Last night was the series finale of HBO’s five season show about polygamy, Big Love. This is a show that I somehow found myself watching during the third season and never decided whether or not I really liked it, became too invested, and then saw it through to its end. (Also, if you watch the show and haven’t seen the finale yet, SPOILER ALERT!! Don’t read this post. You’ve been warned.)
A lot of HBO and Showtime shows fit into the category of “normal” people doing something out of the ordinary. In Weeds, Mary Louise Parker plays a suburban mother of two who sells marijuana. We have Dexter the benevolent serial killer who is great with kids and works for the Miami police. Ok…the more I think about it, the more I realize I can only come up with examples from Showtime. But, regardless, Big Love has always been interesting because it was about a “normal” family living in a pristine suburb, except there are 3 wives, 3 houses, and a lot of children. I suppose we, as viewers, like these type of shows because we can relate to the main characters on the surface, but then it’s sort of fun and interesting to see how these people lead drastically bizarre lifestyles. (No offense to drug dealers, serial killers, or polygamists.)
This is Dexter. Just in case you were wondering.
So Big Love came to an end last night with (LAST CHANCE TO STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE EPISODE!) Bill dying a martyr for his cause, similar to Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. I have to say, I had accidentally read a spoiler at the beginning of the season that said “It has been rumored that Bill will die at the end.” but I assumed he would be killed by his crazy brother-in-law Alby/prophet of Juniper Creek (backwards polygamist compound), after all the creepy drama this show put us through with Alby and his clan. So I was surprised that in the end he was shot by his derranged, jealous neighbor. Weird, kind of anti-climatic, but at least it wasn’t predictable! ?
I’m torn on whether or not I’m sad that Bill died. Bill grew up at Juniper Creek and was thrown out of his house/ran away as a teenager. Because of this, and because of all the disgusting things that go on at the compound (particularly very young girls being “sealed” to older men and forced to have their babies), Bill has always prided himself on being better than all of that. Except for the part that he is also a polygamist, and even though it was by accident, he married a young girl (he didn’t know Margene was 16 and not 18. But even if she was 18…she was still the babysitter? Anyway.) and she had three children with him. And, he has always been such a staunch believer in “the principle” and wouldn’t let anything get in his way.
Life in Juniper Creek
In fact, sometimes I forget that in the beginning (before the show started), Bill was only married to his first wife, Barb. But when Barb got sick, Nicki, from the compound, came to take care of her, and then that somehow led to Bill convincing Barb to be a polygamist and marry Nicki and then the 16 year old babysitter. It’s easy to forget Bill’s questionable behavior when he is always so serious about being better than the compound, being better than the old prophet, Roman Grant (Nicki’s father) and after Roman died, Alby (Nicki’s brother). Yes, those two men were absolutely out of their minds and condoned rape and horrible things. But Bill was pretty much the same, except he wore a nice suit and lived in a nice suburb instead.
- Like Father-in-Law(Spirit?)/Prophet of Juniper Creek, Like Son-in-Law(Spirit?)/Prophet of Salt Lake City?
That theme was always interesting, characters trying to escape their pasts, insisting that they are better, but not being able to deny who they truly are. This happens with Bill but also with Nicki, who was arguably the most interesting character. Nicki grew up on the compound, she was forced to marry and have a baby when she was very young, and she managed to escape and…marry Bill and his wife. Nicki had a very abusive past and was always deeply deranged, but she also always insisted that she was better than the compound. But, she couldn’t deny who she really was, and out of nowhere would often do insane and evil things (like scream at an 8 year old and scare him so much that he fell to the ground and knocked his teeth out ????).
