Little Birds Review: Season 1 Episode 3

Little Birds Season 1 Episode 3 is still toying between standard storytelling and abstract art, not yet having found its sweet spot.

This series is beginning to seem like a high-end perfume commercial—the kind that has a very vague story, an essence of plot, but it’s really all about the aesthetic. Ads such as these use glossy glamour and a sense of fantasy to sell fragrances. The question is: What is Little Birds selling?

Perhaps it’s simply the idea of sexuality itself.

It’s a topic worthy of both a straightforward narrative and cinematic surrealism. However, attempting to tell a story by weaving the two diametric methods together requires a certain amount of finesse. Whether Little Birds is up to this task remains to be seen. 

Episode 3 puts us halfway through the short first season, and viewers should have more coherency by now, but the visuals are doing all the heavy lifting. The main storyline is bogged down by too many peripheral characters and subplots, and it is unclear if these threads have any direction or purpose.

There is still time for these elements to come together, and I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. And the reason I am willing to do so is because the show is just so gorgeous. Many frames are works of art, the use of color is extraordinary, and the lighting is potent and dynamic—almost a character on its own. 

“I came here for the light,” says Bill (Matt Lauria), an American artist slash bartender slash …spy?

The scene where Cherifa (Yumna Marwan) removes her makeup has a shadowy blue background and a wall awash with vibrant red light. The space is practically pulsing with her emotion.

Marwan and Juno Temple as the leads elevate the story even if that story is difficult to follow. Like the beautiful aesthetics, these capable actors in hypnotizing roles are reason enough to keep tuning in. They are both thrilling to watch, but focus shifts to these other seemingly superfluous subplots too often.

It is another let down when the end credits roll and they haven’t interacted with each other. We got one electrifying scene on Little Birds Season 1 Episode 1 between the two women. On the second episode, they attended the same party but that served as the only connection.

This episode connects them solely through the editing. The sequence is very well done and extremely absorbing but still inchoate overall. Several scenes are intercut together, linking Lucy (Temple), Cherifa, lovers Hugo (Hugh Skinner) and Adham (Raphael Acloque), and a lively nightclub singer.

It creates titillating tension, partly because it kind of hints at the possibility that Lucy and Cherifa will run into each other in the streets as Cherifa flees and Lucy heads home where her husband is with another man.

While Lucy walking in on the two lovers is a dramatic, well-acted, and beautifully-shot scene, there is a tinge of disappointment that yet another opportunity to see interaction between these main characters has been wasted.

It’s all starting to feel like a tease. 

Consequently, it has me imagining an entirely different show, one with less of the men and more of the women and their sexual power and freedom that Anaïs Nin set out to examine in her collection of erotica on which the series is based.

One where the mystery is these complicated women and not the convoluted plot.  

Little Thoughts:

• TV writers love to use the ortolan in their stories. This is the third show where I’ve watched a scene with characters eating the forbidden French delicacy. Little Birds joins Hannibal and Succession in this weird little club. And if I ever watch Billions, I’ll have another to add to my “collection.”
• “People do it for love, Hugo. People do it for love.” The scenes between Hugo and Adham on this episode are absolutely heartbreaking. 
• Lucy Savage, the fastest draw in Tangier. Secretary Pierre needed to be knocked down a peg. 
• It’s hilarious that Hugo knows nothing about these arms he’s supposed to sell—kinda like me with the plot.

What did you think of this episode of Little Birds? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Little Birds airs Sundays at 9/8c on Starz.

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