''Olive Kitteridge'' is an American television miniseries based on

Elizabeth Strout Elizabeth Strout (born January 6, 1956) is an American novelist and author. She is widely known for her works in literary fiction and her descriptive characterization. She was born and raised in Portland, Maine, and her experiences in her youth ...

's 2008 novel '' Olive Kitteridge''. Set in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, the HBO miniseries features

Frances McDormand Frances Louise McDormand (born Cynthia Ann Smith; June 23, 1957) is an American actress and producer. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, McDormand has received numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, two Primetime Emm ...

as the title character,

Richard Jenkins Richard Dale Jenkins (born May 4, 1947) is an American actor who is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series '' Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005). He began his career in theater at the Tr ...

as Olive's loving husband Henry Kitteridge,

Zoe Kazan Zoe Swicord Kazan (; born September 9, 1983) is an American actress, playwright, and screenwriter. She made her acting debut in the film ''Swordswallowers and Thin Men'' (2003) and later appeared in films such as '' The Savages'' (2007), ''Revol ...

as Denise Thibodeau, and

Bill Murray William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his deadpan delivery. He rose to fame on ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' (1973–1974) before becoming a national presence on '' Saturday Nig ...

as Jack Kennison. The show is divided into four parts, each depicting a certain point of time in the novel. The miniseries debuted in the United States on November 2, 2014, on the American premium TV network HBO, which aired the show's first two episodes back-to-back that evening; the third and fourth episodes aired back-to-back the following evening. It was shown in a similar format in the United Kingdom on

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group Limited broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is primarily dedicated to imported programmes from the United States, and holds the domestic rights to HB ...

, on December 14 and December 15, 2014. It premiered in Australia on

showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

from 13 January 2015. At the

67th Primetime Emmy Awards The 67th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2014 until May 31, 2015, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at the M ...

, the miniseries won eight awards including Outstanding Limited Series.

Premise

Olive Kitteridge is a

misanthropic Misanthropy is the general hatred, dislike, distrust or contempt of the human species, human behavior or human nature. A misanthrope or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings. The word's origin is from the Greek words μῖσ ...

and strict, but well-meaning, retired schoolteacher who lives in the fictional seaside town of Crosby, Maine. She is married to Henry Kitteridge, a kind, considerate man who runs a pharmacy downtown, and has a troubled son named Christopher, who grows up to be a

podiatrist A podiatrist ( ) is a medical professional devoted to the treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle, and related structures of the leg. The term originated in North America but has now become the accepted term in the English-speaking world for ...

. For 25 years, Olive has experienced problems of depression, bereavement, jealousy, and friction with family members and friends.

Cast

as Olive Kitteridge *

as Henry Kitteridge *

as Denise Thibodeau * Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel Coulson * Martha Wainwright as Angela O'Meara *

Ann Dowd Ann Dowd (born January 30, 1956) is an American actress. She has played supporting roles in numerous films, including ''Green Card'' (1990), ''Lorenzo's Oil'' (1992), ''Philadelphia'' (1993), '' Garden State'' (2004), '' The Manchurian Candidate' ...

as Bonnie Newton * Jesse Plemons as Jerry McCarthy *

as Jack Kennison * John Gallagher Jr. as Christopher Kitteridge (adult) *

Devin Druid Devin McKenzie Druid (born ) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Tyler Down in the Netflix series ''13 Reasons Why'', based on the 2007 novel by Jay Asher. Early life Druid made his acting debut with the release of the docum ...

as Christopher Kitteridge (age 13) * John Mullen as Kevin Coulson (age 13) *

Cory Michael Smith Cory Michael Smith (born November 14, 1986) is an American actor, known for his role as Edward Nygma / The Riddler in the Fox television drama series '' Gotham''. He appeared in '' Camp X-Ray'' in 2014. He appeared in 2013 in '' Breakfast at ...

as Kevin Coulson (adult) *

Peter Mullan Peter Mullan (; born 2 November 1959) is a Scottish actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his role in Ken Loach's ''My Name Is Joe'' (1998), for which he won Best Actor Award at 1998 Cannes Film Festival, 2000's '' The Claim'' and all th ...

as Jim O'Casey *

Rachel Brosnahan Rachel Elizabeth Brosnahan (born July 12, 1990) is an American actress. She stars as aspiring stand-up comedian Miriam "Midge" Maisel in the Amazon Prime Video period comedy series ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'' (2017–present), for which she w ...

as Patty Howe *

Brady Corbet Brady James Monson Corbet (; born August 17, 1988) is an American actor and filmmaker. Corbet is known for playing Mason Freeland in the film ''Thirteen'', Brian Lackey in the film '' Mysterious Skin'', Alan Tracy in the 2004 film '' Thunderbird ...

as Henry Thibodeau * Maryann Urbano as Linda Kennison * Libby Winters as Suzanne *

Patricia Kalember Patricia Kathryn Kalember (born December 30, 1956) is an American actress, best known for her role as Georgiana "Georgie" Reed Whitsig in the NBC drama series, ''Sisters'' (1991–1996). Kalember also had the leading roles in the number of televi ...

as Joyce *

Audrey Marie Anderson Audrey Marie Anderson (born March 7, 1975) is an American actress and model. She is best known for her role as Kim Brown in the CBS action-drama series ''The Unit'' (2006–2009) and her recurring roles as DC character Lyla Michaels / Harbinger ...

as Ann * Donna Mitchell as Louise Larkin * Frank L. Ridley as Mr. Thibodeau

Episodes

Reception

Critical response

''Olive Kitteridge'' received widespread critical acclaim for its writing, directing, cinematography, and Frances McDormand's central performance as well as those of Jenkins, Murray and Gallagher. On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the show has an approval rating of 95% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 8.68/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Olive Kitteridge''s narrative slow burn enhances fascinating performances – and a story worthy of its source material." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a weighted average score of 89 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

Home media

''Olive Kitteridge'' was released by HBO on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on February 10, 2015.

References

External links

* {{HBONetwork Shows 2010s American drama television miniseries 2014 American television series debuts HBO original programming Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries winners Primetime Emmy Award-winning television series Television shows based on American novels Television shows set in Maine Television series by Playtone Films with screenplays by Jane Anderson