big love

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tell me you love me…or just tell me something.

September 26, 2007 in big love, hbo, television reviews | Permalink

so i finally got around to watching my first episode of Tell Me You Love Me last night.  it was okay.  i liked it, but i wasn’t blown away – it certainly was no Big Love, but it was also miles better than Entourage, so take that as you will. 

my biggest problem with Tell Me was not *gasp* the sex or *double gasp* the male nudity, but the therapy sessions. 

last year at this time I doubt this would have occured to me, but having been in couples therapy this past year, i have a better perspective on it.  it’s not that the counseling sessions seemed fake necessarily, it’s just that Tell Me has made me understand that i don’t (and likely never will) have the kind of money these “people” have, because couples counseling is extremely expensive.  so if you’re going to go in there and lie…then you’re basically flushing lots and lots of money down the drain.  i was an open book in couples counseling…how else was i going to justify $600/month that i don’t have?  and that’s a reduced rate!

very frustrating to watch.

that said, i’ve got the rest of the episodes tivo’d and i’ll be giving it a shot. there were some things i really liked and that were worth coming back for.  one thing i’m ashamed to admit i don’t want to come back for?  the old people sex.  i know i know, i’m a horrible person, but that was just really difficult to watch.  i applaud the creators/writers/directors for trying to tell the story of couples at all different places in their lives, and i don’t necessarily want it to stop as i think it’s the right thing to do, just know that i will be fast forwarding through all those scenes.

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these two people (foreground) didn’t say one true thing in their whole therapy session…which is like tearing up $200 and sprinkling it on your breakfast cereal and eating every last bitter bite.

i’m definitely NOT going to miss these guys…

September 5, 2007 in big love, hbo | 1 comment

i had the unfortunate experience of catching the Entourage season finale on repeat last night.  blech.  it was just a terrible 34 minutes of television.  this show is so in love with itself (for no real reason) that it has become a cesspool of self congratulation and narcissism.  the characters, if they ever even were fully developed characters (which i’m not sure about) have turned into full-on characatures of themselves.  Kevin Dillon, who on average i used to enjoy more than the others, literally shouted (in traditional borderline hoarse Drama voice) every single one of his lines, whether he was arguing with French hotel staff or just talking.  it was terrible.

here’s the crux of the problem to my mind.  Entourage used to be a good and funny show.  it was smart and witty and often funny and always a bit slick for its own good, but that was okay, because it was also GOOD.  now it is just super slick and there isn’t anything GOOD in sight.  but i guess everyone will keep watching it because it is a fantasy show and everyone wants their life to be that good and easy, also because we as tv viewers don’t usually demand quality programming, i mean as lame as Entourage is these days it’s still better than most network sitcoms, which is just sad.  i feel like HBO viewers do demand quality though, so i don’t know why this show is sliding by without someone calling bullshit on it.   

Entourage was good when it was funny early on and the few times that you learned something about the characters and relationships, such as when their old jailbird friend got out and came to visit for about half a season and it completely changed the dynamic of the show and actually created some controversy – still easily solved at the end of the half hour, but there was an actual story arc, i swear!

[spoilers]

anyway, let’s get specific, things i hated in this episode were:

1.  anything having to do with Drama and the fact that he shouted and over-emphasized every single line he was given.

2. the “take turtle downstairs and give him your best blowjob ever” bit, are you kidding me?  gimme a break.

3.  the fact that after the best scene in the whole episode (the negotiation with studio head Dana) Ari gets a phone call that undoes the whole deal and then instead of dealing with anything we cut directly from them toasting the deal to the red carpet at Cannes.  are you kidding me?  we resolved nothing here?

4.  the ridiculousness of Drama having sex on the beach with his “true love” while maybe a hundred plus people look on, apparently unbeknownst to either Drama or his girl.  c’mon.  who is writing this crap and expecting us to believe it?

