Little Birds
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Little Birds
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Little Birds is a series based on the book of erotic short stories of the same name by Anaïs Nin that follows the adventures of an heiress in 1955 who travels to Morocco to meet and marry her fiance yet winds up distracted by new and hedonistic friends. Sexuality is strong and frequent; expect brief nudity (male and female backsides), visuals of sex workers (including a scene in which a woman urinates on a client's face), same- and opposite-sex coupling, explicit stories involving sex, and more. Many scenes take place in bars with characters drinking, sometimes to excess; in other scenes, characters take pills doled out by doctors for questionable reasons. Violence can be sudden and shocking: a young boy is killed by political enemies; we see his bloody head and dead body briefly. Language is infrequent: "hell," "damn." Social rules and a woman's place in 1955 is lampooned, often by Lucy's mom Vanessa, who warns her that having children will "ruin" her "figure," and admonishes her to do "facial exercises" to keep looking young.
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What's the Story?
Based on Anaïs Nin's book of short stories of the same name, LITTLE BIRDS is set in 1955, when Lucy Savage (Juno Temple), the naive heiress to an arms manufacturing fortune, travels to Morocco to marry her impoverished English lord of a fiance, Hugo Cavendish-Smyth (Hugh Skinner). But placid married bliss is not to be, as Lucy soon makes a "decadent" group of new friends that includes sex worker Cherifa (Yumna Marwan), aristocratic expatriate Contessa Mandrax (Rossy De Palma), and notorious entertainer Lili von X (Nina Sosanya). Meanwhile, Hugo is busy pursuing a complicated relationship with secret lover (and Egyptian prince) Adham Abaza (Raphael Acloque), and trying to evade a mandate to open up the African weapons market for Lucy's autocratic father Grant (David Costabile).
Is It Any Good?
A perverse and unusual book of literary erotica becomes a surreal and fetching narrative in this visually sumptuous and singular series. Juno Temple's natural British accent has been stifled into squeaky spoiled-American-girl cadences, but her eyes communicate Lucy's astonishment with, and then growing admiration of, the decadent Moroccan milieu in which she finds herself. Little Birds opens on Lucy as she's getting released from a mental hospital; her overly confident doctor advises her to take four of his own patented "mood-levelling tranquillity elixir" pills daily for freedom from "distracting wants and troublesome behaviors." Needless to say, it doesn't work. Though her intrusive daddy, a robber baron of the weapons world, lines up English nobleman Hugh to take charge of Lucy's wayward existence, by the time 48 hours have elapsed in Morocco, Lucy's already met the mysterious Cherifa and a whole host of what Hugh calls "reprobates" that she's immediately fascinated by.
And so the weird narrative of Little Birds winds on, through closeted 1955 gay male assignations, French-Moroccan political complications, and a friendship with fierce dominatrix Cherifa, whose fight for independence from the French colonialists who pay for her services mirrors Lucy's own struggle for sovereignty from her pushy parents and polite society. Don't expect much in the way of coherency -- Nin's book of the same title is a collection of disparate short stories linked mostly by a focus on female sexuality, and though the series hacks a narrative path through Nin's anecdotes, it's still loopy, with characters popping up, doing a turn, then suddenly disappearing and leaving story threads hanging. No matter; Little Birds is suffused with saturated colors: blue sky and sea, a cinnamon desert, Cherifa's one shining gold tooth. And with Lucy as our avatar we're happy, even eager, to follow her through her odd-but-seductive adventures.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how sexuality is presented on TV, such as in Little Birds, and in movies. Even if it's offered in context, is it necessary to show explicit sex scenes to tell a story? What impact can this content potentially have on viewers, especially kids?
Little Birds is based on a book of short stories by Anaïs Nin, who is known for her literary and artful erotica. How does this lineage make this series more or less important? Does it lend any prestige to the series? Make fans of Nin more or less likely to watch? If you've read the book, how does this series compare?
Where do you think Little Birds was shot? Was it shot, as the majority of shows are, in a studio in Los Angeles? How can you tell? What does it add to the show to have realistic outdoor footage?
TV Details
- Premiere date: June 5, 2021
- Cast: Juno Temple, Yumna Marwan, Hugh Skinner
- Network: Starz
- Genre: Drama
- TV rating: TV-MA
- Last updated: June 1, 2022
Our Editors Recommend
For kids who love dramas
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