Big Love TV Series – The Complete Collection DVD Box Set includes all seasons 1–5 in a huge 20 disc boxset. Over 48 hours of content!
Bill a practicing polygamist who lives in suburban Salt Lake City with his three wives and seven children. An independent businessman who runs a growing chain of hardware stores, Bill faces a myriad of challenges in meeting the emotional, romantic and financial needs of his wives Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin).
Awards
- Won AFI Award, TV Program of the Year 2010
- Won BMI Cable Award, 2008
- Won WGA Award (TV), Episodic Drama 2007
- Nominated Golden Globe, Best Television Series – Drama (2010, 2008 & 2007)
- Nominated Primetime Emmy, Outstanding Drama Series 2009
- Nominated TCA Award, Outstanding New Program of the Year 2006
- Nominated Satellite Award, Best Television Series, Drama 2009
Big Love: The Complete First Season
Big Love, HBO's newest buzzworthy series, recalls Groucho Marx's blithe
proposal to two women in Animal Crackers. “Why, that's bigamy,” one of the
women exclaims. Groucho responds, “Yes, and it's big of me, too.” But Bill
Henrickson's (Bill Paxton) situation is hardly a laughing matter. Bill is a
modern-day polygamist who lives in suburban Salt Lake City with his seven
children and three “sister-wives”: Barbara (Jeanne Tripplehorn, never
better), the more mature anchor of the household; Nicki (Chloe Sevigny), who
spitefully refers to her as “Boss Lady”; and recent addition Margene
(charming Ginnifer Goodwin), insecure and childlike. A series that puts a human
face on polygamy is brimming with prurient possibilities. Big Love's first two
episodes are veritable commercials for Viagra, as Bill struggles to keep up with
the demands of his spouses, with whom the sleeping arrangements are strictly
scheduled. But once this more sensational aspect of “plural marriage” is
dealt with, Big Love moves on to focus on the emotional, spiritual and financial
pressures that beset Bill and his families. As the dreamlike opening credit
sequence (scored to the Beach Boys' ethereal “God Only Knows”) illustrates,
Bill is a man on thin ice. He is carrying mortgages on three adjoining homes.
A home-improvement store entrepreneur, he has just cut the ribbon on his second
store and is planning a third. His wives, not immune to jealousies, vie for
dominant position. And then there's Roman (Harry Dean Stanton; and any series
that puts this venerable character actor and hipster saint in our homes on a
weekly basis deserves our big love), the sinister leader of an outlaw
fundamentalist compound, who has an escalating disagreement with Bill over the
repayment of his loan that helped Bill build his fledgling empire
(“There's man's law,” he states ominously, “and
there's God's law”).
There are further complications that make Big Love so compelling. Bill suspects that his raw-nerved mother (Grace Zabriskie) may be poisoning his father (Bruce Dern). Nicki is a shopaholic accruing nearly $60,000 in credit-card debt. Overtures by new neighbors threaten to expose Bill's unorthodox and illicit living arrangements. The polygamy factor puts a subversive spin on traditional matrimonial melodrama. When Nicki plans her son's disastrous birthday party, her list of “immediate family” tops 150. When Roman, who is Nicki's father, arrives, Bill proclaims he is not welcome in his “homes.” As with Rome, Big Love may require a little patience. But this fascinating portrayal of a shadowy subculture, the intelligent writing, and the estimable ensemble will soon make you feel like part of the families. –Donald Liebenson
Big Love: The Complete Second Season
Early on in Big Love's second season, closeted polygamist Bill
Henrickson's kids come to him with a broken toy. “I can fix anything,” he
reassures them. If only his chaotic life were as easy to mend. Among the crises
vying for his attention this season are finding out who was responsible for
outing his wife, Barbara (Jeanne Tripplehorn), at the Mother of the Year
ceremony; the investigation into the poisoning of his brother-in-law, Alby, for
which he could be implicated in a cover-up; negotiating a deal to purchase a
gaming company coveted by Roman (Harry Dean Stanton); and, in a “holy spirit
sucker punch,” meeting Ana (Branca Katic), a Serbian waitress who just could
be wife No. 4. A Golden Globe nominee for Best Drama, Big Love further draws
viewers into the polygamists' shadow world…
Season 2 further fleshes out television's most unconventional family
drama. –Donald Liebenson
Big Love: The Complete Third Season
Three seasons in, the popular HBO series Big Love remains a highly entertaining
and rewarding viewing experience. The cast is enormous and the storylines are
numerous, with each of these ten 60-minute episodes adding new wrinkles to the
plotlines already being pursued. This is business as usual for those who've been
on board from the start, but while newcomers may need a couple of episodes to
get up to speed, viewers of all stripes will be inexorably pulled in by the
show's tangled combination of drama and black humor, personal peccadilloes and
internecine strife, and big time social and religious issues. There really is
nothing else like this on the television landscape, and that's entirely a
good thing.
