''Olive Kitteridge'' is an American television miniseries based on Elizabeth Strout'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 nor ...

, the HBO miniseries features Frances McDormand 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 Tri ...

as Olive's loving husband Henry Kitteridge, Zoe Kazan 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, on December 14 and December 15, 2014. It premiered in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

on showcase from 13 January 2015. At the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, the miniseries won eight awards including Outstanding Limited Series.

Premise

Olive Kitteridge is a misanthropic 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

* Frances McDormand as Olive Kitteridge *

as Henry Kitteridge * Zoe Kazan as Denise Thibodeau *

Rosemarie DeWitt Rosemarie Braddock DeWitt (born October 26, 1971) is an American actress. DeWitt played Emily Lehman in the Fox television series '' Standoff'' (2006–07), co-starring with her future husband Ron Livingston, as well as Charmaine Craine on ''Un ...

as Rachel Coulson *

Martha Wainwright Martha Wainwright (born May 8, 1976) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She has released seven critically-acclaimed studio albums. Wainwright is the daughter of musicians Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III ...

as Angela O'Meara * Ann Dowd as Bonnie Newton *

Jesse Plemons Jesse Plemons (; born April 2, 1988) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and achieved a career breakthrough with his major role as Landry Clarke in the NBC drama series '' Friday Night Lights'' (2006–2011). He subsequ ...

as Jerry McCarthy *

as Jack Kennison * John Gallagher Jr. as Christopher Kitteridge (adult) * Devin Druid 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 as Jim O'Casey * Rachel Brosnahan 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 as Joyce * Audrey Marie Anderson as Ann * Donna Mitchell as Louise Larkin *

Frank L. Ridley Frank L. Ridley is an American film and television actor. Born into a musical family in Michigan, he originally trained as an opera singer with Richard Conrad. After attending Boston Conservatory of Music, he started his career as a regular membe ...

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 Wan ...

, 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 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