Over the course of five seasons, Bill Henrickson and his three
wives (Barb, Nicki, and Margene) struggle to overcome a myriad of
challenges they’re faced with while living a modern-day
polygamist lifestyle. Bill is an independent businessman who runs
a growing chain of hardware stores (Home Plus); the family later
goes on to expand their business ventures to a Mormon-friendly
casino in the middle of an Indian reservation; the family
contemplates taking on a fourth wife; and as if that wasn’t
enough on their plates, Bill decides to run for public office. In
one of the most shocking moments of the series, on election
night, new state Senator Bill Henrickson shook Utah to its core
by outing his family as polygamists. Now, instead of being
embraced for their honesty, the Henrickson family is engulfed by
hostility from neighbors, Home Plus employees, casino partners,
students at their kids’ schools and even fellow polygamists
hoping to keep their personal lives private.
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Big Love: The Complete First Season-Big Love, HBO's newest
buzzworthy series, recalls Groucho Marx's blithe proposal to two
women in Animal Crackers. "Why, that's bigamy," one of the women
excls. Groucho responds, "Yes, and it's big of me, too." But
Bill Henrickson's (Bill Paxton) situation is hardly a laughing
matter. Bill is a modern-day polygamist who lives in suburban
Salt Lake City with his seven children and three "sister-wives":
Barbara (Jeanne Tripplehorn, never better), the more mature
anchor of the household; Nicki (Chloe Sevigny), who spitefully
refers to her as "Boss Lady"; and recent addition Margene
(charming Ginnifer Goodwin), insecure and childlike. A series
that puts a human face on polygamy is brimming with prurient
possibilities. Big Love's first two episodes are veritable
commercials for , as Bill struggles to keep up with the
demands of his spouses, with whom the ing arrangements are
strictly scheduled. But once this more sensational aspect of
"plural marriage" is dealt with, Big Love moves on to focus on
the emotional, spiritual and financial pressures that beset Bill
and his families. As the dreamlike opening credit sequence
(scored to the Beach Boys' ethereal "God Only Knows")
illustrates, Bill is a man on thin ice. He is carrying mortgages
on three adjoining homes. A home-improvement store entrepreneur,
he has just cut the ribbon on his second store and is planning a
third. His wives, not immune to jealousies, vie for dominant
position. And then there's Roman (Harry Dean Stanton; and any
series that puts this venerable character actor and hipster saint
in our homes on a weekly basis deserves our big love), the
sinister leader of an outlaw fundamentalist compound, who has an
escalating disagreement with Bill over the repayment of his loan
that helped Bill build his fledgling empire ("There's man's law,"
he states ominously, "and there's God's law").
There are further complications that make Big Love so compelling.
Bill suspects that his raw-nerved mother (Grace Zabriskie) may be
poisoning his her (Bruce Dern). Nicki is a shopaholic accruing
nearly $60,000 in credit-card debt. Overtures by new neighbors
threaten to expose Bill's unorthodox and illicit living
arrangements. The polygamy factor puts a subversive spin on
traditional matrimonial melodrama. When Nicki plans her son's
disastrous birthday party, her list of "immediate family" tops
150. When Roman, who is Nicki's her, arrives, Bill procls
he is not welcome in his "homes." As with Rome, Big Love may
require a little patience. But this fascinating portrayal of a
shadowy subculture, the intelligent writing, and the estimable
ensemble will soon make you feel like part of the families.
--Donald Liebenson
Big Love: The Complete Second Season-Early on in Big Love's
second season, closeted polygamist Bill Henrickson's kids come to
him with a broken toy. "I can fix anything," he reassures them.
If only his chaotic life were as easy to mend. Among the crises
vying for his attention this season are finding out who was
responsible for outing his wife, Barbara (Jeanne Tripplehorn), at
the Mother of the Year ceremony; the investigation into the
poisoning of his brother-in-law, Alby, for which he could be
implicated in a cover-up; negotiating a deal to purchase a gaming
company coveted by Roman (Harry Dean Stanton); and, in a "holy
spirit sucker punch," meeting Ana (Branca Katic), a Serbian
waitress who just could be wife No. 4. A Golden Globe nominee for
Best Drama, Big Love further draws viewers into the polygamists'
shadow world. "If they could show just one normal plural family
for a change," someone remarks at one point. Grounded in "the
principle," the Henrickson households are about as normal as you
can get with the sister wives at once fiercely protective of the
family, while at the same jockeying for position and influence.
Nicki (Chloe Svigny) is beholden to her her, the prophet Roman
(whom Bill aptly calls "venal, corrupt, the face of evil"), and
duty-bound mother, Adaleen (Mary Kay Place). Margene (Ginnifer
Goodwin), the third and youngest wife, has absolutely no
boundaries, and initiates a friendship with Ana, and agrees to be
a surrogate mother for her unwitting neighbor. "Boss Lady"
Barbara must come to terms with the sacrifices she made for her
marriage. Meanwhile, Barbara's teenage son and daughter are at
their own crossroads on deciding whether to follow their parents'
path. Complicating matters even further are Rhonda (Daveigh
Chase, the voice of Lilo in Disney's Lilo & Stitch), the lying
and manipulative child bride who runs away from Roman and the
compound, Alby's sinister ascendancy, and Hollis Green, a rival
polygamist patriarch and fierce fundamentalist with a penchant
for branding those who cross him.
