Biggest Scene Stealer of 2019: Meryl Streep on ‘Big Little Lies’

BIG LITTLE LIES
HBO

From the moments that made us gasp to the performances that lit up our screens, here’s a look at the best of 2019 — and the biggest cliffhangers heading into 2020!

Playing a grieving mother in Season 2 of the HBO drama Big Little Lies, three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep veered from passive-aggressiveness to pure primal rage — and it was downright terrifying.

Her outwardly timid, inwardly furious Mary Louise Wright, mom to lawyer Celeste’s (Nicole Kidman) late abusive husband, Perry (Alexander Skarsgård), arrived in Monterey to “help” with her twin grandsons. Probing for information on Perry’s death, Mary Louise’s own cruel streak began to show.

She insulted Celeste’s bestie, Madeline (Reese Witherspoon), and then, with chilling calculation, tried to take custody of Celeste’s boys. In the finale’s courtroom scene, she finally publicly, irrevocably lost her surface cool.

Streep, who donned false teeth that gave her an overbite fitting for a mousy predator, could win a Golden Globe for it.

For More of Our Best of 2019:

5 Series Finales That Did It Right