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Big Love is an American television drama on HBO about a fundamentalist Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy. Big Love stars Bill Paxton, Chloë Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Harry Dean Stanton, Amanda Seyfried, Douglas Smith, Grace Zabriskie, and Matt Ross. It premiered in the United States on March 12, 2006 following the sixth-season premiere of the popular HBO series The Sopranos. The second season aired in 2007 and the third season began airing January 18, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada.
show was cocreated by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, who also serve as executive producers.
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Encyclopedia
Big Love is an American television drama on HBO about a fundamentalist Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy. Big Love stars Bill Paxton, Chloë Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ginnifer Goodwin, Harry Dean Stanton, Amanda Seyfried, Douglas Smith, Grace Zabriskie, and Matt Ross. It premiered in the United States on March 12, 2006 following the sixth-season premiere of the popular HBO series The Sopranos. The second season aired in 2007 and the third season began airing January 18, 2009 in the U.S. and Canada.
Overview
The show was cocreated by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, who also serve as executive producers. Olsen and Scheffer spent almost three years researching the premise of the show, with the intent of creating a fair portrayal of polygamy in America without being judgmental. The series' theme song is "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys; the musical score for the series is composed by David Byrne. The score for the first season was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh.
It was announced on February 5, 2009, that Big Love has been renewed by HBO for a fourth season.
Cast and characters
Main Cast
Surrounding cast
- Bruce Dern ... Frank Harlow - Bill's abusive father. He is in a strong, sometimes violent, feud with Lois.
- Mary Kay Place ... Adaleen Grant - One of Roman Grant's wives. Nicki and Alby's mother. Although sixth wife to Roman, she appears to be the one he confides the most to. She also apparently is able to influence Roman's political decisions.
- Daveigh Chase ... Rhonda Volmer - A child bride-to-be slated to be married to Roman Grant.
- Jolean Wejbe ... Tancy Henrickson - Bill and Barb's youngest daughter.
- Brian Kerwin ... Eddie Henrickson - Bill's uncle Lois' younger brother.
- Tina Majorino ... Heather Tuttle - A close friend and co-worker of Sarah Henrickson.
- Branka Katic ... Ana - Bill Henrickson's potential fourth wife. Whether she will marry into the family or not is a major plot line in the third season.
- Keegan Holst ... Wayne Henrickson - Bill and Nicki's oldest son.
- Garrett Grey ... Ray Henrickson - Youngest son of Bill and Nicki.
Recurring
- Aidan Gonzales and Andrew Gonzales - Joey Henrickson Jr.
- Wendy Phillips - Peg Embry, Don's wife, Home Plus head bookkeeper.
- Kyle Gallner - Jason Embry, Don and Peg's son, Ben's best friend.
- Annie Fitzgerald - Verna, Don's second wife.
- Renee Albert - Julep "Jo-Jo", Don's third wife
- Carlos Jacott - Carl Martin, neighbor, Pam's husband.
- Audrey Wasilewski - Pam Martin, neighbor, Carl's wife.
- Jodie Markell - Wendy Hunt, secretary for Bill.
- Sarah Jones - Brynn, Ben's girlfriend.
- Aaron Paul - Scott, Sarah's boyfriend.
- Lawrence O'Donnell - Lee Hatcher, family attorney.
- Jim Beaver - Carter Reese, business acquaintance of Bill.
- Luke Askew - Hollis Green, patriarch of a rival polygamist group.
- Sandy Martin - Selma Green, Hollis' first wife and partner, youngest sister of Roman. A woman, but usually dressed in a man's suit with a male hair style.
- Anne Dudek - Lura Grant, one of Alby's wives who tries to kill Roman.
- Ellen Burstyn - Nancy, Barbara Henrickson's estranged mother.
- Mark L. Young – Bill's half brother Franky.
Family tree
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Plot
The series revolves around Bill Henrickson, his three wives (Barb, first/legal wife; Nicki, second wife; and Margene, third wife) and their (combined) eight children. Henrickson lives with his family in three neighboring houses in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.