Season 2 further es out television's most unconventional
family drama. This set also includes three "prequels" that peek
in on the Henricksons up to five years before the events of the
first season. In one, Nicki suffers post-partum depression
following the birth of her first son. In the second, Margene
makes an indelible first impression in "Meet the Baby-Sitter."
The third shows how Bill's three wives compel a move to the
suburbs and into their three-home compound. This series has
emerged from The Sopranos' shadow to earn some Big Love of its
own. What happens next? As the Beach Boys sing during the
haunting and etheral opening credits, "God only knows." --Donald
Liebenson
Big Love: The Complete Third Season-Three seasons in, the
popular HBO series Big Love remains a highly entertaining and
rewarding viewing experience. The cast is enormous and the
storylines are numerous, with each of these ten 60-minute
episodes adding new s to the plotlines already being
pursued. This is business as usual for those who've been on board
from the start, but while newcomers may need a couple of episodes
to get up to speed, viewers of all stripes will be inexorably
pulled in by the show's tangled combination of drama and black
humor, personal peccadilloes and internecine strife, and big time
social and religious issues. There really is nothing else like
this on the television landscape, and that's entirely a good
thing.
As usual, the series centers on the anything-but-normal life of
Salt Lake City businessman Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton). Bill’s
a study in contrasts: while he has plenty of objections to modern
Mormon mores (he and his family are no longer active members of
the church), he’s committed to the practice of polygamy, which
remains the single most controversial aspect of Mormonism despite
having been officially banned. Bill, his three wives, Barb
(Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), and Margene
(Ginnifer Goodwin), and their various children find themselves
waging constant skirmishes on several fronts: with their nosy,
judgmental neighbors, with the splinter Mormon clan headed by the
evil, self-procled holy man Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton),
and with the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. But the Henricksons' most pitched battles, and they are
legion, tend to be amongst themselves. Though the wives generally
get along with one another, the jockeying for position is
endless, and Bill's desire for a fourth spouse this season
definitely doesn’t make things any calmer. Other ongoing
storylines include Grant’s trial for rape (similarities to the
real-life prosecution of Mormon fundamentalist Warren Jeffs are
no coincidence), which presents a serious conflict for Nicki, who
happens to be Grant’s daughter; Bill and his partner’s ongoing
efforts to open a Mormon-friendly casino on Indian land; and
sub-plots involving teen pregnancy, kipping, adultery, and a
host of other lurid behaviors. And while there’s a certain a
of what may be perceived as Mormon bashing going on, the edifying
sixth episode, "Come, Ye Saints," in which the family visits
Mormon landmarks from Utah to New York, features several of the
season’s most moving scenes. --Sam Graham
Big Love: The Complete Fifth Season-There are doses of both good
and bad news accompanying this release of the 10 episodes
comprising the fifth season of the HBO series Big Love. The bad
news is that the fifth season is also the last hurrah for a show
that's rarely been anything less than entertaining. But the good
news is that cocreators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer and their
cast and crew are bowing out with one of their strongest outings;
at the very least, this season is consistently better than the
somewhat haphazard one that preceded it. It's also the least
amusing and most serious, as family patriarch Bill Henrickson
(Bill Paxton), his three wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn as Barb, Chloë
Sevigny as Nicki, and Ginnifer Goodwin as Margene), their kids,
and even their friends and business associates face their
sternest trials yet. Much of that is self-inflicted by the
idealistic and stubborn Bill, who, having previously won a seat
in the Utah state senate, has decided not only to reveal that his
is a family of polygamists (or, as they put it, observers of "the
principle of plural marriage") but also to fight a very uphill
battle for public acceptance of them and their kind. The
consequences are many: since Bill neglected to reveal that little
lifestyle tidbit before, many of those who voted for him,
including employees at his Home Plus store, feel betrayed; he may
be impeached as soon as he takes office; his kids are bullied;
the mainstream Mormon church (a.k.a. the LDS, or Latter Day
Saints) actively shuns the Henricksons; and archenemy Alby Grant
(Matt Ross), Nicki's brother and heir apparent to the late, evil
prophet Roman Grant, has revenge on his agenda. Meanwhile, Marge
loses her gig p products on TV, Barb considers joining a
reform sect that ses polygamy, and Nicki, never a very
appealing character in the first place ("spiteful, jealous, and
mean" is her own description), becomes nastier than ever. Add to
that the specter of jail time for a crime Bill didn't even know
he committed, and you're looking at a tower of tribulation that's
too tall not to fall.
As always, there is a lot going on here, and while each episode
can theoretically stand on its own, newcomers to the series may
have a tough time keeping up, at least at first. But it's worth
the effort. Big Love is beautifully written, acted (others in the
outstanding cast include veterans Bruce Dern, Mary Kay Place,
Grace Zabriskie, and Ellen Burstyn), and realized. It will be
missed. --Sam Graham