First Impressions - Big Love

Thanks to the HBO free weekend, I got to check out the first two episodes of their latest series, Big Love which follows a rouge polygamist living in secret with his three wives and seven children. The show stars Bill Paxton (Twister) as Bill, a guy who grew among a polygamist compound but was kicked out as a kid and forced to fend for himself. But instead of going far away from those that booted him, Paxton gets himself three wives who live in consecutive houses and whose backyard is starting to look a lot like the compound he left.

Wife number one, Barb, or boss lady as the others like to call her, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn (Waterworld), is the most stable one in the family, someone that everyone looks up to, so it’s pretty clear she will have a mental breakdown by the end of the season. Then there’s Nicki, number two played by Chloë Sevigny (The Brown Bunny), who, even though she seems to be the most Mormon of the bunch, is addicted to shopping. The latest wife, who seemed to be straight from a sorority house, Margene as played by Ginnifer Goodwin whom I will always remember as Diane Snyder on Ed and seems to get more and more attractive on everything she does.

As for the children, the only one of note is Amanda Seyfried, better know as the late Lilly Kane, as the eldest Hendrickson who doesn’t seem to fond of her living situation with the two extra moms. And she isn’t the only Veronica Mars alum to show up either as she quickly befriend new co-worker played by computer nerd Mac who morphs herself Mormon nerd. Then there’s Beaver, who may be sporting an “I (Heart) Dick” shirt on the show in later episodes because I sensed a in the closet gay vibe from his character as Lilly’s brother’s friend.

And the cast just keeps expanding, as the name of the show suggests, as we also get to meet Bill’s eccentric mom and half dead father who has been poisoned with arsenic. Both Bill and pa finger mom, but it seems pretty obvious to me that it was done by compound prophet Roman (Harry Dean Stanton) who just also happens to Nicki’s father. And to add to the creepy factor, Roman, who’s pushing sixty, has just married a chick who just reached her teenage years played appropriately enough by the creepy chick from The Ring.

Now the thought of a polygamist family would make for good television as it would be three times the laugh, but here is the big problem with Big Love, it’s still a Mormon family. Mormons are really known for being all that interesting. I don’t mean that in a bad way as Mormons are the nicest people I have never met but nice doesn’t make for the best TV. If fact the most interesting part of the show is totally stolen from it’s lead in, The Sopranos, with the Roman extorting his son-in-law out of 15% of all the money he makes. But having The Beach Boys God Only Knows as a theme song is pretty cool.

Verdict: It’s interesting, especially with all the Veronica Mars connections, and Goodwin is captivating, but Big Love is definitely not worth the subscription to HBO to see, but definitely worth checking out the DVD is, or when, it comes out if you don’t already subscribe.