New Season Of 'Big Love' Starts Sunday
 
By ROGER CATLIN
The Hartford Courant - Hartford, Connecticut
 
Bill Henrickson and his three wives return for a third season of "Big Love" Sunday on HBO.

In the past 17 months of new episodes, the series' focus on a polygamist family in suburban Utah has been underscored by a real-life event: the raid of a compound in Texas last April that put such a lifestyle on front pages.

"There was a lot of hay to be made out of what was happening down in Texas with the raids at Eldorado," co-creator Mark V. Olsen told reporters at the TV critics press tour this month. "But we've always felt that it's a mixed blessing that, to a certain extent, when people regard the show as just 'the polygamy show,' there's still that ceiling that we're trying to break through."

The show might have benefited from being shown at the time of the raid, in which 400 women and children were removed from a place not so different from the fictional Juniper Creek. But it was delayed by the writers' strike.

The first two seasons of "Big Love" were on so long ago that its premiere coincided with the sixth-season start of "The Sopranos" in March 2006; its second season began the night after the mob drama's season finale in June 2007.

And with Tony and company now long gone, "Big Love" becomes the premium cable channel's signature Sunday-night drama.

Having time off during that Texas siege, though, was probably a good thing, Olsen said: "We were much more pleased to be able to digest it and find what it means dramatically to our world."

"It's always good to have more time ... to digest the story and to reconsider choices made," said co-creator and executive producer Will Scheffer. "It makes the show stronger, deeper, better, you know, to have a couple of goes at initial assumptions."

So while the show's return seemed slow for fans, to the writers, it was a blessing.

"We could have this time to breathe into the characters and the stories even more than we would have if we had just gone on our straight route," Scheffer said.

Besides, the headlines about the sect in Texas might have confused exactly what "Big Love" is about, the writers say.

"It's not about polygamy," said Olsen of "Big Love." "It's not about the salacious aspect of it, it's not about the notoriety of it or the rip from the headlines. Although, the rip from the headlines does give us some story fire from time to time. But it's always about family. ... It's always about marriage."

Ginnifer Goodwin, who plays the youngest wife, Margene, agreed that after the initial shock of subject matter, it was clear that it was a strong, character-driven story.

"It's about a love that works," she said. "I think once we all got past what everyone has now phrased as the 'ick factor,' and once we all — I think within the first season — came to understand as the reasons why each character came into this lifestyle."

A theme this season is revealing past secrets, even as the story includes Henrickson's challenges at his big-box home improvement chain, his effort to open a Mormon-friendly casino with a local Native American tribe and the possibility of adding a fourth wife, a waitress played by Branka Katic.

The No. 2 wife, Nicki, played by Darien native Chloe Sevigny, is tied between her two families. "The conflict there has always been strong from the beginning," she said, "and before the beginning of the series, and it continues to deepen in ways that are really exciting."

Like the rest of the cast, she has warmed to the show as being something well past polygamy.

"When I was originally approached about this show about a polygamist family called 'Big Love,' I thought it was a comedy," said Jeanne Tripplehorn, who plays Barb. "And then, as I read it, I couldn't believe the depth."

Polygamy, she said, doesn't even come up much, although "I still have questions concerning Barb and why she stays or why she doesn't."

Likewise, feature-film veteran Bill Paxton is learning large family values from his unusual character.

"I've grown to admire the character I play greatly," he said. "He's a man after my own heart in terms of what he's taken on to try to keep this family together.

"There's a lot of Bill Henrickson that I'd like to be as Bill Paxton in terms of my own family," he said, recognizing the irony.

And he has some hints that it may be catching on with the public, too, despite last year's sensational news.

"When I would first tell people I was doing a show about polygamy, people would take a step back away from me," Paxton said. "Now there seems to be a dialogue about, 'There's something kind of to this sister/wife stuff.'"

Running into people at airports and elsewhere, Paxton said he's struck how people have embraced this show and from all walks of life.

"People come up to me, and they say, 'Do you need a fourth?' Guys are saying, 'It looks like you can use an extra hand.'

"People are getting into the spirit of the show. It's obviously really hit a nerve. I think we're kind of on track to possibly become America's other First Family in a strange way."

"Big Love" begins its third season Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO.
 
courant.com
Originally published January 16, 2009
 
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