I’m just not feeling the love. The “Big Love,” I mean.
When the show returns Sunday night, it’s all business and not much pleasure for the Henrickson clan — and, in some ways, for us viewers, as well.
Business gets bigger but love gets smaller as Bill Henrickson morphs from your average suburban bigamist/businessman to Master of the Universe. In just the first two episodes, he manages to open a casino; settle with the feds; ponder offers to become the new Juniper Creek Prophet (now that Roman’s dead); continue to run his home-improvement empire; physically build his own new sect; contemplate a run for the US Senate; keep his wives in line and mostly sexually sated; deal with his crazy mother and dangerous heir-apparent brother Alby; parent his nine kids, including his oldest Sarah, who wants to marry her milquetoast older boyfriend; and, in his spare time, manage to get son Ben a gig with a Christian rock band that plays at the new casino.
What?
Maybe the producers have decided that they want more male viewers and needed to change the plotline from love and family to Mormon macho machinations.
But what they’ve come up with is, if possible, less believable than a story about a guy with three wives.
I began to feel uncomfortable with the series last season, when we were expected to believe that a man with no ca sino experience (and who had federal agents investigating his family) is nonetheless trusted by a group of very savvy Native Americans with opening and operating their multi-multi-million-dollar enterprise.
This season, it’s gone way past that with the writers expecting us loyal fans to also buy into a scenario that has Bill so busy with his power ambitions that he hardly has time for the casino. Ridiculous.
And, seriously, it would take three Donald Trumps to accomplish what big Bill the Bigamist does in one day.
“Big Love” has turned into “Big Business” and — while a drama about big business, especially now, would be great — setting it in suburban Salt Lake City doesn’t cut it.
Even the other characters are busy getting down to business.
Bill’s “My Three Wives,” for example, have all become more interested in working than making a bigamous family work. Even the Juniper Creek crazies are turning entrepreneurial this season.
Those changes — plus killing off Roman Grant, the best character (aside from murderous Lois and her murderous truly frightening ex Frank) — have all left me feeling, yes, unloved.
Bring back death, corruption and bigamy–then I might start feeling all warm and fuzzy again.