As usual, the series centers on the anything-but-normal life of Salt Lake City businessman Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton). Bill’s a study in contrasts: while he has plenty of objections to modern Mormon mores (he and his family are no longer active members of the church), he’s committed to the practice of polygamy, which remains the single most controversial aspect of Mormonism despite having been officially banned. Bill, his three wives, Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin), and their various children find themselves waging constant skirmishes on several fronts: with their nosy, judgmental neighbors, with the splinter Mormon clan headed by the evil, self-proclaimed holy man Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton), and with the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But the Henricksons' most pitched battles, and they are legion, tend to be amongst themselves. Though the wives generally get along with one another, the jockeying for position is endless, and Bill's desire for a fourth spouse this season definitely doesn’t make things any calmer. Other ongoing storylines include Grant’s trial for rape (similarities to the real-life prosecution of Mormon fundamentalist Warren Jeffs are no coincidence), which presents a serious conflict for Nicki, who happens to be Grant’s daughter; Bill and his partner’s ongoing efforts to open a Mormon-friendly casino on Indian land; and sub-plots involving teen pregnancy, kidnapping, adultery, and a host of other lurid behaviors. And while there’s a certain amount of what may be perceived as Mormon bashing going on, the edifying sixth episode, “Come, Ye Saints,” in which the family visits Mormon landmarks from Utah to New York, features several of the season’s most moving scenes. –Sam Graham
Big Love: The Complete Fourth Season
The family's nemesis (and Nicki's father), “prophet” Roman Grant (Harry
Dean Stanton), is out of the picture early on, but a scary new villain emerges
in the form of JJ (Zeljko Ivanek), a skeletal, hollow-eyed schemer and
Nicki's ex-husband, who, for starters, marries her mother and connives with her
brother Alby (Matt Ross). And there are numerous other story lines to follow, as
Bill and his Native American partners struggle to get their new casino going;
Bill contemplates a run for political office, hoping to use that bully pulpit to
convince his constituents that polygamy isn't so bad after all (and outing
himself in the process); two of the wives struggle with carnal temptations
offered by other men; Bill's loony parents (Bruce Dern and Grace Zabriskie)
become involved in smuggling exotic birds from Mexico; and on and on.Many of
these situations are patently absurd, and the tone of the show–satirical but
not parodic; amusing but not in the least sit-commy–often follows suit.
But there are serious issues here as well; aside from polygamy, the stigma of being gay and Mormon male is handled with considerable poignance. As usual, the performances are excellent (Oscar winner Sissy Spacek appears as a Washington lobbyist in several episodes), as are the writing and direction. And even if many adherents agree that this is not the series' finest season, Big Love is sui generis; the fact that there's nothing else like it out there is by itself a good reason for watching. –Sam Graham
Big Love: The Complete Fifth Season
There are doses of both good and bad news accompanying this release of the
10 episodes comprising the fifth season of the HBO series Big Love. The bad
news is that the fifth season is also the last hurrah for a show that's rarely
been anything less than entertaining. But the good news is that cocreators Mark
V. Olsen and Will Scheffer and their cast and crew are bowing out with one of
their strongest outings; at the very least, this season is consistently better
than the somewhat haphazard one that preceded it. It's also the least amusing
and most serious, as family patriarch Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton), his three
wives (Jeanne Tripplehorn as Barb, Chloë Sevigny as Nicki, and Ginnifer Goodwin
as Margene), their kids, and even their friends and business associates face
their sternest trials yet. Much of that is self-inflicted by the idealistic and
stubborn Bill, who, having previously won a seat in the Utah state senate, has
decided not only to reveal that his is a family of polygamists (or, as they put
it, observers of “the principle of plural marriage”) but also to fight a
very uphill battle for public acceptance of them and their kind. The
consequences are many: since Bill neglected to reveal that little lifestyle
tidbit before, many of those who voted for him, including employees at his Home
Plus store, feel betrayed; he may be impeached as soon as he takes office; his
kids are bullied; the mainstream Mormon church (a.k.a. the LDS, or Latter Day
Saints) actively shuns the Henricksons; and archenemy Alby Grant (Matt Ross),
Nicki's brother and heir apparent to the late, evil prophet Roman Grant, has
revenge on his agenda. Meanwhile, Marge loses her gig pitching products on TV,
Barb considers joining a reform sect that opposes polygamy, and Nicki, never a
very appealing character in the first place (“spiteful, jealous, and mean”
is her own description), becomes nastier than ever. Add to that the specter of
jail time for a crime Bill didn't even know he committed, and you're looking at
a tower of tribulation that's too tall not to fall.
As always, there is a lot going on here, and while each episode can theoretically stand on its own, newcomers to the series may have a tough time keeping up, at least at first. But it's worth the effort. Big Love is beautifully written, acted (others in the outstanding cast include veterans Bruce Dern, Mary Kay Place, Grace Zabriskie, and Ellen Burstyn), and realized. It will be missed. –Sam Graham
Big Love TV Show 20 disc boxed set.