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Herc Hearts The First New BIG LOVE Since August 2007!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
A big, crazy soap opera centered on a sprawling family of Republican Utah polygamists, “Big Love” returns Sunday as assured, addictive and compelling as ever.
The nuttiest thing about the show is the number of characters it keeps adding to its already massive cast. New to the flock early in season three is an Indian gaming entrepreneur (“Star Trek: Voyager” first officer Robert Beltran, now looking startlingly like Brando’s Jor El) and Bill’s much-younger half-brother (exiled now, as Bill once was, from the Juniper Creek compound that raised him).
Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) continues to court immigrant Ana (Serbian actress Barnka Katic) as a potential fourth wife, Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) has found her calling in helping Bill shore up his new career as a Mormon gambling czar, Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) has unwoven her braid and taken to “immodest” workplace attire in an effort to secretly subvert the state’s case against her pervy “prophet” dad Roman, and Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) has to contend with both a scary diagnosis and her spiteful, newly returned sister.
Normality-craving daughter Sarah Hernrickson (Amanda Seifried, still sharing loads of screen time with fellow “Veronica Mars” vet Tina Majorino) is freaking out at the family’s pursuit of a fourth wife. Deceitful teen showbiz aspirant Rhonda Volmer (Daveigh Chase) continues to employ her jailbait sex appeal as career leverage. And with Roman in stir, sinister new Juniper Creek prophet Alby Grant (Matt Ross) finds himself sufficiently emboldened to more aggressively pursue his unsavory yearnings.
Back at Juniper Creek, Bill’s parents (Bruce Dern, Grace Zabriskie) seem locked in their own hate-fueled spinoff.
And you have to credit this series for its economy; twists and turns keep coming at a breathtaking pace and little of it feels like filler.
All of this, and vengeful supercreeps Hollis and Selma Greene continue to lurk, seemingly just off camera.
Entertainment Weekly gives it an “A” and says:
… Love like this is definitely worth the wait. …
TV Guide says:
… uncommonly addictive …
The New York Times says:
… has hardly come soon enough. … exquisitely plotted … an ingenious act of double-dealing, offered as a test of our social tolerance as it coaxes us toward condescension. The writers seem to be whispering to us, “If you’re all for gay marriage, then what is wrong with this?” at the same time they are slapping us with evidence validating our reflexive prejudices. …
The Los Angeles Times says:
… If there's a better written, better acted, more originally conceived show on television, I defy you to name it. … What makes "Big Love" so compelling is not the extremity of its situation but its insistence that the most wildly disparate people can share feelings and flaws, long-guarded secrets and hoarded desires.
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
… "Big Love" just doesn't induce love. And yet, the series crafts compelling stories. How is it that season after season, "Big Love" can hook you into watching multiple episodes but somehow falls short of making you care about the characters? It's a conundrum. Watching with interest but not actually caring is unique, but "Big Love" itself may no longer be.…
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
… as surprising and hilarious as ever … Funny, occasionally heartfelt and filled with unpredictable plot twists, "Big Love" may be the most welcome returning series of 2009. …
Variety says:
… delivers some of TV's most sharply drawn characters … an inordinately twisty and absorbing family drama. The only drawback is that "Big Love's" narrative tree has become such a tangled vine it's unlikely a novice could hope to join in without some fastidious back-episode watching; still, for a loyal core the series continues to be enormously satisfying -- and relatively unsung awards-wise, given its creative merit. …
The Hollywood Reporter says:
… Particularly in the first episode, penned by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, the humor flows far more naturally from the material than ever before. It's likewise significantly more character-based than story line-dependent. Against the odds, this series looks to be evolving into something unexpected: an ensemble hour with true provocative flair.
9 p.m. Sunday. HBO.
Was $200!!
544 Pages Now $44.10!!
From The Guy Who Wrote
The Making of Star Wars
And The Guy Who Wrote
Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays!!
Was $200!!
544 Pages Now $44.10!!
From The Guy Who Wrote
The Making of Star Wars
And The Guy Who Wrote
Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays!!
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this show is amazing and i encourage everyone to watch it. i had to wait to goddamn long to get my polygamist fill!! thank god that raid at that creepy texas compound happened last year, i was getting ready to start cutting myself. damn you writer's strike!!
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in a couple of weeks I might as well pull a dee and blow my head off : this is as good as it's gonna get.
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for this show!
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Where has all this critical praise come from? The last two seasons it has been damned by faint praise, and its renewal for a third season was greeted with bafflement by those critical commentators that litter the internets. And now it's the prodigal son of TV? What happened to make everyone suddenly love it so much? Midway through the second season I realised it was better than just about everything on TV that didn't involve high school football and frozen donkey wheels, but the press coverage always felt so half-arsed.
Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled people are waking up to its brilliance, but I can't remember when everyone suddenly switched from, "It could be good one day," to "ZOMG classic TV!" Did I miss a meeting? (I'm not including the AICN fans in this sweeping statement. I know that any news Herc has posted about this show has brought us out of our shells.) -
i've loved this show from the first episode, but critics -- in general -- seemed to just give it a collective shrug. it's amazing how much higher in their estimation a show grows when "the sopranos" and "the wire" are long gone. that said, bring on "breaking bad." that's MY most anticipated returning cable show, just ahead of both "big love" and "flight of the conchords."
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I think the answer is that with other great HBO shows finishing it might have made them realise just how much of a great show this one is and always has been, guess it just got lost under all the adoration Sopranos, Six Feet,Wire ,Rome and Deadwood got. I think that and with little else on the plate at HBO they are really pimping the show and rightly so, not that it needs the viewers afaik it has always done well in the ratings.
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You both make very good points. Man, TV got really good this week. The first half of this TV season was pretty underwhelming (not counting FNL and the end of The Shield), but now we're spoilt for choice. And right now, while all of this is going on, I'm discovering the first season of In Treatment. Good times.
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She watched the first two seasons on DVD to preparation, and she's mentioned that it's starting about 20 times in the last 48 hours.I too don't know where all the praise is coming from.
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to those married guys whose wives love the show...ask them if you can marry a second wife...would love to hear their responses
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I would do absolutely everything to Margie.
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but I just could not. I found the characters to be very, very, very, very boring. Seriously, removed from the polygamy situation...they're among the most boring people I can imagine. Ooh! Wait! The one is a shopaholic! And...um...uh...well, the other two are, uh, there. Neat.
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is utterly adorable! I still love it when she smiles towards the end of the opening credits after Bill finds her. So gorgeous!Plus I love me some Margie. "I just wanted to watch a fucking romantic comedy!!"
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This is the best show on television in my book. It's not even a close race. Here is a great drama that doesn't resort to gimmicks, mob killings, random shock value, or supernatural crap, stays true to it's premise and characters and doesn't take the plot down pointless dead-end streets. It's the only hour-long I have any interest in. And oh yeah, Gennifer Goodwin is indeed adorable and a nice bonus.
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was with the future partner in the casino and his wife...with the wife calling them on the mormon religion...its about time
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is this the first time we've seen alby and his "proclivities?" i can't seem to remember any mention of alby being gay or bi or even confused or anything like that, but maybe it's just me since this show had been on hiatus for what seems like two years. gotta agree with the above talkbackers, he is a creepy mother fucker, even without the closeted late night public rest room encounters.
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No, not the first time. There was a sequence in Season 1 where he picked up a male hitchhiker, took him to a motel and proceeded to go crazy (hitting himself, etc) when the guy started to initiate something.
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Isn't "polygamist splinter Mormon sect member" at least as big a "gimmick" as "Jersey mob boss"?
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I saw the pilot and it didn't look like they would, that's why I stopped whatching
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That's not a gimmick, that's the PREMISE. There's a difference. Once you buy into that conceit, accept that's their lifestyle, the drama plays out in a very logical and straightforward way that never betrays the characters. There are all kinds of cheap, titillating gimmicks they could have pulled to spice it up, make it more of a watercooler show, but they have slowly but surely built a world I actually believe in. The Sopranos was vastly overrated in my opinion and quite boring when there wasn't any violence going on - not to mention, the plotting and lack of resolution on many plot threads was beyond frustrating. Carmela never finds out what happened to Adrianna?? Really? Is that good drama and is she that stupid? And don't say that's real life because in real life Tony would be dead many times over. I find Big Love a much more rewarding experience and the story gets richer and more interesting with every new year.
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This show keeps getting better and better. I totally get the praise for this premiere--hit everything that's great about the show.
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she chose to be blind to everything...you think she didnt get what it meant when someone went into "the witness protection program?" she knew...and she knew damn well that adrianna got whacked...but for her to come to the realization of what her life was really all about (and they touched on it) would mean she had to accept that she was as bad as tony...by the way, the mafia's hitman, the iceman...his wife never knew about all his crimes...so ya, these guys were really good at lying to their families
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now that you mention that it does ring a bell. i was kind of put off during that scene in this week's episode because i thought it was just sort of a strange plot twist thrown in for shock value (although not so shocking in a show about modern day polygamists), but after being reminded of alby's previous gay antics i realize that it was an idea conceived well before the show ever went to series. also, the fact that we're still having sopranos debates in the tb show just how fucking amazing that show was.
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What's not to like?
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Nice job, Herc. Throwing that in there as if it's as weird to be Republican as it is to be a polygamist. Classy.
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This show is awesome!! and I love the secondary characters as much as the main ones, they are hilarious - Lois conniving money making schemes, Adaleens single minded purpose, Wanda's muderous craziness (did you hear her crooning to the bird in the background, asking if it wanted to go kill a big snake lol)
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