Big Love Recaps Season 5, Episode 1

Recap in 140: This season, they’re cutting the crap and refocusing on the family. This is the end. There’s just not enough time for anything else.

The episode: It’s been a short, strange journey, hasn’t it? Here is something to chew on: It feels like Big Love has been on for a long time, and indeed, it has been half a decade. But because of limited seasonal runs (read: high production costs), the first episode of the HBO polygamy drama’s fifth season is just its 44th. It just seems low for a show that has been on since 2006.

Anyway, here we are at the beginning of the end. Following a fourth season that was ridiculed by critics and one cast member alike, creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer have decided to shift gears in their final kick at the can. Instantly shaved out of the proceedings: the casino, Margene’s sham marriage to Goran and — mostly hilariously — Teeny. (She moved to Portland to live with Sarah after the family outed itself; funny only because they decided to recast her part last season for reasons unknown.)

It appears that the show will take a two-pronged approach as the end nears:

1. The Henricksons’ lives as societal have-nots.
2. How Bill’s decision to take the family’s polygamy public affects his relationships with the three wives.

As far as the first one goes, yes, as it turns out, revealing yourself to be a secret polygamist in modern day society and hiding that fact while you run for elected office will not make you very popular. Bill’s choice for speaker of the state senate resigns after a DUI charge and his incoming replacement is no fan of polygamy. Margene loses her job as a home shopping channel jewellery sales person. Nikki’s son Wayne is bullied at school. Dale can’t keep the staff at Home Plus from quitting. At Bill’s first constituency meeting, supporters are a tad concerned they campaigned for a polygamist.

All of this supports the thinking that Bill is a stupid, stupid man who put his family in a lot of needless danger in Season 4 when we probably could have spent more time on JJ trying to keep the family “pure” (on second thought …).

And the family itself? Well, Margene cries. A lot. This was strangely played for humour, which is a bit perplexing. Isn’t Margene the most likable wife by a country mile? Why is her sadness funny on any level? On the opposite end of that spectrum, Nikki spends most of the episode being generally unredeemable. She taunts Barb for trying to sink Bill’s successful campaign and bullies her son’s tormenter — you know, a kid — into running into a metal pole and breaking some teeth. As usual, she lies about nothing and is annoyed by everything.

And Barb, well, she remains undecided about her future with Bill. She remains committed to the family, but not necessarily to her husband.

What are your hopes for the season? Do you want the wives to split with Bill? Do you think he’ll abandon the principle? Would you be happy if Margene and Benny ran off together? Are you just happy it’s coming to an end so you can catch up on Friday Night Lights or Justified? Post below.

A few random odds and ends:

• Alby, still not over Dale’s death, plans to “cleanse” the religion. That sounds promising.
• No Joey and Wanda, nor Lois and Frank, but that can’t be too far off.
• Alby’s first wife, Laura (the excellent Anne Dudek), seems to be running the show in her husband’s mental absence. It’s not clear, but she seems to have imposed punishment on Adaleen for murdering JJ and company (two weeks in a hole in the ground, of course).
• A fraction of the episode focused on other polygamist families reacting to Bill’s decision to come out for them, and the conclusion of the hour seemed to imply that this might be his salvation. If so: boring.

Watch Online Big Love Recaps Season 5, Episode 1

Big Love Recaps Season 5, Episode 1

News From: arts.nationalpost.com