Big Love, Season One (2006)

Our rating: 2 out of 5

Rated: TVMA

Reviewer: Charity Bishop

The humorous catchphrase of this series is "Polygamy loves company," which is an easy introduction for the premise of this popular and highly rated HBO series...

Bill Hendrickson (Bill Paxton) has a marvelous life. He has just launched a successful second store in the franchise he intends to create to compete with Lowes. He lives a fairly good life in a fine neighborhood, and has seven children of whom he is extremely proud. But one thing sets him apart from the rest of his neighbors on the outskirts of Salt Lake City: he has three wives. Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is a part-time substitute teacher who helps bring in the money. Nicolette (Chloë Sevigny) is far more conservative and has a knack for fixing things when they go wrong, whether it is a washing machine or a toaster. And then there's Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin). The latest addition to their family, she's in her early twenties, new to motherhood, was not raised in the lifestyle, and is thought of as immature by her Sister Wives. Since bigamy is illegal in Utah, the Hendricksons have to be cautious in their lifestyle, in who they invite over for lunch, and in keeping servicemen out of the house in case they notice the adjoining backyards.

Along with the niceness of having live-in babysitters whenever one wife has to run an errand also comes the inevitable female power struggle. Bill is kept pretty busy running back and forth between the houses, spending one night here, another there, all according to the schedule the women have worked out. This is about as complicated as he wants his life, but little does he know that his decision to branch out into a bigger business is going to have dire consequences. Having abandoned the Compound where he grew up and over which his grandfather presided as the Prophet, Bill made the mistake early on in his business of becoming financially involved with Nicolette's father, Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton), the new leader of the Compound, who believes he deserves a fifteen percent interest in the new store. Bill disagrees, sparking a bitter rivalry between them. Then there's the question of who poisoned his father, and whether or not Bill's embittered mother was involved...

Then there are the older children -- Sarah (Amanda Seyfried) struggles with her father's decision to embrace a polygamist lifestyle and is not sure how she feels about it. Her growing friendship with a more conservative Mormon girl who just happens to find out the truth further conflicts her about whether or not what her father and "mothers" are doing is right. And Ben (Douglas Smith) is trying to find a balance between his hormones, his faith, and his girlfriend wanting more than he is willing to give. As you can imagine, Big Love throws a lot of moral questions at its audience. It shows both the ups and downs, the likes and dislikes, and above all, the difficulties of the individuals who have chosen to embrace the "fundamentalist lifestyle" of Mormonism. Modern day Mormons may or may not be offended by it, but for me it was fascinating to get a rare glimpse into a Compound lifestyle, which is depicted as being very demeaning to women, embracing underage marriage (a fourteen year old is promised to a seventy-six year old as his fifteenth wife!), and including a lot of threats, intimidation tactics, and underhanded business arrangements.

It also shows the downside of having multiple wives -- these women love one another, but at times cannot stand living next door to each other. Each one has attributes that drives the other two nuts, so often it is a sequence of events in which two of them talk about a third behind their back. It does not glamorize the lifestyle but all the same, the audience becomes very fond of these women and their individual struggles. Barb wants to be more than her secret life will allow her to be; Nicolette is struggling with immense credit card debts that her husband knows nothing about and fear over whether or not Bill will abandon her like her father would have in his shoes; Margene is having a hard time being the youngest and therefore not having much say in anything. The older children also suffer from living such a secret lifestyle, and in the case of Sarah, not particularly liking it. Those are the positives of the series, along with a great opening sequence and terrific acting. (The opening credits, if you are familiar with Mormonism theology, depict the basis for polygamy -- that in order to obtain a kingdom on another planet after death, a man must have several adoring wives. It shows their union as four parts but individuals, as a collective unit, them passing through purgatory, and finally winding up living eternally together on their own planet.)

Unfortunately, there are also some negatives that prevent this from being recommendable, namely sexual content and nudity, which is more prevalent in the first several episodes but do pervade later ones as well. There are eight or so actual sex scenes (including a really awkward one between Ben and his girlfriend -- their "first time"), three of which include partial nudity in some form; all of them are graphic. There's additional nudity in seeing Ben's backside a half dozen times in bedroom contexts; we see a woman's bare breasts from the side. Toddlers run around naked on one occasion. Other times, we overhear lovemaking -- Margene can be especially loud (which annoys the Sister Wives). Bill and Barb sneak out to spend time with one another in hotel rooms, without the other women's knowledge. One subplot that I found particularly vulgar and irritating revolves around Ben maturing; there are quite a few references in it to erections. Bill pops Viagra on a regular basis. Margene wears a lot of short skirts and bathrobes, once prompting Barb to call her out on it around her teenage son (Margene and Ben have a playful relationship that sometimes borders on flirting). We briefly see a photograph of an inverted testicle (after someone has kicked a man there). There is not much bad language -- just three f-words. Bill's father has a problem with peeing in the sink, so several times we overhear him urinating.

Mormon teachings are implied but not discussed much in outright terms except for on a couple of occasions. You don't need an enormous amount of knowledge of that religion to follow along, but it does help to know the basics -- both of modern-day Mormonism and some of its fundamentalist views. The characters often reference prayer or are seen praying, talk about repentance and salvation, and use the name of Jesus in reverent ways. Ben does sleep with his girlfriend but repents and asks the Lord to restore his virginity and virtue. Life on the Compound is shown in a brutally honest light -- multiple wives, all of whom live in relative amounts of poverty (except for the Elders' families) and range in age from older women to teenagers. Barb shows contempt over the practice of marriage between children and adults (some of the wives are as young as fifteen). Nicolette reveals that women have no choice in whom they marry, and indeed, are treated like breeding stock.

My feelings toward this series are divided. On one hand, I like the characters and think it's a well written show that is brutally honest about its subject material. The message is that families can and should work through their differences and support one another, but also that ultimately, it is one man and one woman in God's plan for our lives. Bill's brother tells him that he doesn't think he will adopt a similar lifestyle, in spite of living on the Compound, because one wife is all he ever wants. However, I also think HBO could have held back on the sexual content and nudity. It adds nothing and will rightfully dissuade more conservative audiences from taking a glimpse into the inner workings of the Commune.