Season 1
Season 1 introduces the main characters and revolves around the family's struggles to live their polygamous lifestyle while keeping it a secret from the outside world. While Bill goes about expanding his chain of home improvement stores ("Henrickson’s Home Plus"), he struggles to balance his three wives and his strained relationship with Nicki's father, Church prophet Roman Grant. From his compound on Juniper Creek, Roman seeks to gain a greater share of the profits from Bill's business ventures. Bill, who is resentful towards Roman for expelling him from Juniper Creek as a teenager, opposes this, and joins with his brother Joey, a former NFL player who returned to Juniper Creek after drug addiction, to gain a seat on the Church's board of directors in order to undercut Roman's considerable influence and to maintain a level of autonomy from his controlling grasp.
Bill's first wife, Barb, is shown to be the anchor for the plural Henrickson family, but as the show progresses, it is revealed that Barb has mixed feelings about the concept of polygamy, and only her love for Bill makes her stay. Meanwhile, second wife Nicki (daughter of Roman) struggles to fit in with modern life outside the compound and her own desire for power within the family dynamic. Nicki compensates for her isolation by developing an addiction to shopping, leading her to accumulate $60,000 of debt in credit card charges. Third wife Margene, 23 years old, struggles to find her place within the family, as both Barb and Nicki look down upon her due to her youth and fertility, having given birth to two children via Bill and being pregnant with her third child.
Most of season one focuses on the family's struggle to keep their secret from their friends, neighbors, and coworkers. However, things come to a head when Barb is nominated for a "Mother of the Year" Award, resulting in her and Bill's being outed as a polygamist couple. Meanwhile, Joey's mentally unstable wife, Wanda, poisons Alby Grant (Roman's son and chief minion) when Alby discovers that Bill is using Joey as a pawn in his scheme to undermine Roman's power within the Church, and threatens the two.
Season 2
Season 2 picks up two weeks after the end of season one, as Barb temporarily leaves home before coming back. Though the outing does not damage the family's reputation or the Henrickson business, it causes Bill to decide to take steps to ensure his family's financial security by trying to buy an electronic gambling company called Weber Gaming.
The second season also expands upon the political battles at Juniper Creek. When Roman and his wife inform Alby that they are willing to allow Wanda and Joey to get away with their attempt on his life in exchange for using them as leverage against Bill, Alby alerts outside authorities, who arrest Joey (who claims credit for poisoning Alby in order to protect Wanda), which ultimately leads to a raid of the compound.
Meanwhile, Roman's newest intended bride, 15-year-old Rhonda Volmer, secretly leaves the compound to live with the Henricksons. The family is quick to take Rhonda in, thinking that she is an innocent trying to escape being forced to marry the elderly Roman. However, it is quickly revealed that Rhonda is a pathological liar and sociopath who left the compound only to exploit Roman's legal troubles in order to get media coverage for her story in the newspaper and on TV.
Rhonda's departure and Alby's actions lead to Bill's manipulating Roman and the Greens (a renegade polygamist sect that operates on the fringes of society) against each other in order to claim Weber Gaming. Roman is shot by the Greens when the police finally try to arrest the Greens, forcing them to flee. With Roman hospitalized, Alby quickly seizes power, and—thanks to Rhonda's statements to the police—Roman is arrested by the police for violating the Mann Act. Alby's power is ultimately secured when he forces his mother to flee Juniper Creek (after realizing that she planned to use him as a puppet to secure her own power base at Juniper Creek) and by Bill's refusal to challenge Alby's claim of prophethood in order to claim the position for himself.
In his family life, Nicki struggles with Bill's decision to send their son to a Catholic school (which is far enough out of the way for Bill to claim Nikki as his sole wife) while Margene and Barb fall out as the two wage war against the other for the "head wife" position. This is complicated as Margene befriends Ana, a Serbian waitress and dental hygienist, after witnessing Bill flirting with her at a diner. Margene encourages Bill to bring Ana into the family as a fourth wife in order to gain an ally against Barb and Nicki.
Barb, after a tearful reunion with her estranged mother and a pep talk with Roman's wife, reasserts herself as first wife by outing the family as polygamist to her nosy neighbors and informing Bill that she will finally leave him once and for all if he tries to bring a fourth wife into the family.
