Big Love or How The Writers Tried to Destroy HBO's crediblity
When I was little my favorite television show was Scooby Doo. I considered it totally irrelevant that he talked and was capable of amazing feats no dog could ever do. He was Scooby Doo and that was explanation enough for me. Now that I am an adult I prefer some consistency in my television viewing. Yet somehow I ended up watching the cartoonishly bad Big Love finale. I should have returned to my roots and watched a Scooby marathon.
I am going to try to avoid re-stating what Aphrodite Mine went over. Her comments are completely true and pointed. What pained me the most was the total failure of the writers. They completely betrayed their audience.
Big Love isn't only a show about the perils and pleasures of polygamy. It is a show about life as an outsider. It was about trying to live the life that is authentic for you. How difficult it can be to live with integrity when most everyone who is physically around you thinks that what you do is repulsive and repugnant. How that kind of insularity can skew your own perceptions of the rest of the world and what is right versus what is wrong. How you can easily end up down the rabbit hole.
Deus Ex Machina is the worst plot device. If you write yourself into a corner then just wave your magic pen over problems in the script and magically make them go away you have failed. (Yes, I realize there are places where it can be legitimate. I do not believe a show about outsider love is one of them.)
My biggest problem. Bill Hendrickson and his total refusal to understand the growing feminist awareness of his wife Barb. He spends an entire season totally aghast at her growing understanding of herself as a person separate from her marriage. Barb had what I thought was a fantastic story arc. She awakened to the idea that she can talk to her God on her own. That God can talk to her. That she is an inherently worthwhile for her Creator's attention. Bill who is deeply embedded in the essentially patriarchal system of polygamy is understandably horrified. He even goes so far as to move out of her bedroom in response to her growing independence away from him. He knows instinctively that if she does not need his intercession between her and her God that she will at some point no longer need him. She already works and manages the money. She has always come behind him and his hair brained schemes to clean them up. She fixed his casino problems and she interned for him. She even went as far as to get his intern to like him. Barb is completely capable of everything on her own. The only thing she absolutely needs Bill for is his God-ordained role as Priesthood holder for her. And she is rapidly learning that she does not need him for that. He spends the entire season understandably fighting that with everything he has. Even going so far as to tell Nicki on her. All of that was really well done and true to the characters up to that point.
Then the finale happened. What the fuck. Barb is in the pool to be baptized and I can see on her face that she is not going to go through with it. I can even get behind that. It's a tough decision. It's hard to step away from the religion that you were born into and have been living. She goes back to what she understands. Here's the problem. Somehow lead poisoning cures Bills need for total authority. Whatwhatwhat? That is the purest form of deus ex machina I've seen in awhile. All of the sudden he totally believes she can give him a blessing? If lead is a magical cure for such deep misogyny when why in the hell didn't someone shoot his dumbass at the start of this season? If it's true that bullets give Barb the right to Priesthood then I wish Alby had shot him in the Capitol.
The essence of the deus ex machina is that the characters are not required to face the consequences of their actions no matter how despicable. Medea is carried away and lives happily in Athens the cultural center of the world at the time. Piggy is rescued by adults and the tribe of boys don't have to face their own murderous intentions. Bill doesn't have to come to terms with Barb as a complete person by dying. He just gets off the hook. Well fuck him and fuck the writer who thought that was a great idea. Life doesn't work like that. I expected better from you. Shame on you.
And from that horrible writing flows more horrors. Suddenly Barb is the prophet in a Church full of polygamists? Whatwhatwhat? So you expect me to believe that Bill dying alone in the street and three women reporting that he wanted the blessing suddenly turned around years of inbred misogyny? Are you freaking kidding me? And worst of all in eleven months?? So in eleven months they went from Alby outlawing cell phones on the compound and convincing everyone that Bill and his wives were stealing wives and children from their rightful owners. Yes, owners. Let's not gloss that over. Women are property and chattel in this system. Only good to breed more women and clean the house. So in eleven months because of Bill they've come to believe that a widowed woman can lead them?
Yeah. Right.
Even Sarah. Poor Sarah. She spent seasons hating everything about polygamy. She saw first hand how hard it was for her mother to move into polygamy because of what her dad did. She's suddenly attending his polygamist church and feeling awesome about it. That just tells you that the writers were desperate to validate the Barb storyline ending. See. Even her daughter knows this is right! They don't even show Barb giving Sarah's baby a blessing. That part is conveniently skipped because even the writers know at this point all they are doing is shoveling bullshit and hoping no one will notice.
