Big Love

The creators of Big Love have had their share of instinctive “yuck” to polygamy when what they saw onscreen had a different veneer to what seemed so palatable in the script.  However, their initial aversion to the unusual practice of marriage has softened as they've worked on the premise of the HBO series.

"I couldn't tell what I was watching," series creator Mark V. Olsen said.  "Is it a cult at work?  Or is this a loving, valid family?  It was very disturbing to me.  But at the end of the day, I kind of like walking that line and letting the audience make up their own minds."

"When I started, polygamy was beyond the pale," he added.  "When we would hear women advocate polygamy I would say, 'You're brainwashed.'  I don't feel that any more.  In its best-case scenario, I see it as a valid lifestyle."

The fact that Big Love keeps even its creators guessing speaks to the subtle workings of the series, which hinges on the relationship between Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) and his three wives Barbara (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin).

Luckily, more and more viewers are gradually gaining a wider grasp to the series, a sign that the Big Love is building a solid following.  So after two seasons, the show returns with a deeper exploration of the nature of polygamy and, by extension, the concepts of marriage, family and faith.

"I think we proved ourselves," co-creator Will Scheffer said.  "So they let us dramatize whatever we wanted.  It took some of the creative shackles off and allowed us to write without a couple of little angels on either shoulder going, 'Will this alienate viewers?"'

"I think Mark [Olsen] and Will [Scheffer] have found a really clever lens to refract all kinds of ideas and contemporary mores about marriage and family," Paxton added.  "I think we could become, oddly enough, kind of the first family of television."


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
(Image courtesy of HBO)