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Why you need to be watching HBO's 'Big Little Lies'

If you're not watching "Big Little Lies," which combines mystery with real female issues, you should be.

Big Little Lies stars, from left, Reese Witherspoon, Darby Camp, Shailene Woodley, Iain Armitage, Nicole Kidman, Cameron Crovetti, and Nicolas Crovetti.

Warning: Mild spoilers for "Big Little Lies" below.

You might have heard of "Big Little Lies," that big little show so many people are talking about, and so many stars are in. If you're not watching, you should be. It's a compelling murder mystery and every episode is beautifully directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, the visionary director of "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Wild."

The show focuses on four female leads and follows their lives in Monterey, California, as working mothers or stay-at-home moms struggling in their relationships. All the while, a murder mystery is slowly unfolding. The audience gets very small bits of information about the murder throughout every episode, but not enough to put any of the pieces together.

But while the mystery is interesting and will keep you on the edge of your seat, the strength of "Big Little Lies" is how it confronts stories for women, and gives female actresses (the majority in their 40s or 50s) the chance to take the lead while the men get the supporting roles for once.

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Here are all the reasons you should be watching HBO's "Big Little Lies":

It’s based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty.

Though the novel takes place in Australia. The novel had very similar reception to the show. On the surface it seems fluffy and cliche, but it's using that disguise to address the important realities of domestic abuse and women's issues.

It’s got an incredible cast.

Including Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz, Adam Scott, and Alexander Skarsgard. The level of talent is absurd.

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Witherspoon and Kidman optioned the show themselves, because it had so many female characters.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Witherspoon said, “We have to start seeing women how they actually are on film — we need to see real women's experience — whether that involves domestic violence, sexual assault, romance, infidelity, or divorce."

Witherspoon and Kidman serve as executive producers.

It deals with real women’s issues.

Including domestic violence, divorce, sexual assault, and being a working mom (or being a stay-at-home mom). And it passes the Bechdel test — which looks at how often female characters talk about something other than men — with flying colors.

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Nicole Kidman perfectly portrays Celeste, a conflicted woman in an abusive relationship.

The show goes deep into Celeste's psyche and her relationship with her husband Perry, played by Alexander Skarsgard. He's a controlling man who is rough with her in bed and beats her. After the fifth episode, The AV Club said that the show is telling a "vital" target="_blank" story about abuse.

And Shailene Woodley shows off her acting chops as single mom and outsider Jane Chapman.

It's probably her best role yet. She also has a storyline that covers sexual abuse.

The mystery will keep you watching, but isn't the show's strength.

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This show could be called the feminist "True Detective." Like in season one of "True Detective," a mystery is slowly unraveled through testimonies of secondary characters, but we still don't know who was murdered — we just know that it was probably one of the main characters. The real focus of the story is women and their relationships with their husbands, their friends, and their kids.

The show's Monterey oceanside setting gives director Jean-Marc Vallée, of “Dallas Buyers Club” and “Wild,” an opportunity to show off his skills for television.

He knows how to make multimillion-dollar homes look even better than they actually are. He also knows every actor's strength. He worked with Witherspoon and Dern on 2014's "Wild."

Vallée uses framing to say things about the characters that they’re not saying themselves — he uses wide shots to establish a lonely feeling.

The homes are to die for.

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It’s got a killer soundtrack.

With a mix of classic artists like Fleetwood Mac and modern-day artists, the show always uses music to tell a story or to tell us something about the characters. According to Decider, "the director and executive producer Jean-Marc Vallée intentionally chose the songs that would make up the show’s soundtrack."

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