10) Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winning-novel novel contained thirteen interconnected stories, each shedding light on the title character. Lisa Cholodenko’s HBO adaptation tore down the chapters that separated the novel, instead depicting Olive’s (Frances McDormand) struggle to cope in four hour-long episodes.
When we first meet Olive Kitteridge, she is sitting in a forest, holding a gun to her head. Go back twenty years and Olive is living with her husband Henry (Richard Jenkins) and son Christopher (Devin Druid at thirteen, John Gallagher Jr. as an adult). Olive is a math teacher and Henry runs the town’s pharmacy. It is made apparent that no too many people are fond of Olive Kitteridge though. Olive tells it like it is; she is smug and not afraid to call someone a moron without a second thought. Henry on the other hand, is perhaps the kindest man we meet throughout the four hours. Though they frequently bicker, it appears that Olive and Henry cannot live without each other.
HBO has been cranking out excellent films and miniseries for years, but none has packed the emotional punch of Olive Kitteridge. The show provides an exceptional depiction of clinical depression and how it not only affects the depressed person, but ever single person they come into contact with. Olive is tough as nails, but you will love her, and you’ll be sad to bid her adieu as the four wonderful hours come to an end.
