Big Love

These extraordinary HBO series are a big deal. This time the starting point is a polygamous family in Utah. Those who enjoy or are generally interested in Mormons, the Amish, and other specialties of the U.S. are in the right place. There are reality shows about the Amish, but this is the first time I've seen a serious Mormon drama. Fortunately, the drama is written in the style of a family gangster movie à la The Godfather, which makes it much easier to navigate all the offshoots of strange communities like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or the Community of Christ (fundamentalist or unorganized). Interesting names from the 90s like Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny, and newcomer Ginnifer Goodwin appear in the lead roles. #hbo (08/04/2019)

There's nothing easier than sailing straight into the suburbs of Salt Lake City, because life for a family of eleven living in three houses with a shared yard and a fairly regular schedule is really interesting. Bill runs a chain of malls and takes good care of all three of his wives. As the episodes progress, all the main characters become very plastic. We get to know their values, family, and characters and there is no room for even a second of boredom. The parallel with how we normal people live is not clear at first glance, but all people in the world just want a place in the sun, a roof over their heads, and a little bit of love. The vicissitudes of a marriage of four people are interesting, unexpected, and well-acted. (08/04/2019)

Another season of stories of a polygamous family. Drama follows drama, religious communities war with each other, and the more we get to know the main characters of the story, the more plastic their problems become. We get to know the families of the wives and the older children get more space. Amanda Seyfried is very good as the bumbling daughter who doesn't know what to do with her family's legacy. And here comes the important part. Can Bill handle a 4th woman? (09/04/2019)

Season 3 of Big Love is a disappointment. I was hoping we'd learn more about the process of welcoming a 4th woman into Bill's family, but why such awkwardness? A quick backyard wedding and then hysterical fights between which woman the new one will live with? Is there no path of self-discovery and search for harmony? And then there's the crap in the community, the abortions, the murders, the nonsense... Betrayal follows betrayal. The series is shorter, but excommunication somehow managed to find its way in there. I will watch the end of the series with a dose of bitterness. My enthusiasm is gone. (10/04/2019)

In this series, Bill is running for office. It turns out that the Mormon series came in handy in the era of 2008 and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. This former Massachusetts governor is now a senator from Utah. Everything else is still one big family drama, and it’s actually nothing special if you combine such a large family and a disorganized religion. Wife #1 works hard in a casino on an Indian reservation, wife #2 is trying to get pregnant, wife #3 is an entrepreneur, and ex-wife #4 is... pregnant. Yeah, the son of the former prophet is a latent homosexual. The next series will be the last. (11/04/2019)

The final series is once again great. I didn't expect this. The hangover from the polygamous outing is great. It would be a mistake to leave the story without an ending. The community is getting one slap after another, and there's even been eugenics. Wife #1 drinks, Wife #2 is raising her daughter from her first marriage, Wife #3 was underage when she got married... poor Bill. And on top of that, he's got problems with his mother and two living mothers-in-law. These polygamous reforms are not easy to enforce. As a treat, there's also the Grant Show, which I appreciate anytime I see it. The question of polygamy in modern society, the rise of Mormonism, and the lessons of the conquest of the Wild West, when the good people of Utah had to give up their nature just to become part of the USA, are all left for us to ponder. Was it really necessary to sacrifice polygamy for the very gradual emancipation of 20th-century America? The suffragettes have a story to tell. (12/04/2019)