Big Love: Season One

I have been married for over 32 years and have one daughter. Completely with love I have to state that one wife is more than enough. While many men may consider polygamy to be some sort of fantasy come true the fact one wife is usually more than we men can handle. The HBO series ‘Big Love’ considers the life of a man who has three wives and seven children. Although there is a religious rationale for this HBO is careful to state with every episode that this in no way reflects the beliefs or practices of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more popularly known as Mormons. They banned polygamy in the 1890’s and the people depicted here are not part of their religion. There is a splinter group of reformed practitioners referred as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints which does still engage in polygamy as well as several other behaviors shown in this series. This series no more reflects Later Day Saints then the Sopranos is representative of Italian-Americans. Technically,. The practice shown in this series is polygyny, a man with more than one wife as opposed to polyandry, a woman with multiple husbands. The term polygamy is actually more general referring to having more than one spouse at a time. In any case this series is typical of HBO, offering a novel twist on standard themes.

To anyone meeting him Utah resident Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) seems like a typical kind of guy. He owns a very popular hardware and home fixtures store which is so successful that he s about to open a second. People know Bill has a wife named Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) who has given him three wonderful children, Sara (Amanda Seyfried), Ben (Douglas Smith) and ‘Teeny’ (Jolean Wejbe). Bill and Barb are especially close to their next door neighbors Nikki Grant (Chloë Sevigny) and Margene Heffman (Ginnifer Goodwin), both single mothers with two children each. What the outside world is unaware of is Bill is married to all three women and all of the children are his. The only one in the community who knows about Bill is his best friend and business partner, Don Embry (Joel McKinnon Miller) who is also a polygynist. One of the main themes of the series is the social structure of this atypical household. Barb is the first or head wife. She is the public face of the family and is legally married to Bill. She must act as the family manager meeting with the two sister-wives to allocate time and family resources. While Bill is the head of the family and patriarch it is up to Barb to keep the households running smoothly. The second wife Nikki came from the same community that Bill grew up in, the Juniper Creek Compound. In this community polygyny is just the way things are. Nikki is the daughter of the community’s leader, the prophet Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton). Nikki’s main problem is living within the budget set by Barb. Nikki has accumulated almost $60,000 in credit card debt. Having grown up as the daughter of the prophet Nikki is used to being special. Making the transition to second wife does not come easily for her. The third and youngest wife is Maregene. She was not brought up in the polygamous life style but was the babysitter for Bill’s children. She is sweet almost to a fault. She is constantly looking for approval from Barb and friendship from Nikki. Since responsibility like mud flows downhill more than her share of responsibility for the kids and household errands falls on Margene. As such she is often frazzled and distracted adding to her ditzy image. The effects of the living arrangements extend to the children, especially the older ones. Eldest daughter Sara is like any teenager trying to fit in. She has an after school job at a local restaurant where she met Heather Tuttle (Tina Majorino), a devote Later Day Saint. Sara has told Heather about her situation but the two are able to keep the secret intact. Sara may have been a child of polygamy but she has decided that it is not for her. Ben is about a year younger than Sara and is also trying to fit in with friends at school. Most are Later Day Saints and there is some social pressure to join their youth ministry. Ben is also at the age where a girlfriend is very important and his family situation is not conducive to bringing a girl home. As if having three wives is not enough source for conflict and drama Bill’s problems extend far beyond the walls of his three adjoining homes. In order to obtain start up capital for his first store Bill made a deal with Roman. The agreement was for Bill to make payments back to Roman and the United Effort Brotherhood (UEB) the quasi-legal arm of the Juniper Creek commune. When it is discovered that Bill is prepared to open a second store Roman feels that the initial agreement extends to its profits. Bill’s refusal to capitulate to Roman’s demands results in legal and personal harassment by Roman and his creepy son-slash-enforcer Alby (Matt Ross). There has been a long standing feud between Roman and Bill’s father Frank (Bruce Dern). This takes the family feud back a generation and almost impossible to resolve. Bill and Barb try their best to make peace between the clans, keep the world from knowing their family arrangements and keep the two younger wives happy. By the middle of the first season Bill is moving away from Viagra and on to Zoloft. After all a man can only take so much.

When I first read the cast for this series I couldn’t believe just how many of my favorite actors were to be regulars. Bill Paxton has grown over the years to one of the best character actors around. He has now transitioned to one of the most interesting leading men in the business. He has a way of playing any character with an everyday man feel. Even in a situation like this the audience can sympathize with Bill’s plight. Paxton works on bring out Bill’s backs story to help us understand just how he came to be in his current predicaments. Jeanne Tripplehorn is great as the senior wife Barb. Nicknamed ‘Boss Lady’ by Nikki, Tripplehorn’s character is also one that we can identify with easily. Barb had cancer which resulted in a hysterectomy. Since she couldn’t give Bill any more children she agreed to the multiple wives. She is completely devoted to Bill and really loves her children and sister wives. Tripplehorn shows Barb as a woman caught in a difficult situation having to manage this complex and secretive family. Chloë Sevigny has been taking odd little roles since her first appearance in Kids. She has a knack of playing unusual characters in a empathic manner. Nikki is like many young women, not ready for the responsibility of two small children and seduced by the lure of credit card offers. She is almost always ready to get Margene to watch her kids while she goes shopping. Ginnifer Goodwin is a real delight to watch here. She is just now coming into well deserved public recognition of her talents. Her portrayal of Margene is touching. She is barely older than Barb’s eldest, Sara and tries to relate to both her and Ben as peers instead of a secondary or tertiary mom. She wants to be friends in neighbors who are mainstream Later Day Saints but it is not good for the family. When stressed she has been know to revert to some of her mannerisms of pre-married life such as sneaking a cigarette or two. There is one little casting trivia to note; Tina Majorino who plays Heather portrayed Jeanne Tripplehorn’s little girl in ‘Waterworld’.

HBO released the first season on DVD with the usual high standards. While this release is a bit on the plain vanilla side the audio and video is fantastic. The anamorphic 1.78:1 video is nicely done with excellent color balance and tonality. The Dolby 5.1 audio is full and rich. The speakers work well together to give a realistic feel to the sound stage. There are less than the usual HBO extras provided here. They do have a couple of standard commentaries and a making of featurette but that is about it. This is what HBO is best at, taking typical situations and presenting them in a way you may never have thought about. This series show family problems unlike any previous series has dare to. It is well acted and written and no matter what you think of the subject matter is exceptional television.

Posted 10/22/06