I've Got Big Love for 'Big Love' ~ A Series Review

A show about a polygamist family has to overcome the stereotypes of polygamy, especially a show that does not have the sister-wives dressed as if they have stepped out of a ‘Little House on the Prairie’ reunion movie.  I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when ‘Big Love’ was being pitched to HBO executives – “It’s sort of like the Cleaver family except with three Junes.”

In the last decade polygamists communities have made the news.  They do not look like happy places.  The women all walk around looking repressed, the children are never playing, and the men all wear poorly fitted business suits.  To add to the stereotype wives are traded as if they were playing cards, young girls (I’m talking fourteen, if not younger) are given to close relatives (the type of marriages, indeed if polygamists unions could ever be legal in the first place, where the term kissing cousin is not meant in jest).

The polygamist lifestyle serves as the basis of the HBO show ‘Big Love’.  It tries to throw into the mix all sorts of polygamists gumbo from compound cuties to life at the cul-de-sac.  With only two more shows to go, I have to say that I have no idea what is going to happen.  I’ll also go further and say ‘Big Love’ is much more intriguing than ‘The Sopranos’ but then again, the mafia doesn’t scare me, crazy-ass polygamists do.  I’ll also observe Tony and his crew could probably learn a thing or two about conflict resolution from some of these ‘prophets’ who use their torture skills in order to gain access to video gambling games…of which their religion forbids them to do, but not own.

Although the Hendrickson family strives to be both middleclass and polygamist, for the most part, they have to hide their polygamy.  Bill Hendrickson (Bill Paxon) is the forty something patriarch who grew up in Juniper Creek, a polygamist compound, but was banished at an early age, as are many boys.  At some point, he met and then married his first wife, Barbara (Jeanne Tripplehorn).  Bill is an entrepreneur and is willing to take risks if he thinks the payoffs are worth it.  Although he frames these risks under the guise of providing and protecting his family, there is something more to it, a sort of maverick recklessness.  For instance, he puts his picture into the advertisements for Home Plus (a Home Depot sort of store that he owns) hoping that people will shop there because it is owned locally owned, but the last thing a modern day polygamist needs is to be exposed as such.

Both Bill and Barb began their married life living it in a way I assume is normal under the Mormon faith.  They had three children, an older son and daughter and then a much younger daughter.  Chances are that Barbara would never have married Bill if she believed that later he would convince her to live ‘The Principle’ which is the name polygamists give to their lifestyle to give it a spiritual twist.  Even now, years afterwards, she still struggles with the implications of polygamy and seems to not want it for her own children.  She has paid the price in order to remain with her husband, because of her polygamy she had to give up temple attendance and her mother and sister will not speak to her.  Barb is the mother hen to the two younger wives and garners most of the respect.  She is also the wife Bill tends to talk the most to about important matters.

According to the storyline, about eight to ten years ago, Barbara almost died from cancer but was nursed back to health by Nicolette Grant (Chole Sevigny) who then became Bill’s second wife.  Due to Barb’s cancer, her uterus was removed, which plays into the role of ‘The Principle’ because sex is seen only for begetting children and thus afterwards, Barb could no longer have any, thus could not fulfill a wifely duty.

The series has hinted that Nicolette’s father and Juniper Creek prophet and patriarch Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton) loaned Bill money in which either to save, build, or shore up his Home Plus store.  In lieu of the loan, Bill agreed to accept Nicolette, who also goes by Nicki, as his second wife.  Out of the three wives she is the most devious and often acts like Lady Macbeth.  She is both the strongest character on the show and the weakest.  She lives in the modern world but still dresses in a way that sets her apart from other women (not quite compound, but not quite soccer mom either).

The deviousness I spoke of seems to be a trait that is shared by many on the compound.  Think medieval fiefdoms and you sort of get the power plays that happen on Juniper Creek.  They may talk a great deal about Jesus and The Principle, but on any given day they want you to show them the money.