I don't think I could do justice to what they did to Nicki's story arc. I'll leave that be. Maybe another day.
They took what could have been a great series and betrayed it. I expect at some point I will see "From the creators of Big Love" somewhere on a new series. Good. I will be warned.
I am going to try to avoid re-stating what Aphrodite Mine went over. Her comments are completely true and pointed. What pained me the most was the total failure of the writers. They completely betrayed their audience.
Big Love isn't only a show about the perils and pleasures of polygamy. It is a show about life as an outsider. It was about trying to live the life that is authentic for you. How difficult it can be to live with integrity when most everyone who is physically around you thinks that what you do is repulsive and repugnant. How that kind of insularity can skew your own perceptions of the rest of the world and what is right versus what is wrong. How you can easily end up down the rabbit hole.
Deus Ex Machina is the worst plot device. If you write yourself into a corner then just wave your magic pen over problems in the script and magically make them go away you have failed. (Yes, I realize there are places where it can be legitimate. I do not believe a show about outsider love is one of them.)
My biggest problem. Bill Hendrickson and his total refusal to understand the growing feminist awareness of his wife Barb. He spends an entire season totally aghast at her growing understanding of herself as a person separate from her marriage. Barb had what I thought was a fantastic story arc. She awakened to the idea that she can talk to her God on her own. That God can talk to her. That she is an inherently worthwhile for her Creator's attention. Bill who is deeply embedded in the essentially patriarchal system of polygamy is understandably horrified. He even goes so far as to move out of her bedroom in response to her growing independence away from him. He knows instinctively that if she does not need his intercession between her and her God that she will at some point no longer need him. She already works and manages the money. She has always come behind him and his hair brained schemes to clean them up. She fixed his casino problems and she interned for him. She even went as far as to get his intern to like him. Barb is completely capable of everything on her own. The only thing she absolutely needs Bill for is his God-ordained role as Priesthood holder for her. And she is rapidly learning that she does not need him for that. He spends the entire season understandably fighting that with everything he has. Even going so far as to tell Nicki on her. All of that was really well done and true to the characters up to that point.
Then the finale happened. What the fuck. Barb is in the pool to be baptized and I can see on her face that she is not going to go through with it. I can even get behind that. It's a tough decision. It's hard to step away from the religion that you were born into and have been living. She goes back to what she understands. Here's the problem. Somehow lead poisoning cures Bills need for total authority. Whatwhatwhat? That is the purest form of deus ex machina I've seen in awhile. All of the sudden he totally believes she can give him a blessing? If lead is a magical cure for such deep misogyny when why in the hell didn't someone shoot his dumbass at the start of this season? If it's true that bullets give Barb the right to Priesthood then I wish Alby had shot him in the Capitol.
The essence of the deus ex machina is that the characters are not required to face the consequences of their actions no matter how despicable. Medea is carried away and lives happily in Athens the cultural center of the world at the time. Piggy is rescued by adults and the tribe of boys don't have to face their own murderous intentions. Bill doesn't have to come to terms with Barb as a complete person by dying. He just gets off the hook. Well fuck him and fuck the writer who thought that was a great idea. Life doesn't work like that. I expected better from you. Shame on you.
And from that horrible writing flows more horrors. Suddenly Barb is the prophet in a Church full of polygamists? Whatwhatwhat? So you expect me to believe that Bill dying alone in the street and three women reporting that he wanted the blessing suddenly turned around years of inbred misogyny? Are you freaking kidding me? And worst of all in eleven months?? So in eleven months they went from Alby outlawing cell phones on the compound and convincing everyone that Bill and his wives were stealing wives and children from their rightful owners. Yes, owners. Let's not gloss that over. Women are property and chattel in this system. Only good to breed more women and clean the house. So in eleven months because of Bill they've come to believe that a widowed woman can lead them?
Yeah. Right.
Even Sarah. Poor Sarah. She spent seasons hating everything about polygamy. She saw first hand how hard it was for her mother to move into polygamy because of what her dad did. She's suddenly attending his polygamist church and feeling awesome about it. That just tells you that the writers were desperate to validate the Barb storyline ending. See. Even her daughter knows this is right! They don't even show Barb giving Sarah's baby a blessing. That part is conveniently skipped because even the writers know at this point all they are doing is shoveling bullshit and hoping no one will notice.
I don't think I could do justice to what they did to Nicki's story arc. I'll leave that be. Maybe another day.
They took what could have been a great series and betrayed it. I expect at some point I will see "From the creators of Big Love" somewhere on a new series. Good. I will be warned.