Big Love: is anyone watching this?

they get the language right (best example in pop cult ive witnessed, lds language is really difficult to gloss, the grammar as well as the slang is different, and they got the pious, and the derisive really well ), they are really good at the difference b/w polygymists in salt lake city or provo or st george (though this could be any of those three places, the exurban tendencies are part of the point and places near the az border (cf under the banner of heaven), they get arguements about worldiness, and isolation right, and its not exactly explotive...but im not sure i feel comfortable w.it.

I don't think the show will hold much longlasting appeal for me. It's basically just a soap opera. I did think the first two sex scenes were done really well, though... not that they were that erotic, but they just seemed pretty real/honest.

did anyone think that the scene with roman on the bed with (chloe sevigny's character, whose name I now forget) was supposed to look a little unseemly? my wife thought so, but I thought it was just meant to show Bill's worry that his wife still has sympathies with her father.

how unseemly were we meant to find Roman on the bed with this daughter?

I think the implication is there that they had done it before, which is probably why Nicki is such a fucking freak! Her dad/lover is king cult leader! These people really act like mormons I have known, too, despite the fact that mormons officially gave up polygamy long ago. It's really weird how good the kids' acting is.

It is sort of baffling to me, and even moreso last night when Bill had that talk about polygamy with his son, how we are supposed to believe this pretty normal suburban dude truly believes his lifestyle is 'the right', enough to encourage his son to pursue it. I mean, I find Bill kind of unconvincing when he talks all hardcore religious b/c he is such a very reasonable man, a trait that I don't normally associate with zealots of any sort.

like did anyone notice she lied twice in last night's episode?

1.) she's trying to have a baby, supposedly, but is taking the birth control pill
2.) while bill was banging her she kept saying "give me a boy!! give me a boy!' but then she told barb she was praying for a girl.

the thing I didn't totally get was when her brother told her she was "collateral" for the loan Roman gave Bill. I'm not seeing how that would work in Roman's favor.

Maybe no one would marry her?

I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to see this as an advertisement for polygamist cults.

the family is hardly of one mind on the polygamist business.

Yes, that's really a thoughtful touch.

Just caught up with this on On-demand. It's pretty engaging, especially with all the great acting in it. I also really dig the sexual tension between Ben (the oldest son) and Margie (the youngest wife) - and the yuxx they get out of it, like dressing the girl who pressures him into sex in the same torn denim mini as Margie.

I can sort of imagine the pitch for this at HBO: It's family drama where they're involved in this sleazy subculture, like the Sopranos! Only its all waspy and lily-white and flyover, so's to attract more red-state business. Plus, all the sex and violence but no cursing or drugs! I do think that they've gone nicely enough in their own direction with it, though, especially with the big twin theme of keeping secrets and familial jealousy, and smaller 'relatable, relevant' subthemes like prescription drugs and personal debt. Anyway, I'm hooked enough to keep watching, and since the second season hits the air next week I thought I'd see what ILX has had to say on it.

We also did the On-Demand thing in the middle of last season and got super-hooked. I love the show - the acting is so great, and I like how my attitude toward the different characters changed over time. For example, Chloe Sevigny's character starts out so unsympathetic, but started to win me over toward the end of the season. I also like how there is a rich history of the family that they are doling out very slowly. Kind of like Lost, but without the clumsy flashbacks. I also like how Bill starts to seem less likable toward the end of the season - I had a couple of "oh yeah - this guy IS a frickin' polygamist!" moments where the self-servingness of his "lifestyle" starts to peek through.

this show made me reconsider my hatred of sevigny. still kind of hate her, just not as much as before.

She sure is hateable on the show, but casting her as the prairie-dressed cultural conservative (uh-sorta?) who is nevertheless a total crackhead for malls, catalogs and HSN was a pretty brilliant move. This must have been cast right after the Brown Bunny furor, right?

When Alby shows up late one night and Nicky stares him down, you realize that she is the real rock in the family. She's a nut, and a basket-case, but she is the one who truly believes in their arrangement, and the one who would fight to keep them together.

The first episode of this was on last night on Australian tv. It was pretty good.

She sure is hateable on the show, but casting her as the prairie-dressed cultural conservative (uh-sorta?) who is nevertheless a total crackhead for malls, catalogs and HSN was a pretty brilliant move.
totally.

Pretty good, but I think I would've preferred to watch Life On Mars

bump for Season 2 premiere.

i forgot to watch it this week after liking the first episode a lot.

Harry Dean Stanton singing "Blue Hawaii" over the closing credits!

I felt so bad for Margie this week.

I like how quixotic his mission is - he wants to get his polygamy accepted by the world at large, and he's ignoring the one place - Juniper - where he could actually be accepted.

Whoa, Chloe Sevigny on Fresh Air right now

wow! great finale imo

So, next season picks up a couple of years later....Bill never stepped foot in the Leg -- they wouldn't seat him. He is out of jail and back in Juniper Creek with only Nikki. Margene and Barb stayed back at the house(s). The season details his struggle to wrest control of Juniper Creek from an increasingly unhinged Alby while trying to bring everyone back together. Just total batshittery.

