With Disclaimer on Mormonism, New HBO Show Dramatizes Religious Polygamy

(RNS) So guys, you think having three wives would be a dream. All the attention. All the authority. All the sex. But guess again. A profile published in The New Yorker magazine a few years back portrayed the life of one polygamist as excruciatingly hectic, with the poor sap all but consumed by the many, […]

(RNS) So guys, you think having three wives would be a dream. All the attention. All the authority. All the sex. But guess again. A profile published in The New Yorker magazine a few years back portrayed the life of one polygamist as excruciatingly hectic, with the poor sap all but consumed by the many, often conflicting needs of the women and children in his life. So maybe the laws against polygamy are meant to protect men against their own fantasies. Still, polygamy has existed in this country for centuries, and for a time was one of the central tenets of the Mormon church. The church has officially opposed the practice since 1890, so the nation’s remaining polygamists tend to be renegade fundamentalists, ostracized by the church and society alike. But they exist, and not just in the hills. It’s all very strange and intriguing, and not a little bit titillating. Therein lies the appeal of “Big Love,” HBO’s new drama about one man who just happens to be married to three women. The gang, which includes seven children, lives in a newish Utah suburb, residing in three neighboring homes that share a yard and swimming pool. Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) is the patriarch of the brood, and viewed from the outside he seems like pretty much any ascendant suburban dad. The owner of one successful home improvement store, Bill is expanding to a second location. Then he gets to his three-faced home and you can only imagine the complexities. Alpha wife Barbara (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is the most level-headed of Bill’s wives, so she usually has the final word with the other two. Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) is headstrong and stubborn, but also more than a little insecure. And Bill’s newest wife, Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin), is just over 21, and thus shares more in common with Bill and Barbara’s teenage kids than she does with her fellow adults. All the women have their own priorities _ Margene needs a car; Nicki wants to redecorate her house; Barbara just wants to keep the money she earns substitute teaching. But they all want their fair share of Bill’s time and physical attention, and this is where the contrasting demands really begin to wear away at him. Particularly at bedtime. A Viagra prescription helps Bill solve that problem. But no pill can help him deal with the family he has in a religious compound somewhere up in the Wasatch mountains. They’re all polygamists, of course, only far more prolific and, it seems, strange than suburban Bill. When first viewed, Bill’s dad, Frank (Bruce Dern), is on the verge of death, suffering from what turns out to be the effects of poisoning. Who’s trying to do him in? It could be Bill’s mom, Lois (Grace Zabriskie), who has felt slighted by the old man for years. Or then again it could be the super-creepy Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton), whom everyone calls The Prophet. Roman is the leader of the mountain sect that includes Bill’s family, and he usually travels in a small convoy of Humvees, surrounded by his cadre of vaguely sinister lieutenants. Bill would just as soon have nothing to do with those folks in the hills. But family never really goes away, no matter how distant and vast. Worse, Roman loaned him money to help start his first store and now he expects 15 percent of everything Bill makes, forever. Meanwhile, the family must contend with friendly/nosy neighbors. The kids, particularly the older ones, try to figure out what they can and can’t tell their friends. And Bill’s friend Don (Joel McKinnon Miller), another polygamist, boasts of expanding his own brood: “You think about adding a fourth?” The first few episodes of “Big Love” trace the outlines of Bill’s peculiar world, paying particular attention to the elaborate schedules and rules he and his wives have established to portion out his time and attentions. There’s a lot of sex, but none of it is particularly erotic, particularly given the tumult and anxiety that surround it. Indeed, the show makes the polygamist’s problems crystal clear. The characters’ motivations seem less obvious. Given Bill’s own experience as the son of a polygamist, it’s hard to understand if his impulse to follow the same path is spiritual or closer to animal. He’s not exactly an authoritative presence in the house. Barbara has at least as much power, and quite a bit of influence over his decisions. Where the show’s headed next is anyone’s guess. The long disclaimer at the start of the first episode, noting the official rejection of polygamy by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) in 1890 and establishing how fictional these characters are, makes clear that they won’t be taking that faith’s measure. And if the producers have their eyes on society at large, and the evolving nature of sex and marriage, they’re taking a subtle tack. Like the family it describes, “Big Love” is crowded with faces and ambitions. It’s full of good intentions and weird ideas. And God only knows where it’s headed. MO/PH END RNS (Peter Ames Carlin writes for The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.) ��

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