Fine new series explores monogamy and faith

Series about polygamy asks what you say after 'I do,' 'I do,' 'I do'

March 10, 2006|Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff

Ah, TV suburbia, where widows deal pot (''Weeds"), where residents chain up bad boys in their basements (''Desperate Housewives"), and now, on ''Big Love," where Sarah has three mommies.

Apparently, there's a sale on eccentricity at the mall.

But in ''Big Love," HBO's fine new series, polygamy is not played for laughs and ridicule. Creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer refuse to invite smirks at the expense of Mormon Bill Henrickson, his trio of wives, and their seven kids. The family's three conjoined homes near Salt Lake City are the setting for a richly ambiguous character drama about monogamy and faith. ''Big Love," which premieres Sunday at 10, is layered enough to do what HBO's ''The Sopranos" and ''Six Feet Under" have done so well: make atypical heroes knowable and universal. It pulls us into its parallel moral universe, rather than keep us standing outside in judgment.

Which is not to say that Henrickson (Bill Paxton) is like Tony Soprano. ''Big Love" gives us a good, big-loving man who is hard to demonize and dismiss. He's not a horndog or a sadist; he's living out a religious principle (though the Mormon Church does not condone polygamy, some Mormons continue to practice it). He honors his wives, among whom he alternates every three days according to a schedule set by first wife Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn). And his drive to provide for them is the American dream in action, as he ambitiously works to make his home-improvement store into the next Wal-Mart. Paxton was a good choice, bringing to the role a warm, disarming demeanor with a hint of inscrutability.

Actually, the demon of the piece is Roman Grant, played by Harry Dean Stanton wearing a string tie and looking awfully shady. Roman is the prophet-leader of a hard-core Mormon sect at Juniper Creek, not far from Bill, and he acts like a ruthless mob boss. When he's not running a real-estate scam on the elderly, he's extracting 15 percent of Bill's hard-earned money to cover an already-paid loan. Roman provides the show with a suspense plot, as he threatens Bill's safety, but he also serves as a reminder of the ugliest side of polygamy. Roman has 14 wives, 31 children, 187 grandchildren, and one wife-to-be, Rhonda (Daveigh Chase), a petulant 14-year-old who's being robbed of her youth.