I don't even know where to start. This show addresses the sadness and complication of the struggles regarding this scary horrible journey that we call 'life'. The story is about a bitter and sad woman (Olive Kitteridge). How she affects everyone around her and how life treats her. It also opens the eyes, to the dark un-addressed reality of mental health issues, suicide, their roots and the difficulty that they cause upon families. The casting, acting, directing, story, tempo is impeccable. I honestly have never seen anything like it. As someone who has dealt with severe mental health issues, had heard: "just get over it" from everyone, and struggled through the pain that it causes to myself and family members, I COULD NOT APPRECIATE THIS SHOW MORE.

It's 25 years in the marriage of Olive (Frances McDormand) and Henry Kitteridge (Richard Jenkins) in small town Maine. They have a son named Christopher who has a troubled relationship with his cantankerous mother. Her personal demons stem from the family history of depression and her father's violent suicide. She's a junior high math teacher who develops a connection with fellow cranky teacher Jim O'Casey. Kevin Coulson is one of her student whose mother Rachel Coulson (Rosemarie DeWitt) is struggling with debilitating depression. Henry is the town pharmacist. Denise Thibodeau (Zoe Kazan) and Jerry McCarthy (Jesse Plemons) work for him in the store. His nice guy personality leads to flirtations with Denise especially after the hunting accident death of her husband, also named Henry. There are many people in and out of their lives over the years including finally the rich crank Jack Kennison (Bill Murray).This is a four hour HBO mini-series. So much happens and yet nothing really does in this marriage. They keep going on despite the many issues in their relationship. It gets really uncomfortable with Henry and Denise in that truck. There are amazing performances. I do wonder if this could work even better as a two hour indie darling. I could see this winning awards after stripping out a few side stories. The drug robbery could be dropped. Honestly, I couldn't stop thinking that it's Bill Murray every time he shows up on the screen. His part could be done with a lesser known actor as a final scene with Olive. Overall, this has amazing stuff although some of it is over-extended.

Just because something is well written, nicely directed and terrifically acted doesn't mean that it will be enjoyed by viewers, at least not this viewer. OK, I understand the awards for individual achievements but as someone who just sat and watched the whole thing in one sitting, the only thing I'm walking away with is depression. Usually when you have a show of this type, there is some nod to something positive, maybe a small uplifting message but alas there was none. You don't even get a sense of self awareness. I don't think this was boring but just wish it would have come with a disclaimer "Warning - Viewing this show can be a real downer".

I sat through all four episodes last night, drawn in by the two leads - McDormand and Jenkins are of course worth watching in anything. All the performances in the piece are excellent,in fact, beautiful casting across the board. I haven't read the book (nor do I plan to), but the biggest hurdle for me to come to terms with in the story is why such an exquisitely compassionate man like Henry would fall for and marry Olive in the first place.He's not actually portrayed as a masochist, so that couldn't have been his underlying and perhaps subconscious reason for teaming up with this repugnant and relentlessly horrific sociopath; maybe when they were younger he saw something in her that appealed to his compassionate nature, who knows. I just had a problem accepting it. And it wasn't like she was mean and unappreciative just to him (as some spouses are, or come to be - they treat everyone outside the relationship relatively decent and save their ugly side for the one closest to them, because that's the only person who would put up with it). Nope, she was an equal-opportunity abuser who caused serious pain - or at the very least, horrendously negative vibes - to everyone in her path, including her son Chris, who finally told her to take a hike after relaying how miserable and utterly worthless she had made him feel his entire life.I had very little sympathy for this worm of a woman, even though I understood that she was apparently 'clinically depressed' and she was shown with glimpses of humanity, cracks in the stoic facade. On some level she did care about others, like when she helped save someone from drowning. And toward the end, her interactions with Bill Murray's nearly-equally-bitter character were at least bordering on something human, so perhaps there was hope for her - again, who knows.It was sort of superficial, the teleplay, in that it never delved into why she was like that and of course why Henry chose to marry her. They just laid it out for us with a take-it-or-leave it attitude, and at the end, I was relieved that it was over. There was one really good black-humored line: ~-~ SPOILER ALERT ~-~ It came toward the end, when Olive grunts to Bill Murray's character, 'I'm just waiting for the dog to die so I can shoot myself.'