Review of Big Love

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Bungion Boy Has Seen Bill Paxton, Chloe Sevigny and Amanda Seyfried in HBO’s Big Bigamy Bigness: BIG LOVE!!

The heir to the Sunday-night slot made prominent by the likes of “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” “The Wire,” “Carnival,” “Deadwood” and “Rome” is “Big Love,” an hourlong about a guy who illegally maintains three wives and three families in three suburban houses right next to each other.

What a cast! Bill “Nothing to Wear!” Paxton! The wives are played by early-‘90s It-Girl Jeanne Tripplehorn (“The Firm,” “Waterworld”), “Broken Flowers” star Chloe Sevigney and Ginnifer Goodwin, perhaps best remembered as Warren Cheswick’s pal Diane on “Ed.” Amanda Seyfried (the ghost of Lily Kane on “Veronica Mars”) plays the teen daughter. Daveigh Chase (the ghost of Samara Morgan in “The Ring”) plays another teen daughter. Throw in Harry Dean Stanton, Bruce Dern, Mary Kay Place and “Cabin Boy” ingenue Melora Walters!

It all comes to HBO in about a month. “Bungion Boy” has details

Hey Herc. Bungion Boy here, making the jump from cinema to the coaxial to bring you some reviews of a new, highly anticipated show from HBO, “Big Love,” which premiers on March 12th. Highly anticipated may be a bit of a stretch, but I think that most anything HBO does these days is met with high expectations, due to their track record. I recently got to see the first four episodes of this series, and what I saw made me want to see a fifth. Some spoilers follow.

The whole dynamic of the show suggests that HBO is trying to fill the gap left by the departure of “Six Feet Under.” Like that show, “Big Love” is a family drama about an unconventional family or in an unconventional environment. I thought “Six Feet Under” started with one of the best first seasons I had ever seen for any show, but every year after that it deteriorated a little, until it finally ended with a fizzle and a portrayal of a family who was no longer just south of ordinary, but rather one that only had over-the-top things happen to them. “Big Love,” I feel, is already better than what “SFU” had become, but of course there is no assurance that it won’t soon run out of ideas like its predecessor. But while I really didn't care during the last two seasons of “SFU,” I really hope this doesn’t.

The ad campaign for this has made clear what the show is about, but has been vague on details. Bill Paxton plays Bill Henrickson, and he’s a polygamist, not a Mormon, but of course comparisons are inevitable. He grew up in a dusty commune with his country bumpkin parents (and I believe there were just the two of them), but he managed to escape that and start life in the city, as the owner of a successful hardware store that’s in the process of becoming a chain. Bill lives with his three wives, in three separate houses that are next to each other on a street in a suburb. He considers himself to be incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful deal, but also feels the stress of marriage three times over, and early on struggles with impotency and experimentation with Viagra. His first wife, Barb, is played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, who in the past I have occasionally liked and often couldn’t stand, but in this she’s really quite good and likable as the oldest, and therefore most take-charge of the wives. Chloe Sevigny is Nicki, wife #2, who when we first see her is fighting an addiction to ordering from catalogues, (there’s a vice that you don’t see shamed enough on TV), and is also from the same commune as Bill and has recently been longing to go back to that simple life. And the adorable Ginnifer Goodwin plays Margene, the newest and youngest wife, who has just had a couple of babies and is still getting used to a situation and responsibility that she feels she might not quite be ready for. She also feels that she’s not getting enough say among the other wives and is treated like another child, while Barb and Nicky feel a little threatened by her, as the youngest and sexiest wife of the bunch. Bill alternates between their beds, spending the night with one and then starting fresh with another the next morning. All three of the wives have given Bill several kids, most prominent is Amanda Seyfried, (from “Veronica Mars” and “Mean Girls,) who is coping with trying to be a normal teen with normal friends, while trying to hide the family’s secret.

Most of the drama around the show looks like it will be centered around the fact that what these people are doing is illegal, and how they will go about protecting each other and not getting found out, while still doing all the normal things that families do. The first few episodes I saw focused on Bill going back to see his family after his brother ( a very good Shawn Doyle who is paired with the always interesting Melora Walters), calls to tell him his father (Bruce Dern) is very sick. When he gets there he starts getting suspicions that his own mother, (a scene stealing Grace Zabriskie) is poisoning him. Bill also has to deal with the head on the commune, played to perfection by Harry Dean Stanton as a tame, religious Tony Soprano who is driven around in a giant Hummer. Stanton is one of the unnamed investors on Bill’s hardware store and wants a piece of the profits when Bill plans to open more stores. Stanton is totally creepy and cool, as a character who is rumored to have had about 50 wives, and whose newest wife is about 14 years old. Seeing the two of them together is both disturbing and fascinating, if only because of the Lynchian tones Stanton is able to bring to his character.

Overall I thought the show was pretty great and well worth watching. I believe it’s airing opposite “Desperate Housewives,” and probably panders to much of the same audience, but this is much better, richer, and more interesting. Paxton is perfect as the patriarch of the household. He’s funny but also warm and believable as this man who has to be in control of all aspects of his life, otherwise it could all fall apart. All three women are also great, with good chemistry and scenes together, although I sometimes tired of Sevigny’s whining and complaining, which she does a lot of. Goodwin was probably my favorite of the three, and the most interesting in watching deal with all the complications one would encounter in this situation, since the other two women are very settled into their roles as co-wives. All the supporting cast, more people than I can begin to mention are great too, and I look forward to more stories involving them, including Bill’s polygamist buddy and his three wives, Nicki’s mother, played by Mary Kay Place, and Bill’s daughter’s new friend who is strongly opposed to polygamy, played by Tina Majorino.

There are characters and situations that will appeal to almost every demographic, so I’m hoping this becomes a big hit for HBO. I haven’t heard much yet in regards to protests of this show, probably from Mormons, but HBO seems to avoid controversy better than other networks, and seems to be one step ahead this time with a disclaimer before each show specifically declaring that the characters are not Mormon. I really hope there isn’t too much protest because that sort of thing is really getting out of hand. Last month NBC premiered “The Book of Daniel,” which was not a great show, but deserved a better chance than what it got. If any of the people who spoke out against the show had bothered to watch it, they would have seen a show about a good priest who loves his family and “prays” to Jesus. Sounds fine to me. Oh wait. That’s right. He loves his gay son in addition to his family. Sadly the people behind the outcries of the show were never identified as the homophobic *beep* they were. Well “Big Love” is a much better show and I hope it has a much longer future ahead. No reason why it shouldn’t. Does anyone in Utah even subscribe to HBO? I kid because I love.