Meanwhile, Sarah is seeking help in dealing with her family's lifestyle through a support group for ex-Fundamentalist Mormons, leading to her falling for a man ten years her senior. While Sarah ultimately gives up her virginity to her new boyfriend (mainly to spite her father, who is indifferent towards Sarah's growing disdain for him and polygamy), Ben gives himself over to his father's views on polygamy. At the close of the season, Ben is dating twin girls from Juniper Creek whose goal is to marry one man between them, causing Barb to consider sending him away to live with her (nonpolygamist) mother.
Season 3
The first half of the third season of Big Love, focuses upon Roman Grant's trial, as Adaleen forces Nicki to infiltrate the prosecution's office building as a temp worker, in order to locate/find the identities of the chief witnesses against Roman, using Margene's name as an alias. Among the witnesses, is Joey's intended second wife Kathy, who Roman forcibly married off when she was 16. Two of the witnesses are intimidated into not testifying while Rhonda (who now seeks to sue Roman and Juniper Creek in civil court) is given $35,000 by Adaleen and ordered to flee town after Adaleen lies to her about Roman no longer loving her. Kathy's testimony is negated by her twin sister, who in order to protect her son, lies on the stand to tell the court that Kathy was married off at age 18 and not 16 and argues that, due to the Juniper Creek policy of not celebrating birthdays, Kathy is "unaware" of her true age. Roman is acquitted and Nicki, who the audience discovers was forcibly married off to an older man by her father when her picture is seen in one of Roman's "Joy Books", shoves her father down a flight of stairs in an unsuccessful attempt to kill him.
Meanwhile, Sarah discovers that she is pregnant as she begins to transition towards leaving home for college. With Ben and Heather the only ones knowing that she's pregnant, Sarah plans on secretly giving her child up for adoption but ultimately changes her mind to decide to keep the baby. However, while on a family vacation, Barb finds Nicki's birth control pills and mistakenly thinks they belong to Sarah. Barb's tirade against her daughter triggers a miscarriage, forcing Nicki (who comes clean on owning the birth control pills upon seeing Barb's treatment of her daughter) to get Sarah to confess to her parents what had happened.
Bill meanwhile continues to see Ana, the waitress from season two, despite his pledge to Barb to end the affair. Barb warms to the idea when she agrees to spend time with Ana, seeing in her a confidant without Margene's childishness or Nicki's manipulativeness. After agreeing to allow Bill to marry her, Ana finds herself chafing at Bill's authoritarianism and sees her presence causing Nicki, Barb, and Margene to fight more and more as a result of her presence. In the end, Ana "divorces" herself from the family, citing her inability to deal with the polygamist lifestyle and her fear that her staying in the marriage would destroy the already fragile bonds between Bill's three wives.
Joey announces to Bill that he, Kathy, and Wanda are getting married, asking Bill to seal them. Furious at Roman's acquittal, Kathy has been gathering resistance on the Juniper Creek compound against Roman, threatening his waning authority within the compound (due to Alby consolidating his own power base). With Alby's help, Roman has Kathy kidnapped hours before her wedding in order to force her to marry rival Hollis Green, who is revealed to be Roman's brother-in-law, and will be immediately shipped off to Mexico, where she will never see Joey or Wanda again. After stabbing Hollis's wife Selma with a pitchfork, Kathy steals a pickup truck and tries to flee. Roman forcibly rams her vehicle from behind and it plows into an electrical pole. Due to Kathy's braid being stuck in the door and the force of the collision, she is killed instantly. Her body is subsequently dumped in a ravine and her death staged to look like an accidental fall. At the funeral a few days later, Joey accuses Roman of murdering his intended wife. Joey later confronts Adaleen in her hotel room and tries to coerce a confession out of her about what she knows.
HBO Canada premiered this season day-and-date with HBO in the U.S. on January 18, 2009.
In November 2008, http://www.hbo.com/biglove, the show's official site, launched a massive ad campaign for the third season of Big Love, including a preview of the new season, a behind-the-scenes look at the new season, and background videos of Bill Henrickson, Barbara Dutton-Henrickson, Nicolette Grant, and Margene Heffman. In the behind-the-scenes video, Ginnifer Goodwin says, "Anything you thought could happen happens." Bill Paxton states, "I thought Season 2 was vamped up, but Season 3 is even more explosive." On her character, Chloë Sevigny says, "There is definitely a power struggle that goes on between the wives. You see Bill and Barb find out about some things Nicki has been hiding from them."
