Perfect Unravelling

Flawed characters are strangely compelling in this slick drama that follows a suicide.

- Diana Wichtel

It’s one of the most mindless platitudes in the Oprah playbook: everything happens for a reason. No it doesn’t. Sometimes shit just happens. Go sell your New Age malarkey somewhere else. But that wouldn’t make a catchy mantra for a new drama series about dudes bonding. A Million Little Things – “Friendship isn’t a big thing, it’s a million little things” – begins with shit happening. In a scene that recalls the dressing of deceased Alex in 1983 movie The Big Chill, we find Jon carefully outfitting himself – tie, cufflinks, sorted – for his final hours on Earth. He’s the alpha member of a group of four guys who met in an elevator that clearly got stuck for a reason. Under the influence of Jon – rich, wise, perfect – they opened up. Now Jon’s closing a deal, then stepping off his office balcony.