things a little bit differently, in a new way they hadn't thought of before.”


The first three episodes of Little Fires Everywhere are streaming on Hulu right now. New episodes will drop on Wednesdays.