Big Love: The Complete First Season
by Derek Neff

      HBO subscribers have had the opportunity to enjoy episodes of "Big Love" for about a year now, but now that the entire first season has been released on DVD, the rest of us finally get a chance to see what the buzz is all about.

      "Big Love" may not quite have the built-in mass appeal of "The Sopranos" or "Six Feet Under," but I would argue it is every bit as good. Like those two shows, the writing is top-notch, the acting is second to none and the production values are Hollywood-caliber. With 12 one-hour episodes now at your disposal, you can immerse yourself in the world of the Hendrickson family at your own pace, choosing either to savor one episode at a time over a period of several weeks or to gobble up several in one night.

      The Hendricksons are in many ways a normal American family. Bill Hendrickson (Bill Paxton) owns a local home supply store and has hopes of expanding his business. He lives in the suburbs near Salt Lake City with a beautiful wife, several kids, an SUV and (it turns out) considerable debts that must be addressed. Actually, Bill doesn't have a beautiful wife, he has three beautiful wives. Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), as Bill's first (and legal) wife, is the "boss lady" of the bunch. She manages the finances and the, um, logistics of the living arrangements. Nicky (Chloλ Sevigny), the second wife, dresses

conservatively, looks as if she has just eaten the world's most sour lemon and has a terrible secret: $58,000 in credit card debts that she can't even begin to pay off. Nicky's father is Roman Grant (played with reptilian glee by Harry Dean Stanton), the head "prophet" at Juniper Creek, home for a sect of renegade Mormons who still subscribe to the church's original polygamist views. (The Mormon church officially disavowed the practice of polygamy a long time ago, of course.)

      The youngest wife is Margene (Gennifer Goodwin). Margene just recently moved into her own home – Bill has three adjacent houses, one for each wife and their children – with her two young children. Despite her cheerful demeanor, she feels somewhat isolated. She feels condescended to by her two older "sisterwives" and is strongly discouraged from becoming friends with the friendly new woman down the street. (The family must protect its secret, after all; even in the state of Utah where it is still covertly practiced, polygamy is strictly illegal.)

      We also get to know Bill's children, especially the two oldest ones, teenagers Sarah (Amanda Seyfried) and Ben (Douglas Smith), who each have problems of their own.

      To outsiders, the most compelling and curious facet of polygamy is probably the sexual one. What are the sleeping arrangements? Do the wives get jealous of each other? Does Bill prefer one of the women over the others? Does he ever have, um, performance problems in the face of such busy-ness? The series directly addresses these issues in the first few episodes, effectively clearing the way for somewhat deeper and more emotionally complicated issues in later episodes. (In answer to that last question, one episode is entitled "Viagra Blue.")

      Bill's parents (played by veterans Grace Zabriskie and Bruce Dern) still live on the Juniper Creek compound, under the thumb of villainous Roman Grant. Bill is still so enmeshed in their messy lives that he finds himself occasionally going back to the compound to get them out of trouble, even though he himself fell away from the sect years ago. The only problem is that Bill once signed an agreement with Roman – who has 14 wives himself, including, creepily enough, a 15-year old girl (played by Daveigh Chase) whose tantrums must be indulged by everyone else on the compound lest they suffer Roman's wrath – promising Roman 15 percent of all future revenues in exchange for help in starting up his first store. Now that he has paid Roman back in full several times over, Bill wishes to break away from further financial ties with Roman, but Roman – acting more like a mafia don than a religious leader – resorts to intimidation, break-ins, litigation and even escalating threats of violence in reaction to Bill's refusal to pay up.

      The further into the series you get the richer the material reveals itself to be. There are enough intertwined loyalties, conflicts and complications here for several seasons of top-notch entertainment. (As of this writing, Season 2 hasn't yet begun, though there are rumors that the series will resume in the spring of 2007.) What's up with the couple across the street? Who is going to pay off Nicky's credit card bills? What about the nosey anti-polygamist secretary at the store? And what in the world is up with Roman's creepy son Alby (Matt Ross)?

      The cast is nothing short of amazing. Only HBO could bring together such seasoned talent for a little ol' TV series. Bill Paxton is pitch-perfect as Bill Hendrickson. Paxton's strongest asset as an actor is his ability to bring a certain amiable normalcy to the most bizarre of circumstances. (Remember Frailty? How about Traveller?) On the face of it, a story about a man with three wives stretches our willingness to believe in or approve of such an unorthodox arrangement, but Sevigny, Tripplehorne and Goodwin, as Bill's wives, all do such a magnificent job of giving the women enough heart, strength, intelligence, and wit that we come to admire and enjoy the company of each of these women, none of whom are the meek subservient types you might be picturing.

      Series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer neither condone nor repudiate the polygamist lifestyle, though it's hard to believe that anyone, having watched Season 1, will come away believing that plural marriage isn't, at the very least, a highly problematic arrangement. "Big Love" is sure to provoke discussion and debate, and to inspire an almost breathless enthusiasm in its fans. Take the plunge and see for yourself.

Copyright 2006 Ad Media Inc.