5. uh, everything that wasn’t the negotiation scene.

also, since i have given HBO props recently for keeping Big Love on the air (a show that is controversial and female centered despite its subject matter) i have to give them shit for having this show on the air, which basically denies the existence of any woman that is not super hot, and even the super hot ones aren’t good enough to garner more than two or three episodes, because in Entourage women are an afterthought, usually one involving some kind of denigration.  i know they’re trying to do an “accurate” portrayal of hollywood here, and hollywood puts a very high value on looks, but i lived in LA from 2000 – 2005 and i saw plenty of successful and in the know people that were not models.  so while this stereotype is partially true, it is not law and it would be nice of them to break free of it a bit.  but i’m talking to air, because nobody cares. 

you know what?  the only good character on this show is Lloyd.  the only way i would continue watching this show next season is if it was totally revamped and renamed Lloyd. 

ZERO STARS.  BOOOOOOOO.

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this is Lloyd.  go Lloyd.

big big big finale

August 27, 2007 in big love, hbo, utah | 2 comments

big love is the best drama on tv. except now i have to wait like nine more months for another episode. *sigh*

the season finale was as awesome as the whole season was. we’re finally starting to get our old and lovable margene back, the manipulative little bitch that she turned into for the last handful of episodes just had to go. i am so invested in these characters. my friend Brooke would say that i think they’re real (i don’t…but just barely).

i’ve been thinking, ever since my last post, about my feminist issues and why i’m so in love with this show and i think that the reason is threefold.

1> it is just a really great high quality show. good writing, good acting, music, direction, it is all there (although they are dropping the ball on that horrible FBI agent or whatever she is, with the terrible accent that drops in and out – what’s happening here guys?).

2> the show actually challenges my thinking, which i love. i am forced in literally every episode to rethink preconceived ideas that i have been living with.

3> despite these women being first, second, and third wives, this show has the most powerful and fully developed female characters on television. whether you love them or hate them (or the situation they are in) you spend more time dealing with who they are and what they are dealing with than on any other normal show, where even when a show is well done, women often play second fiddle. not the case on this show. and in addition to Barb, Nicki, and Margene who obviously get the most screen time and are thus the most fully developed at this time, the female supporting roles are incredibly strong as well – Lois, Adaleen, Wanda, and Sarah most of all lately are all surprisingly interesting and three dimensional and just amazing, despite limited screen time. in fact, let’s take a minute to look at the paths the women of big love have been put on, as of our season finale…

[spoilers possibly abound]

Barb. oh how i love thee. i guess because i identify most with her since she is most unconvincingly on the path of polygamy (which is likely how i would feel on that path). we know that she came to this “arrangment” under duress. i suspect, though it has not been said outright, that she never would have agreed to this situation unless she was genuinely concerned that she was not going survive her battle with cancer, and wanted to insure that her family was in good hands. in this case Nicki’s. in the finale she makes moves to finally accept the life she is living, by outing herself to the neighbors, it is like finally admitting it to herself, and the pain was palpable. if you think about Barb’s arc since we met her, it has been one form of denial after another that this was the life she was living. last season she had an affair with her own husband that lit her up like a child. you could see her fantasies as clear as day that he was going to run away with her and their “original family” back to their old/normal life. given the opportunity i don’t think she would hesitate for a second, despite her genuine love and affection for the rest of the family. and then this year, she did everything to separate herself and make something of her own by going back to school. she loves her family, but it is not the family she wanted and dreamed of, and watching her next year to really come to terms with that and deal with the reality of her situation and possibly the acceptance of it, will be a sight to behold.