Wait, is that fact, or speculation? And if fact... aw man, why you do that to me?

totally great finale, and btw...

i guess i thought itd be something more baroque? something involving incest/inbreeding and wanda? my gf thinks his son is giving nikki depo shots -- is that clear?

xp im okay with tommy and barb having a confusing and sweat-lodgy time, but i hope it doesnt become a full-scale scandal? feels too formulaic now after nikki and margene had their kisses...

― 69, Tuesday, March 2, 2010 10:11 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark

just sayin ;D

Xpost. Relax, it was purely conjecture. But I was thinking that with the polygamy, insurance fraud and using casino funds to support Don now that he became the scapegoat (and why Don is not jail now I have no idea), Bill is going to do some time unless he works something out with the feds on blowing apart Juniper Creek and the compound in Kansas.

I totally thought that Bil was going to lose, pull out of the race or win and not make the polygamy speech. Gotta hand it the writers for going there.

Sorry for the poor spelling/missing words in that last post.

i think u spelled everything right

i was kind of upset when that couple was creeping on Margene.

i wanted bill to show up and go all tetherball gangster on that dude again.

omg i loved that scene so hard

both the tetherball and the one w ana and goran and margene.

SPOILERS IN THIS POST

using casino funds to support Don

Ok the writers should have dealt with this immediately. For like, what, five episodes, I kept wondering how (if???) Bill was going to compensate Don for taking the fall. Right off the bat, Bill should have said "yo, take the fall and I'll use casino funds to compensate you." It was sloppy to wait this long for that reveal.

Also, how on earth did Adaleen tie up JJ and his wife, esp. with Bill there? Did Bill (and an increasingly conscious Nicky?) help? I doubt it but still I wanted that to be fleshed out a bit more. I'm not digging how the writers seem to brush away over-the-top stories in this manner, e.g., the Mexico standoff with The Greens. Ben mentioned it once and now it seems as if it never happened. Did it even impact their lives?

In general, though, waaaaaaaaaaaay intense season and lotsa fun. Almost unbearable at points.

Predictions:

Alby goes left-wing, gay rights psycho

The casino and the hardware store suffer but closet polygamists happy about Bill's announcement purchase mega stock to keep the businesses afloat

And I'm assuming that Ana and dude are fucking with Margene so they can stay in the country. So they might amp up a threeway situation towards that goal.

Right off the bat, Bill should have said "yo, take the fall and I'll use casino funds to compensate you." It was sloppy to wait this long for that reveal.

I just took it as read that Bill would be supporting Don's family in some way, and that would probably involve funds from Bill's businesses. Did the show leave you assuming that Bill would leave Don penniless?

The thing with the Greens, though, yeah. Bill doesn't tell his family the details until he absolutely has to, eg his brother offing Nikki's dad. So I thought he would just be vague about it. But wasn't there a scene in which Ben is at the house talking about being held in a cage?

A lot of stuff happened offscreen here, which usually bugs me - Barb's calling the press, Bill doing away with Tommy - which merited some kind of scene. I assume they were cut for time ...

Loved the threesome implication because of the obliviousness to the similarity with Bill's marriage(s).

Now that they've reached a peak of insanity with the finale I have no idea what's going to happen. I really liked that Bill not only won but gave the speech - for four seasons the show's been about AVOIDING EXPOSURE and now it's a totally different show.

I think the Greens would make excellent lobbyists.

The speech is brutal - Bill pained, wives stunned, public confused, complete silence, total anticlimax

I'm not digging how the writers seem to brush away over-the-top stories in this manner, e.g., the Mexico standoff with The Greens. Ben mentioned it once and now it seems as if it never happened. Did it even impact their lives?

This pretty much sums up my problem with this season. And yes, there was a brief scene where Ben discussed this after the fact. But...he almost got executed. You'd think this would have some lasting psychological ramifications or something, yeah? So much insanity has taken place this season only to be sorta brushed aside as inconsequential. This from a show that made Nikki's credit card debt a major conflict in the first season.

Yeah and THAT was a story I really wanted to see more of! (LOVED Suze Orman in that: "Nikki, I am mad at YOU!")

I just took it as read that Bill would be supporting Don's family in some way, and that would probably involve funds from Bill's businesses. Did the show leave you assuming that Bill would leave Don penniless?

It left me period which is not what I call good writing (on a show like this; this isn't art cinema where ambiguity has a significant structural presence). But I'm glad they took up the thread later.

this season was a total mess, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I hope righteousmaelstrom is correct with his/her theories about next season. this show doesn't need to be on a grand scale. I wouldn't mind if it were, like, 75% Juniper Creek politics and backstabbing, and 25% outside world plots, to be honest.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/03/26/chloe-sevigny-slams-big-love-awful/

the whole AVCLUB interview that stuff is from is great.

She is right though, this season really went a bit insane with its leaps..

the whole AVCLUB interview that stuff is from is great.