- Chloe Sevigny as the insanely tragic Nicki Grant
Back to my original point, about Bill’s death. Bill was the patriarch of his big family and he always provided for them and made sure they had everything they needed. Other than that, I can’t really think of any “good” characteristics about him. He was always there to talk to his children and his wives, but he was never interested in hearing anything outside of his strict world view, and he would just throw them some bullshit about eternity. But even outside of that, Bill has always been so self righteous about his beliefs, and even though he claimed to “put his family first,” he put his family at risk over and over and over again to fulfill his own needs. First, he just HAD to run for congress (or the senate? or something?) despite his wives correctly suggesting that being in politics would put too much of a spotlight on their family. And throughout the entire campaign, things kept going wrong, and Barb kept asking him to reconsider, but he pushed through. Then, when he actually got elected, he decided that he had to come clean with his three wives and announce themselves as polygamists. (This made sense, I guess, because people were always coming close to figuring out their situation…but that probably wouldn’t have happened if Bill didn’t insist on being such a public figure). Although eventually the wives were in support of that decision, that act sent the family into a downward spiral that was the last season. The children were ridiculed at school, Margene lost her job because she was a polygamist, and life generally just became impossible…all so that Bill could stand up for his beliefs! Ugh. I don’t know. AND THEN, as if things couldn’t get more Bill-centric and worse, once they were all “out of the closet” and Bill was still a senator or congress man or something, Bill had to go around making a big stink about how they still considered themselves Mormons. Which, fine, that’s fair, they consider themselves Mormons that believe in the principle. FINE! BUT! The Mormon church was pissed that they were aligning themselves with them and giving Mormons a bad name. Yet, Bill pushed on and wouldn’t drop it, of course, which just angered everyone even more and which probably caused the excessive investigations which eventually lead to everyone finding out that Margene was 16 when they got married and Bill was going to be tried for statutory rape. That was a really long sentence but I hope I’m making some kind of point.
Ginnifer Goodwin as the adorable, accidentally 16 year old Margene Heffman
My point is, Bill was always a martyr and always insisted on getting his way even if it made life harder for his family, and ironically, his entire thing was ABOUT his family, his being allowed to practice polygamy. And I suppose we are taught to always stand up for our beliefs, but I just feel like there has to be some kind of gray area, a gray area that says: your family is illegal and by standing up for your beliefs you are endangering them! But maybe not? In the end, he got shot by a jealous neighbor in the middle of his suburban street. His one redeeming moment was that as he died he asked Barb to give him a blessing. This was a big deal because of something about the priesthood and Barb being crazy enough to think she was allowed to make her own decisions and Bill thought it was completely preposterous and never acknowledged it and they were maybe going to break up BUT then in his final moments, he accepted her. Although I guess that could also be read as him taking the best he could get.
Jeanne Tripplehorn as feminist/polygamist/woman who deserves your respect Barbara Henrickson
I’m still torn on whether Bill was a good guy or a bad guy. Regardless, the final episode was very subtle and eerily calm. I think it was a fitting end, I only wish they had wrapped up the Juniper Creek storyline a little better. I am sad to see this show come to an end, but I don’t think it could have gone on much longer. Also, I really did like how the episode ended with a cover of “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys, which was the show’s original theme song. A nice look back at where it all began, and a way to say goodbye. R.I.P. Bill, Lois, and Big Love.
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Red Riding Hood is supposed to be, I assume, a scary re-telling of the famous fairy tale. It looks more like director Catherine Hardwicke trying to stick it to Summit Entertainment for firing her from directing the rest of the Twilight films. Red Riding Hood is visually striking but lacks any shred of substance, story, character development, realistic costumes, and logic.
The photo shows from left to right Amanda Seyfried as Valerie (totally an authentic Medieval name, right?), Billy Burke as her father Cesaire (who also plays the father in Twilight, proof of what I said at the beginning), and Suzette, her mother. Unfortunately I could not find a bigger/clearer photo of Suzette. First of all, she has bleached blonde highlights. She also has heavily drawn on eyebrows, a lot of eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, blush, and lipstick. I know that everyone in a film has to wear make-up, but it is supposed to be appropriate to the setting. I’m sure there were some early forms of makeup and hair products back then, but come on, she looks straight out of 2005. Also, it was snowing for almost the entirety of the film and everyone is running around in thin, light clothing.
The Canted Angle 