Sundays are seldom as busy during the regular TV season as was the case this weekend, with season and series finales all over cable. So much for summer being the sleepy season. If you'd been watching any of these shows this summer, you wouldn't have wanted to miss the payoffs.Big Love: So much drama and trauma on HBO's increasingly addictive domestic melodrama about a family man and the three wives who alternately adore and tolerate his whims, schemes and transgressions. One reason I love the show is that it has lines of dialogue you could never hear anywhere else. Here’s Nicky: “Our husband’s dating life is none of our business.” Bill to Barb: “There are two other people in this marriage.” Bill to Margene: “You are not having the neighbor’s baby!” Barb to Bill: “I don’t want a fourth [wife].” Margene: “Boss lady outed us to the neighbors!”So twisted, and yet presented in such a way that it almost seems normal. Th...
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In TV time it has been six weeks since the familys comeuppance at the mother-of-the-year ceremony and things are still completely out of alignment in the Henrickson household Barb still humbled by the guilt and shame she has brought on the family has fled the scene resentful of Bills domineering approach to problem-solving Nicki both enticed and terrified by the possibility of taking over as first wife tries to appease and scheme her way into the post bullying Margene all along the way And the kids are just trying to live their lives the best way they can in the shadow of their familys secret No matter what you think about polygamy as a way of life or as a premise for a television drama you cant argue with the caliber of acting on display here in HBOs latest twist on the nuclear family Bill Paxton is incredibly effective as a man who is torn between his heart his faith and his obligations At times I am confoun
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Question: With the loss of some of my favorite shows over the past few seasons, I have a new favorite HBO's Big Love. What are your thoughts, now that the first season has ended?
Answer: I'll reprise the line I used in my initial review of the series: "It's more of a curiosity than a necessity." For my analysis of the season finale, check out my Dispatch. From the start, I've not been entirely sold on this premise being enough to carry an entire series, no matter how excellent the acting and production values. A miniseries, yes, and some of the domestic subplots have been quite intriguing as members of this extravagantly blended family try to keep the details of their lives secret from neighbors, coworkers, friends' parents and so on. Some of the material back in the compound is wildly entertaining, with those hilarious performances by Grace Zabriskie and Bruce Dern, and while I tend to zone out during the Bill-Roman conflicts, I'm always happy to see Harry Dean Stanton chewing the
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