Are you watching the David E. Kelley series “Big Little Lies’’? It’s good, if not quite great, as it manages to be both a “Desperate Housewives’’-like satire of the wealthy oceanside community of Monterey, Calif., and a serious drama about these privileged creatures and their failed dreams. It airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

Not interested in the story, which includes a murder mystery? Really, the miniseries is all about the acting, which is more often than not extraordinary. Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, and Laura Dern play the mothers of 7-year-olds in the same class, and each of them delivers. Dern, as the nasty queen bee, is an endless kick, bullying the others and ruthlessly using her daughter as a chess piece; and Witherspoon, as a mother with control issues and unresolved feelings about her ex-husband, brings unexpected dimensions.

But it’s Nicole Kidman who gives the most quietly powerful performance, as Celeste, a mother of twins whose husband, Perry — played by Alexander Skarsgard — is beating her up. It’s a familiar story line on TV dramas, particularly procedurals such as “Law & Order: SVU,’’ but Kidman in particular adds fine shadings to the situation. We see how Perry’s childish verbal attacks turn physical, and how the fights inevitably turn into sex, and how Celeste ultimately looks as though she is participating willingly. But we also see how she is storing up her rage and resistance, how she has had to detach from her feelings in order to survive.

As she gazes watchfully at the world, at her friends and her children, we know she is hiding a volcano behind a few feet of snow.

Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.