― dan selzer, Friday, March 26, 2010 4:11 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

i enjoyed it & think she's rad, but thought it got kinda ridiculous when the 'what's it like always being asked about the same shit' angle segued into 'so, the brown bunny ... what's with that'

I guess I can see what she's saying, even though I love the show. The insanity keeps ramping to the point where you can't really see human beings in there, they start to become cartoons. In a way I'm perversely impressed that they took it as far as they did.

Maybe in a way Barb is kind of lampshading the insanity/being the voice of the audience by wanting to bail from the marriage.

"I want for us to move back to the compound, because the compound is what interests me as a viewer, and as an actress, I’m more interested in what’s happening over there. I’d prefer for us to go back to the compound and (Bill) take over (as prophet), like my character wanted."

Weird, this is what I was hoping would happen. I thought they were setting this up with all the people hovering around Bill telling him he should do this.

I totally had said what she said, about how it seemed like they rushed the season, put so much in there that major events happened in a flash and the ending seemed like a finale for the show. This could have easily been two full seasons.

I need to catch up on the last 8 or so episodes of the last season, as the new one starts on Jan. 16 and it will be its last.

omg! omg! I can watch it in real time for once!!

and by 'real time,' i mean RIGHT NOW!

i found this episode to be reallly tedious.

was wondering whether to bother picking this back up for the final season, but that is not the season premiere review that is going to compel me to watch. was really down on this show last season, so it's no surprise that it is continuing to suck.

yeah it basically feels like they left off last season mid-season and the premiere was just another mid-season episode.

i feel like i'll watch just because i want to have finished the series but...

Yeah I probably will, too

I saw the first few of last season, gave up, saw the finale last week and am really intending on going through the rest of the run. Not bothered to watch the premiere yet though. I hope it makes good on its potential now that it knows it is ending. Although I probably won't be happy unless the wives and kids completely revolt and tell Bill he's a misogynistic asshole.

GF said, after watching how amped-up and over-the-top that episode was, "This is starting to get like 'Weeds'", which is a bad thing. I kinda agree with her.

We dropped HBO to save money and figure we'll catch with this show on iTunes or DVD when it comes out, though we don't have high hopes for it being great. Now I won't look at this thread again until we finally do watch it.

"we" being you and you wives?

i can't believe this show has been on for like five years now, yikes

Seriously, fuck this season. Cannot wait for it to end. I'm almost watching it out of habit. So unbelievable and soapy.

The politics stuff is just breathtakingly stupid. The writers have obviously never stepped into a state capitol building before.

even now it's kind of hard to turn my back on this show. it was so good for the first twos season! i vowed to never watch again halfway through last season, but the finale was so bonkers that i'd probably still be watching it if it wasn't for the negativity on this thread.

insanity rollercoaster, this show!

well, how about that.

Soap opera end to a soap opera show.

I thought the scene of the three of them in the Mini was heartbreaking, it would have been nice to end it right at that point and let the viewer imagine how everything would have unravelled. It's as if they couldn't be bothered to actually resolve any of the plot threads so they just shut off the plot-driving device (Bill's relentless ambition).

On one level, I like how it ended being just the wives because that was what the show was best at. Mostly I feel like it was a cop-out. Bill was never a great character in the way that Tony Soprano was, but there were a lot of interesting things they could have said about him but didn't. I think the creators had a different moral take on him than I did, though.

I also feel like that scene in the senate where they talk about the ways in which polygamy has been good for women was cheap. I seem to remember reading some years ago that the creators wanted it to be an allegory for gay marriage, or at least the gay experience of being an outcast when it came to notions of love and family, but the two aren't remotely equivalent.

There were some good scenes in this episode though, and even if the last two seasons have been pretty poor, I enjoyed watching this one.

Extremely disappointing. It felt so truncated and tossed-off. And what exactly happened to Alby?

I kept thinking that they had so many story lines they needed to tie up when what happened with Bill happened, I thought that's one way to wrap it all up and probably the best way. I was hoping they weren't going to have any more scenes in the legislature in the last episode, but oh well might as well give us more proof the writers don't know shit about legislative process. I'm glad the series is over -- the last season was so flawed.

xpost to polygamy being used as an allegory to gay marriage. My wife makes me watch that terrible Sister Wives show (don't watch it, it's fucking gross) and they use a lot of the same buzzwords and reasoning that people do about legalizing gay marriage.

alright, i came to this show late to the game & only know have i watched the first four seasons. first season was a bit boring but solid, second and third were pretty good. the fourth, however, was ridiculous & not in a good way. i'm wondering whether i should stick it through the fifth season when it becomes available on DVD -- any thoughts?!? i mean, this show was always kind of ridiculous and soap-operaish. but is there any semblance of plausibility in the last season, or should i just shitcan it at this point?!?

The fifth season is better than the fourth, and crucially it's the last one, so why not?

I really enjoyed the very over-the-top last season.

I think I've made my thoughts pretty clear about the last season, but if you've made it through four seasons, you might as well finish it up.