Nicki. oh Nicki, how conflicted i feel about you. i love Nicki, but man does she throw me for a loop. unlike the other characters, whose motivations i feel are quite clear, Nicki is a complicated mess, and it is so enjoyable to watch the writers (and Sevigny) put the pieces of her together. Nicki is constantly surprising me. despite her extended family ties and obligations and her minor machinations, she does, in the end, tend to honor her family. and despite her claim that she is in the family because she believes in the testament, and not because of romantic love, it is obvious that her romantic love for Bill is powerful. and her love for the others is pretty evident as well. you would think with all Nicki’s desires for power and the constant frustration of being the second wife, that she would want Barb out of the picture, in fact the opposite is true, and when that reality raises its head she is the first to try to fix things, to make sure that her family remains intact. she is always surprising me, and never more so than in the finale when she defied her father to his face, and with nobody watching her thus able to give her approval. i’ve never been more proud of her. she’s a badass.

Margene. oh Margene, how i’ve wanted to strangle you for the last four or five episodes (ever since your mother showed up actually) and never more so than in this episode, until you re-emerged as your true self in the last few minutes. i understand Margene’s frustration this season, but it was one i have empathized with the least. she knew what she was getting into when she signed on for this multiple marriage situation, and so stamping her feet and throwing little tantrums and putting the family in jeopardy over her manipulations has been endlessly frustrating, especially because for the first half of the season i was more in love with her and her innocence and enthusiasm than ever. so it’s good to have her back, but i’m still mad at her. especially with this whole fourth wife/Ana nonsense. it would serve her right if they got a fourth and she suddenly found her newness and thus power stripped away. that said, i don’t want a fourth (especially after that scene in the closet with Bill & Ana) . the whole situation quite frankly upsets me, as does Nicki’s comment to Margene in the finale that “Bill’s dating life is none of our business.” WHAT?!?!?!?!? my head almost exploded.

okay, lastly i’m going to talk about Sarah, arguably the most interesting character on the show. she is developing into an amazing woman. and while this comparison will possibly draw fire, i think she is infinitely more interesting and complicated a character than Claire from Six Feet Under. a lot of people loved Claire, and i didn’t dislike her, but i found her more interesting early on, more and more as i watched that show she turned into a bratty annoying character, and the one i was least interested in watching. Sarah however, is fascinating and so not the selfish self absorbed teen that Claire was (although perhaps, like Claire, she is headed in that direction, time will tell). i am saddened that Sarah gave up her virginity to a guy that obviously isn’t going to be “the guy” and it will inevitably cause her a lot of heartache, however, what she is going to go through next season, having let sex and more complicated adult relationships into her life is going to be fascinating, and i hope, it will give her some perspective and aid in her transition into the empowered woman that she is already on the road toward becoming. on that note, poor, poor Benny. how lost is that little one? reeling after losing a teenage love/lust relationship and just grasping at anything around him to hold him up. and congratulations Bren for dodging THAT bullet.

so basically what i’m saying is that a show about polygamy is actually the most female centered and feminist show on television. there. i said it.

if you haven’t been watching the show, pick it up on DVD as soon as it is released. i can’t recommend it enough.

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big big big love

July 31, 2007 in big love, utah | 7 comments

in honor of the renewal of big love for a third season and the impossibly intense episode from last night (7/30/07) i decided to write a little about this big show.  sorry for the pun.

i am a HUGE Big Love fan.  i fully believe it to be one of the best shows on television now, and possibly ever (competing in the drama category for that title would be The West Wing, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under…i’m sure there are more).  i recently got into a pseudo debate with co-workers who aren’t watching it and apparently gave up on it early in season one.  i can understand why it doesn’t appeal to everyone, but we did get into a little mini-argue-rant thing because they are huge fans of Entourage.  i watch Entourage as well, and i enjoy it, but there is just not a lot there and it is certainly not comparable to Big Love…if you want to compare it to something compare it to the brilliant Flight of the Conchords (which is totally kicking Entourage’s ass in the comedy department if you ask me – which you didn’t).  everything on Entourage is neatly summed up in a quick little half hour and if there is ever any conflict in an episode it rarely lasts more than the single episode’s twenty eight minutes.  and when i say conflict i mean things like not getting laid, or potentially missing out on a blowjob or rimjob, or losing a 5k bet about who can sleep with a woman without emotional attachment in one day, or a character’s son maybe not making it into some posh private school (which is scarily the most “moral” and least ridiculous of the “conflicts”), or heaven forbid a million dollar movie hangs in the balance (for about five minutes).  listen, i’m not trying to whine about the show.  it’s good, it’s fun.  but it’s the fluff i watch on demand AFTER i watch Big Love so that i can go to sleep peacefully without worrying about my Big Love characters. 

