Showcase 2: Big Love-polygamous family

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October 11, 2012 by nguyenminhy

This week blog we will be going to discuss about BIG LOVE- a popular melodrama on HBO. To answer the question “What genres Big Love is?”, we shall look at it carefully from different perspectives.

At the very first sight, I think that Big Love fits perfectly in the definition of soap opera, as it introduces the life of Bill Hendrickson’s family in contemporary American society. However, as I continue to watch some episodes of the show, I realize that Big Love is more heavy and complex than just an ordinary soap drama.

First of all, Bill’s family is polygamous family- with three wives (Barb, Nicki and Margie) and their children. They struggle to live their polygamous lifestyle while keeping their marriages a secret from the outside world. As Kackman mentioned in his article “melodrama’s investment in its immediate cultural environs, that is to say, not just its formal play, but its engagement of cultural tensions, instabilities and anxieties”, Big Love is not only valuable as an entertaining program but also valuable in the different issues that it portrays and reflects in the show. Living in the house of three wives, conflicts obviously soon arise among the wives as they all fight for the husband’s love and try to find their place within the family. Three wives of Bills, reflect well the different types of American women in the modern society. For example, Nicki seems to be more conservative then others two, with button down shirt and long skirt, while Margie has a carefree attitude, with colorful and floral dresses. Even though they are examples for three very different types of American modern women/wives, they still share some similar characters (such as jealous, vulnerable, fighting for their husband’s love) and desirers of family love life. In addition, the themes of religion, politics, feminism, gender and sexuality are also covered in Big Love. For instance, their marriage is banned by the mainstream Church of Latterday Saint. Hence, Big Love “draws into a public arena desires, fears, values and identities which lie beneath the surface of the publicly acknowledged world”.

Mittell said in his article “I was careful not to call it a genre as I believe it crosses most primetime genres and operates at the more macro-level of narrational mode”. Even though the main storyline of Big Love is built around a particular family (Bill’s family), it actually contains more than just individual family life but encompasses emotions from individual to society.

Big Love is praised for the family value that it portrays and I actually enjoy it. However, I do not agree with the idea of living in polygamous family in such a modern society. I could not agree more with Jeff Swenson in the review she wrote about Big Love “One could make the argument that there are children involved, but who’s to say that children of polygamist are going to fare any worse than those of traditional marriages, it depends more finances and the care of the parents”.  Not to mention about budget and resource management that a polygamous family has to deal with, “psychological attachments to homes, and the social-emotional relationships among family members” seriously need to be considered. After watching Big Love season 1, in my opinion, feminism is the heart of Big Love. As three wives see their relationship as sisterhood, their relationship is actually more complex than it’s seen. For example, Barb has mixed feelings about the concept of polygamy and only her love for the husband stops her from leaving the family. Barb and Nicki look down on Margie, due to her youth and immaturity. However, three wives are all try to cope with complex lifestyle in various facets of everyday life, including adjustments to a new life, living arrangements and the husband’s rotation among co-wives. In addition, I think that polygamous family is also unfair for women in the house. According to the book ‘Family problem and Family Violence’, women in polygamous marriages reported greater levels of “loneliness, depression, somatization, hostility, paranoid ideation, phobia and impaired family functioning compared to the wives in monogamous marriages”. In the situation of Big Love, the second and third wives (Nicki and Margie) choose to take care of their big family over the work. In other words, they have to give up their social lives and stay inside the house in order to hide from the curiosity of their neighbors. In the modern society, women have the right to work and do all things that they want, just as men do. Sadly, two women probably will not have a chance to prove themselves in work place. They might forget their own desire and dream. Instead of living their lifestyle, they are bounded in polygamous lifestyle and their marriages are not even legal.

In fact, Big Love had made such a noisy splash when it premieres on March 12 2006. People are watching Big Love, although not all of us are in love with the show. However, either love or hate, agree or disagree, we cannot deny Big Love was being more than just an entertainment program for housewives but contains lots of social issues. In my opinion, we all have the right and reasons to judge the series. According to New York Times article published after a few days Big Love’s premier, the audience had very different thoughts toward the series.  “It’s more realistic view of a polygamous family that lives out in society than people have known”, said Anne Wilde, a widow who was part of a multiple family for 33 years. Big Love is also praised by the women gathered in a hotel room at the requests of The New York Times to talk about the show, as well as their lives and popular culture. Doris, 55-year-old said “This is making all of American say ‘Why is there a law against polygamy?’”. She also protects the character Bill, as she thinks Bill is just trying to support his family, and the family is just trying to make it. However, I have to mention again about the main reason Bill decides to get married with three women: Religion. As religion is a very important part in anyone of us, this reason at least makes me not to hate Bill and polygamous family too much. In fact, I don’t think anyone woman out there who’s going to share a man without religion being a factor.

 

References:

Beach. S, Heyman. R, Slep. A, Foran. H, 2012, Family Problems and Family Violence: Reliable Assessment and the ICD-11, Gasch Printing, the United States of America.

Swenson. J, 2011, HBO’S BIG LOVE SERIES, http://www.freethunk.net/articles/review_biglove.php, viewed on Sep 25 2012.

Lee. F, 2006, ‘Big Love’: Real Polygamists Look at HBO Polygamists and Find Sex on New York Times, published March 28^th, viewed 10^th Sep 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/arts/television/28poly.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0