‘Olive Kitteridge’ comes to HBO this weekend

“Olive Kitteridge,” a new miniseries based on the book by Elizabeth Strout, will premiere on HBO Nov. 2. Strout’s collection of linked short stories set in a small Maine town won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize.

The drama -- alternately, “traumedy” -- stars Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Bill Murray, Rosemarie DeWitt, John Gallagher Jr., Peter Mullan and Zoe Kazan. It’s directed by Lisa Cholodenko, (“The Kids Are All Right”). McDormand also was the project’s executive producer.

“I’ve made a professional reputation playing working-class, middle-class, American women. All of those characters kind of grew up to be Olive,” McDormand told USA Today. “There’s a real sense of stoicism and pragmatism and strength and lyricism of a woman like that. Who wouldn’t want to play her? She’s fabulous.”

But she’s not particularly easygoing. The series puts the relationship between Olive and her husband, Henry, at the center of the story. The Hollywood Reporter talked to Strout about the pair. “His warmth kind of makes up for her coldness — they have a really symbiotic relationship,” Strout said. “From the moment I conceived Olive, and then Henry, I thought of them as two people that loved each other a very great deal. They have a long marriage, they both have other interests, but basically they were each other’s hearts.”

The miniseries begins with parts one and two on Sunday, Nov. 2; parts three and four air the next day, Nov. 3.

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