GlossyVeneer

Plot:
Think having three wives is a dream come true? Meet Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton), a modern-day Utah polygamist who lives in suburban Salt Lake City with his three wives, seven children, and a mounting avalanche of debt and demands. The owner of a growing chain of home improvement stores, Bill struggles to balance the financial and emotional needs of Barb, Nicki and Margene (Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin), who live in separate, adjacent houses and take turns sharing their husband each night. While managing the household finances together and routinely sharing “family home nights,” they try to keep simmering jealousies in check and their arrangement a secret — polygamy is illegal in Utah and banned by the mainstream Mormon Church. Adding to Bill’s woes are a series of crises affecting his parents (Bruce Dern and Grace Zabriskie), who live on a fundamentalist compound in rural Utah, and his ruthless father-in-law, Roman (Harry Dean Stanton), the powerful head of the polygamist commune where his parents live. Bold, funny and wholly original, Big Love explores the evolving institution of marriage through a typical atypical family.
From HBO’s synopsis of the series

Notable:
The group from the compound, driving in their Hummer, singing songs about pioneers as the GPS proclaims “Turn Right.”

Quote:
“I’ve upped my standards, so up yours!”

Thoughts:
This show is so completely compelling. I grew up in an area that wasn’t far from some of the more infamous polygamy settlements in this country so the lifestyle isn’t as completely foreign to me as it is to people who live in other regions. This series has interesting characters and well-developed storylines. Some of the interactions hit so close to home simply because I grew up around people who talked and acted in similar ways. (There are certain Utah-isms that they really nailed in their portrayal.) Bill Paxton’s ass is shown frequently, mainly to just prove “We’re on HBO and we can show this stuff!!”. Some of the geographic things confuse me, because if the main polygamy compound in the show is supposed to mirror the ones on the border of Arizona in southern Utah, the characters drive back and forth between Salt Lake City and the compound with a lot more ease and quickness than what is actually possible. I thought the series was awesome, incredibly well-done and completely disturbing on so many levels. And I can’t wait to see Season 2.