In January 2009, ABCnews.com reported that the series will be incorporating the YFZ ranch raid into the story line. Suggesting that "Juniper Creek" will get raided.
The United Effort Brotherhood
The show's fictional fundamentalist group, the "United Effort Brotherhood", or UEB, is similar to and was inspired by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) whose financial and legal wing is called the "United Effort Plan". The FLDS is one of the most prolific and well-known polygamist groups which regard themselves as the legitimate successor of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who officially discontinued polygamy in 1890. Creators Olsen and Scheffer included a drive through the twin FLDS towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, as part of their research for the show.
The raid on Juniper Creek is reminiscent of the Short Creek raid, an actual historic event from 1953 where Arizona state police and National Guard troops took action against polygamists in Colorado City.
Production and crew
Although set in Utah, the series is primarily filmed at the Santa Clarita Studios in Valencia, California. The location used for filming "Henrickson’s Home Plus" scenes is The All American Home Center in Downey, California.
The mall scenes from Season one were filmed in the Fox Hills Mall, in Culver City, California. Other exterior shots are filmed in Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah and Sandy, Utah, as well as northeast Los Angeles, California.
The head writers for the series are the co-creators: Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer. The writing staff includes: Patricia Breen, Dustin Lance Black, Doug Jung, Eileen Myers, Jennifer Schuur, Doug Stockstill, Jeanette Collins and Mimi Friedman.
Directors of the series include Jim McKay, Adam Davidson, Rodrigo Garcia, Charles McDougall, Sarah Pia Anderson, Dan Attias, Burr Steers, Michael Spiller, Alan Taylor, John Strickland, Mary Harron, Steve Shill, Julian Farino, Michael Lehmann and Alan Poul (former executive producer of Six Feet Under).
The show's producers are Alexa Junge, Ann Holm, Ron Binkowski, Bernadette Caulfield, Jeanette Collins, Mimi Friedman, Shane Keller, David Knoller, Mark V. Olsen, Will Scheffer, Gary Goetzman and Tom Hanks.
Episodes
| Season | No. of episodes | First Airdate | Last Airdate |
|---|
| Season 1 | 12 | March 12, 2006 | June 4, 2006 | | Season 2 | 12 | June 11, 2007 | August 26, 2007 | | Season 3 | 10 | January 18, 2009 | |
Soundtrack
The theme song to the series is The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows". In addition, David Byrne has recorded an entire soundtrack to the second season, which will be released as Big Love: Hymnal on 2008-08-19.
DVD releases
| DVD Name | Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 |
|---|
| Season 1 | October 17, 2006 | April 27, 2007 | September 5, 2007 | | Season 2 | December 11, 2007 | TBA | July 2, 2008 | |
Critical Reception
Metacritic rated the show a 72 out of 100, indicating favorable reviews.
Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com said of Big Love, "There are elements of this new series that have a quirkiness that might seem deliberate or overly clever against a different backdrop, but that feels natural in its own gracefully odd environment."
Time magazine's James Poniewozik named it one of the Top 10 Returning Series of 2007, ranking it at #5.
Mormon Reception
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following statement about the program:
Various media outlets/6 March 2006:
Over the past few weeks, Church Public Affairs has received numerous calls from newspaper, magazine and TV entertainment writers about a new television series called Big Love. In the series, set in a modern suburb of Salt Lake City, the main character keeps up a deceptive life in a fringe world of polygamy with his three wives and households. Journalists want to know what the Church thinks of the program, the subject matter and HBO’s decision to promote it.
In responding, Church spokesmen have made three major points:
1. Concern for abuse victims
The Church has long been concerned about the illegal practice of polygamy in some communities, and in particular about persistent reports of emotional and physical child and wife abuse emanating from them. It will be regrettable if this program, by making polygamy the subject of entertainment, minimizes the seriousness of that problem and adds to the suffering of abuse victims.
