If I Like ‘Big Little Lies,’ Will I Like ‘Little Fires Everywhere’?

Little Fires Everywhere premieres today on Hulu. It’s a juicy, soapy limited series about moms that stars Reese Witherspoon and is based on a bestselling novel. If that sounds familiar, that could be because Reese Witherspoon has already starred and executive produced a similar series for HBO, Big Little Lies. While the setting is slightly different, it’s hard to not see that Little Fires Everywhere is courting a similar audience to the award-winning HBO series.

Still the question remains: how similar are the series? That is, if you liked Big Little Lies, is it a given that you will like Little Fires Everywhere?

Here’s how the shows hit the same sweet spot, and how they don’t.

If I Liked Big Little Lies for the Soapy, Catty, “Mom Drama,” Will I Like Little Fires Everywhere?

Part of the appeal of Big Little Lies was that we got to watch a prestige show about the drama that goes down between moms. It was a show that made a huge deal out of an elementary school fight and lured us in with soap opera twists, a haunting murder mystery, and spectacular performances from some famous leading ladies.

Little Fires Everywhere hits a lot of these same notes. The show stars Big Little Lies alum Reese Witherspoon as Elena Richardson, yet another Type A parent obsessed with appearances. Her three older children — Lexie (Jade Pettygood), Trip (Jordan Elsass), and Moody (Gavin Lewis) — are seemingly perfect kids, while youngest daughter Izzy (Megan Stott) is a rebellious artist who grates on Elena’s nerves.

Elena’s world is just as she’s planned it, though, until she crosses paths with single mother Mia Warren (Kerry Washington). Mia and her sweet teen daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood) are renting Elena’s apartment unit, but Elena ramps up the two families’ connection when she hires Mia as household help. Soon both women are meddling with one another’s children.

If that’s not tense enough, the series opens with the mystery of who tried to burn the Richardson house down. There’s also a few mysteries connected to both mothers’ pasts and the issue of a hotly contested adoption that both women have personal stakes in. In many, many ways, Little Fires Everywhere is a perfect chaser to the bougie drama of Big Little Lies. So if that’s the binge you’re looking for, you’re in luck!

If I Liked Big Little Lies for the Luxury, Acting, and Filmmaking, Will I Like Little Fires Everywhere?

Uh…I mean…maybe? Here’s the thing, Big Little Lies was set in the opulent suburb of Monterey. The houses were mansions, the clothes were designer, and Jean-Marc Vallée’s direction was nervy, dreamy, and dripping with luxury.

Little Fires Everywhere is about middle class and working class people. It is set in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s. It also looks like it was made in the ’90s. Meaning, it doesn’t look expensive the way Big Little Lies did. The Richardson house is obvious enormous, but it’s not like the homes the women of Big Little Lies have.

Where Little Fires Everywhere doesn’t lag behind Big Little Lies in quality, though, is the acting. Kerry Washington throws down an incendiary performance and Reese Witherspoon is spectacular, as always. So if your favorite part of your Big Little Lies binge was the wealth porn, you might want to look elsewhere. Little Fires Everywhere isn’t going to deliver that.

If I Liked Big Little Lies for Nicole Kidman, Will I Like Little Fires Everywhere?

Yeah, no, she’s not in Little Fires Everywhere. If you you’re kooky for Kidman, you’re going to have to wait for her next big juicy limited series based on a book club favorite: HBO’s The Undoing. She’s teamed up with Big Little Lies writer David E. Kelley for the mysterious drama about a famous therapist who doesn’t really follow her own advice. In fact, if you were one of the folks who liked Big Little Lies for its upper crust setting and moody directorial style, The Undoing will also be for you. It’s scheduled to premiere on HBO later this spring.

The first three episodes of Little Fires Everywhere are now streaming on Hulu. 

Where to stream Little Fires Everywhere