This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
With "The Sopranos," "Deadwood" and "Rome" all off the air, HBO's flagship series is now "Big Love," the drama about a polygamous family in suburban Salt Lake City. The show's debut last year made a media splash and created some anxiety for the LDS Church, which feared it would reinforce misconceptions about polygamy.
Midway through its second season, however, "Big Love" is no longer causing much fuss. Maybe it's because the series dealt with the most titillating aspect of plural marriage - sex with a different wife every night! - early in its first season, when Bill Paxton's bed-hopping hubby discovers Viagra. Or maybe it's because people who might be offended by the show won't admit to watching it. Ratings for "Big Love" are higher in Salt Lake than in other cities, though, so some Mormons must be tuning in.
The show is required viewing in my house. The writing is smart, the production values are solid and the cast is excellent, although I don't understand what the three wives see in stodgy ol' Bill, who always looks like he just ate some bad potato salad. No wonder older actresses like "Big Love's" Jeanne Tripplehorn, "The Closer's" Kyra Sedgewick and "The Shield's" Glenn Close are turning to TV - the roles are so much meatier than what's offered women these days in Hollywood. Chloe Sevigny (wife #2) must be sick of wearing those pioneer blouses, though.
I like the show's sly humor, as when Paxton tells one of his kids, "Obey your mothers." Or when a horrified woman asks Barb (wife #1), "You're not a Democrat, are you?"
While the show's creators do a pretty good job of portraying Utah culture, they still get some things wrong. "Big Love" is filmed in Southern California, whose scenery doesn't quite match ours. It's too green. The show's extras, on the other hand, are all white. We're more diverse than that. And my wife, who left the LDS Church as a teenager, tells me that no devout Mormon home would have a crucifix on the wall.
"Big Love" also needs to stop digitally inserting the Salt Lake Temple in the background every time a character goes downtown. Whenever Bill Paxton visits his lawyer or his banker, the temple is visible right outside the office window. OK, we get it - it's the bosom of Mormonism, whose renounced 19th-century beliefs spawned the show's strange marital math. But does everyone in Salt Lake have an office overlooking Temple Square?
If "Big Love's" producers really want to be accurate, they'd have the offices overlook a construction site. Maybe The Gateway's available. A touch of polygamy would spice up the place.