2. Confusion over the continued practice of polygamy
The central characters of Big Love are not “Mormons,” or, more properly termed, Latter-day Saints. HBO has said the script makes it clear that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don’t practice polygamy. Still, placing the series in Salt Lake City, the international headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is enough to blur the line between the modern Church and the program’s subject matter and to reinforce old and long-outdated stereotypes.
Polygamy was officially discontinued by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1890. Any Church member adopting the practice today is excommunicated. Groups that continue the practice in Utah and elsewhere have no association whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Most of their practitioners have never been among its members.
Unfortunately, this distinction is often lost on members of the public and even on some senior journalists. When ABC network’s Prime Time recently aired a program focused on the secretive polygamous community of Colorado City, the reporter repeatedly referred to members of the community as “Mormon polygamists.” In response, the Church points to the Associated Press style guide for journalists which states: "The term Mormon is not properly applied to the other ... churches that resulted from the split after (Joseph) Smith's death." In other words, polygamous communities should never be referred to as "Mormon" polygamists or “Mormon” fundamentalists.
3. Concern over the moral standards of television entertainment
Despite its popularity with some, much of today’s television entertainment shows an unhealthy preoccupation with sex, coarse humor and foul language. Big Love, like so much other television programming, is essentially lazy and indulgent entertainment that does nothing for our society and will never nourish great minds. Parents who are casual about their viewing habits ought not to be surprised if teaching moral choices and civic values to their children becomes harder as a result.
For that reason and others, Church leaders have consistently cautioned against such entertainment, joining with other religious, education and government leaders in inviting individuals and families to follow a higher road of decency, self-discipline and integrity.
Awards/Nominations
The second season was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Drama Series in 2007. Bill Paxton was also nominated for the Best Actor in a Television Drama Golden Globe for his role as Bill Henrickson.
International broadcasting
| Country | Alternate title/Translation | TV Network(s) | Series Premiere | Weekly Schedule |
|---|
| United States | | HBO | March 12, 2006 | Sundays at 9:00pm (ET) | | Canada | | HBO Canada | March 14, 2006 | Sundays at 9:00 p.m. (ET/MT) | | Argentina | | HBO | | | | Australia | | SBS TV | June 3, 2007 | Saturdays at 8:35pm | | Belgium | | Canvas (First run), BeTV (Reruns) | September 2006 | | | Brazil | Amor Imenso | HBO | October 1, 2006 | | | Chile | | HBO | | | | Colombia | | HBO | | | | Czech Republic | | HBO | | | | Denmark | | Kanal 4 | | Mondays - Thursdays 20.00 | | Finland | | Nelonen | February 19, 2007 | Mondays at 9.00pm | | France | | Canal+ | September 13, 2007 | Thursdays at 10:15pm | | Guatemala | | HBO | September 9, 2007 | Sundays at 9.00pm | | Hungary | Hármastársak | HBO/HBO2 | January 5, 2007 | | | India | | HBO | August 4, 2008 | Mondays at 11:30pm | | Israel | | yes stars Drama
HOT VOD | | | | Italy | | Fox Life | | | | Mexico | | HBO | | | | Netherlands | | NET 5 | May 28, 2007 | Mondays at 9.30pm | | New Zealand | | TV ONE | | Tuesdays at 9:35pm | | Norway | | FEM | September 3, 2007 | Mondays at 9.30pm | | Paraguay | | HBO/HBO Plus | | | | Peru | | HBO | | | | Poland | Trzy na jednego (Three To One) | HBO, HBO2 | | | | Portugal | | FX | 2007 | Season 2 Saturdays at 9:05pm and Wednesdays at 10:00pm
(Season 1 reruns every day except Sundays and Saturdays at 1:00am, 11:35am and 3:25pm) | | Romania | Dragoste mare | HBO | | | | Scandinavia | | Canal+ | | | | South Africa | | M-Net | | | | Spain | | Canal+ | | | | Sweden | | SVT | April 16, 2008 | Wednesdays at 10.00pm | | Thailand | | HBO
HBO Signature | October 22, 2007
October 8, 2007 | | | Taiwan | | HBO | | | | Turkey | | Foxlife | | | | United Kingdom | | Channel Five (First run), Five Life (reruns) | June 2006 | Mondays 22.00 | | Uruguay | | HBO | | |
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