Movie Square

I first decided to watch Big Love because I was curious to learn about the subject of polygamy. It is something as a women who could never share a man, intrigued me. Why and how would any woman want to do that?

The show confirmed for me the polygamy doesn’t work and isn’t an honest option for a healthy relationship. However none the less the show is always entertaining and very much like a soap opera. Every episodes linked to the next and leaving the viewing wanting more. I highly recommend buying the shows, you won’t be disappointed.
Rating: 5 / 5

These are outlaw Mormons in this series. I didn’t realize this until I had seen enough episodes of BIG LOVE. I erroneously thought that those Mormons living lawfully, one husband and wife only, are tolerant of polygamous Mormons. No, the lawful Mormons are the first to turn the outlaws in to the authorities and or to shun them upon discovery. I also did not realize that the outlaw Mormons view their polygamous lifestyles as part of their religious hereafter planning. They all plan on being reunited in the hereafter and being together in the large family they have built together. That is why being fruitful and multiplying so many times is important.

I keep watching this show every season even though I find these characters infuriating. Most infuriating is the effect this lifestyle has on their children. It’s not so bad when they are young but when they become teens, any decisions they want to make about their own futures and lifestyles are stomped on because they have to follow in these polygamous footsteps. Talk about being in a straight jacket for life!

Salt Lake City businessman Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) is our polygamist in chief and he usually drives me absolute bats. Servicing this guy, in any sense of the word, is a full time job for every other character. One must be a huge egomaniac to occupy this position. Anything less than having full egomania and you would be forced to find yourself insufferable. When I am about to hurl something through my tv screen at his his head, I do remember though that he was brought up on an outlaw Mormon compound with a guru head and totally insane parents. Compared to them he is a model of decorum and the placid lifestyle. His entire business will collapse if he is discovered to be an outlaw polygamous Mormon. No one who is not one of these will patronize his business. So everyone faces complete financial ruin on a daily basis too.

Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is his original wife. This means all of her children are legitimate but she has two other houses attached to her house with two other wives and their children. This is not what she signed on for and she has lost her entire family of mother, sister and sister’s children as a result of her husband’s outlaw election. Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) are the other two wives. Their children are illegitimate and can not be seen in public with their father as it would blow their cover.

In this third season, Bill, incredibly enough, starts dating a fourth woman whom he wants to make his fourth wife. Bill doesn’t believe in affairs or pre-marital sex. No, it is marriage or nothing for him. This fourth recruitment of a wife particularly infuriated me and I was grousing at the set, “Why can’t you go out and have an affair like a normal person?”

This “moralist” also is trying to get in on the casino gambling business and out of his other consumer products business. Reason? No one in the gambling business cares how he leads his life and if they discover his lifestyle, nothing bad will happen financially.

This is another series, like WEEDS, which I would love to grade down. However, if I have watched three full seasons, got so engrossed that I felt like throwing something through the tv set, then I suspect I must be enjoying it. HBO has done it to me again, I’m afraid, hooked me in for the duration with these outlaw Mormons.
Rating: 4 / 5