here’s what is so great about Big Love.  the characters are not only beautifully played by a really talented crew (i’ve never liked Bill Paxton more in my life) but they are also beautifully developed, all interesting and different and realistic in terms of how a family functions.  as far as the story goes, for anyone who doesn’t already know, it is about a polygamist man and his three wives and many (7?) children all living next to each other in three houses (whose backyards kind of neatly combine together) in Sandy Utah.  i consider myself a feminist.  you would think i would hate any show where a man not only so arrogantly has three wives, but more arrogantly thinks he is man enough to be enough for three women, but what is so brilliant about this show, is that i DO believe it.  it is so well written and thoughtful that i find myself empathizing with these characters in a way i would not have thought possible, and much to my surprise, in a recent episode, even considering how advanced their family is in some ways to my restricted and shockingly conservative thinking.  let me explain.  in a recent episode Margene’s (Ginnifer Goodwin) mother Virginia (played nicely by Bonnie Bedelia) visits and discovers that her daughter is a polygamist.  The episode is fraught with tension and eventually Virginia (an out of work waitress from Nevada) gets drunk and makes a pass at Bill (the husband) and then confesses to Margene that she has it really good and that she should never let another wife (a fourth – which has been much discussed this season) come in, because that wife will likely be new and younger and possibly more attractive.  Virginia goes on to tell her daughter that she is in the “cat bird seat”…and you can see that the mother really believes it.  Margene obviously does not believe it, she just believes she is in a loving relationship with four people, but you can see the confusion in her eyes when her mother says this and you can even see some doubt creep in, but you hope for her sake, and the sake of her family, that she can continue to hold on to the reality, which is that though the relationship is fraught with problems (like ANY relationship) it is essentially good, and about love and compassion and family and not about anything depraved or creepy, as most people, myself included, would assume polygamy to be.  my concern durning this episode was that i found myself relating to Virgina and not to Margene.  here i’m thinking to myself, “Margene – listen to your out of work miserable drunk failure of a mother, because she knows what she’s talking about – you’re the young pretty new one right now, don’t give that away!”  obviously, i’m nuts.  it honestly gave me pause to realize that i was relating to Virginia, rather than Margene, and let me tell you, i’ve been thinking about it ever since.  when a television show makes you think about it for weeks on end and really more importantly, think about yourself, i think it’s doing something pretty impressive. 

also of note, is the fact that i lived in Utah from the age of 13 until 17, and again for a year when i was 20.   My family still lives there and so i go back frequently, including this coming weekend for my younger brother’s wedding.  i find the show to be pretty damn accurate.  i was not good friends with anyone that lived in a polygamist household, so i don’t know how realistic Bill/Barb/Nikki/Margene and their children are, i like to think it’s very realisitc, but i just don’t know.  however, the things i do know about Utah and about Mormons and about Polygamy are pretty dead on accurate in this show, which is pretty impressive, because it’s a complicated pot. 

this is a damn fine show and i’m proud of HBO for renewing it, and i’m proud of such amazing actors (that could easily be doing something easier and possibly “bigger”)  for sticking with it, i like to think the show’s brilliance is what keeps them coming back.  it is definitely what will keep me coming back. 

HBO has finally SLIGHTLY redeemed itself for not only cancelling Carnivale, but for pretending that “the show naturally wrapped up” – it practically ended on a cliffhanger…i have not been pleased with them for a long time.  i’m glad they’ve given me reason to be pleased with them again.

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