Third wife, Margene Heffman (Ginnifer Goodwin) originally came into the fold as a babysitter for Nicolette’s children (she has two).  Although Bill states he had a calling/testimony/vision/revelation to make her his third wife, it is pretty obvious that he was attracted to her youth and hotness.  She has proven to be the wife who is generally more accepting of other’s faults, the one who has the biggest heart, and the one whom the HBO quiz said I was most like.  (You can take it here http://www.hbo.com/biglove/games/ .) Though they have not been married for very long, Bill and Margene have managed to produce two sons and have a bun in the oven.  Above all, she is the most sexually uninhibited of the wives.  Further, she is the wife who has come from what is normally labeled a ‘white trash’ background, so she often sees life with Bill and the rest of the clan as a step up from which she came.

Beyond these four main characters, all brilliantly played, especially Chloe Sevigny (who has resurrected her career after a disastrous turn in ‘Brown Bunny’ – if you aren’t aware of it, then believe me, don’t ask) there are several supporting players whose storylines are just as intriguing.  There is the oldest son Ben, whose girlfriend (his first sexual experience) broke up with him after his mother gave her the lowdown about life as a polygamist.  Although he stated to his paramour that he had no interest in following in his father’s footsteps, Ben has changed tack and is now considering polygamy for no other reason besides he knows it bothers his mother.

There is the oldest daughter Sarah, who sees her family for what it is and not how her mother wishes it were.  She knows that the only reason her mother agreed to living The Principle was because she was deeply in love with her husband and did not want to lose him.  Sarah tries to comfort her mother as well as try to save her by telling her that the life her mother is living is very much like the compound because Barb seldom gets what she deserves in regards to husbandly devotion and emotional comfort.

Storylines have branched out to Bill’s mother and father (no love lost there) his brother and his antifreezing poisoning wife, along with a child bride that Roman, eighty something (sorry girls he’s taken, taken, taken, taken …) was going to marry but who ran away instead (she is played by Daveigh Chase who also played that spooky girl who climbs out of the well in ‘The Ring’).  In addition, there is Sarah’s friend who is a walking mouthpiece for the Mormon faith and might be too interested in Sarah (it you know what I mean) and Nicki’s mother and brother who are probably as Machiavellian as Machiavelli himself.

Overall, ‘Big Love’ is something very rare on television these days, it is a show about people and topics that the viewing public haven’t seen before.  Part of the fun is wondering if you could live this lifestyle, and if not, at what point would you just come out swinging.  Another reason this drama works is because the writing is top notched and the performances rank with ‘Lost’ in regards to ensemble acting.  Most importantly, it is a show that is completely unpredictable.  Compared to other HBO fare, say ‘The Sopranos’, where you knew that it was just a matter of time before some of the characters were going to be whacked, besides knowing Roman is going to be checking out soon (come on, he is in his 80’s) I don’t know if Barb is going to leave the family or if Nicki is going to end up converting to Catholicism.

If you haven’t seen the show, watch it or rent the first season on DVD.  With the information above, you should know enough about the characters to follow along.  Wisely, HBO has placed the last two shows of the season on Sunday night (they have been debuting on Mondays).  Maybe it is just me, but I have tried to watch ‘John From Cincinnati’ but instead of a worthy drama, I have found a pretty darn good antidote for insomnia.  Since ‘The Sorpranos’ have ‘kept on believing’ (think the last episode and the ‘Journey’ song) Sundays on HBO have felt pretty sad.

Overall, if you haven’t checked out ‘Big Love’ because you think it supports the idea of polygamy, you are cheating yourself out of a fantastic drama.  I think the creators of the series, Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, both gay men, have striven for a balanced look at American polygamy, from the support the Hendrickson family members have for one another to the compound's ‘Joy Book’ which gives the upper echelon men the first pick of young women (girls really) deemed ready for marriage.  If this show has accomplished anything, it has brought into the forefront practices which have been in the shadows for over a hundred and fifty years.   I suppose you simply can’t watch ‘Big Love’ without having some opinion about how legal marriage is defined and why, plus thinking about if the practice of polygamy on a whole is really about faith or does it uses faith as an excuse.

© 2007 Westerfield