HBO's 'Big Love' returns tonight
HBO's Big Love returns tonight and if you haven't seen it, the show is a blast. It's the show that the Mormon church never wanted hitting the airwaves. It takes place in Utah and focuses on Bill Paxon's independent polygamist family structure as well as their ties to the polygamist cult called UEB in Juniper Creek. He's a successful businessman with three wives and eight kids and they live in fear that the LDS will catch them violating the ban on polygamy. One of his wives is the daughter of the "prophet" from the fundamentalist cult that he was once part of but had been kicked out of because the leader feared him as a possible future "leader' of the cult.
In a NY Times article about the show back in 2006:
"The pro-polygamists think it's too dark," Mr. Olsen said. "The anti-polygamists don't think it's dark enough. I think we've split the baby down the middle." The men said they spent almost three years researching the show, talking to experts and reading everything from sociological tracts to official Mormon records.
Mr. Scheffer said future episodes would explore some of the darker aspects of polygamy, like the abuses of patriarchy. There are already hints in the early episodes: Roman has at least one teenage bride.
The show also exposes teachings and history of the Mormon church that the church would rather not see put on public display and was especially not happy that a "Temple" scene was included in last years finale.
The acting is off the charts great with very good story lines that keep you engaged week to week. I'm not trying to analyze it for you from the point of view that it either makes polygamy seem more normal or less normal or that the Mormon religion is bizarre or typical of religion in general, but that the writers have plenty of material to work with to produce a very entertaining series. The rest is up to you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN4ZDjFGUB0
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Masterpiece Theater BBC.....same time as "Big Love".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61olXf5zpA&fe...
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Amato keeps trying to get me to watch this, but I don't have premium cable and no interest in doing so.
I love Masterpiece Theater.
Their Dracula sucked though.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
tbh cba!
Edit: i want HBO to hurry up with the "a song of ice and fire" pilot. :)
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
"Bless me father for i have sinned. Those crimes that i committed, well, i did 'em again. Empty my soul to empower yours. Lead me blind down the path to salvation's doors."
and this series has life with Mormons NAILED. Teen mothers shopping with their sister-wives at Costco in their hand-made dresses and big black boots was a common everyday sight. We had to drive through Warren Jeff's "Fundamentalist" multiple-family compounds of Colorado City to get to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I worked with people (especially women) who told HORROR STORIES of growing up in strict Mormon families... and I shot wedding pictures for young couples who were getting married just so they could start havin' babies! I loved living in the high desert of southwest Utah... but I was happy to get away from the hyper-conservative-religious sociology of the area.
You're blurring the distinctions between the LDS and the FLDS.
The former branch is the main branch, and renounced polygamy to gain statehood for Utah, although they never officially revoked the doctrine.
Similarly to the Roman Catholics never having pulled back on Ad Extirpanda and the Summis Desiderantes Affectibus, but merely renamed the effected Church Office The Council for Doctrinal Purity.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
the distinctions between those two sects... it's that living in Utah with the Mormons is a daily roller-coaster of blurred distinctions. Elder father/leaders in the FLDS still do expell their own teenage sons from their families so they don't have to compete for the juciest young "brides." Young men with proper young Mormon families happily go to Las Vegas at every opportunity and throw their cash at strippers in the clubs and hookers on the streets. Saturday nights at the little border towns in Nevada the parking lots of liquer stores are FILLED with cars carrying Utah license plates. They all pay lip service to love and understanding... but good luck getting a good-paying professional job unless you are a member of the local Ward. AND... they hold close to their hearts even some of the most egregious historical episodes perpetrated by their beloved Church.
the blurring of distinctions between polygamy and normalcy?
Maybe it's the few minutes I've seen just haven't done it for me, now, Carnivale, that was fun.
Blue Cheese is returning to Nauvoo, IL. Oh, and they rebuilt their temple also too.
It was on in Korea and I thought WTF, until I watched a few. Derelict Mafia Mormons. It is a hoot.
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
Although I've only seen the show a few times I believe the Harry Dean Stanton character was based on Rulon Allred. I know about Rulon because he wrote a genealogy book on my grandmother's family, the Allred's. Rulon was shot dead in his naturopathic doctor's office by two wives of polygamist rival Erval Lebaron. I mention this not just because Rulon was my cousin, but that we have a more prominant cousin who is now President of the United States. Maybe Mitt Romney's main problem with Barack Obama is Polygamy envy.
Cool. Guess that means you can visit the White House without having to take off your underpants, too. :)
"If the US government enforced its banking laws like it did its park regulations, we wouldn't be
in this damn park in the first place." OCCUPY.!!
Just got back from the wrap (premiere) party. Had a blast with teh open bar. I love this show.
... but if we photoshop a picture of Tiger Woods in there right over Bill Paxton, we're right up to date.
I wonder how Brit Hume would feel about that.
"the Mormon religion is bizarre or typical of religion in general"
The Mormon religion IS bizarre, which IS typical of religion in general.
The idea that God used to talk to mankind through prophets selected by Him, or the idea that He used to do this but doesn't do it any more.
Gave it up for Lent, I suppose.
...well, honestly, I do mean to offend.
I'm not going to watch a show about some fundy LDS pervert and his broodmares, who think it's a woman's highest calling to pop out as many kids as possible to build their dirty old man cult.
Thanks, but I'll stick with The Wire. At least Frank Sobotka's heart is in the right place.
Big Love is just plain fun. The Bill Paxton character is in a constant state of chaos trying to deal with 3 wives. The villains are so over the top it is wonderful. It is not a pretty picture of Mormonism or polygamy. However, it is fun.
Looks like HBO will have 2 new interesting series coming up. One on the war in the Pacific and another on prohibition. By the way, I watch Masterpiece and still watch Big Love. Like most series on HBO, it plays often at different times during the month. There will never be another Sopranos or Wire. But still some good stuff.
fuck, fuck, fuck.
http://filesofjerryblake.netfirms.com/assets/...
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/hns/calamit...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/natlove/natlove.html
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Wesley E. Ledjennes wrote "They all pay lip service to love and understanding... but good luck getting a good-paying professional job unless you are a member of the local Ward."
Our local school board was infiltrated with a couple of LDS stealth members who managed to replace the Superintendent with a fellow LDS member. The Principal of the High School gave an unfavorable performance review to the science teacher, who also was LDS. While the review was unfavorable it did not contain any mandatory reforms or remediation. The Principal's contract was not renewed in spite of the fact that she was extremely well liked and had tackled numerous discipline and staff problems.
The replacement Principal at the High School let slip that the previous Principal was "let go" (fired) because she had the temerity to criticize a member of the LDS. The Principal that let this information out into the public was also not renewed. Can you guess what religious persuasion our High School Principal is now?
I would seriously advise anyone with a LDS boss to never say anything about any member of LDS or you will find yourself on the street in a big hurry.
I grew up in Carbon County, Utah where there is a lot of FLDS type of stuff going on. They own coal mines, trucking companies, etc. They treat their workers (who are more often then not illegals) like slaves and are just plain social deviants. Much of the show is pulled from real events. And if you think these crazies don't like violence, look up the name Ervil LeBaron.
This is one show i try to avoid. HBO. is not what it used to be. I wish they made more great shows like Deadwood, Curb,and in Treatment.
If you want to get an idea of where the Mormons are coming from read the "Mormon Murders" by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith and "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer. They are seriously weird. I had a Mormon commanding officer early in my time in the Navy. He hated blacks. If they screwed up, even minor infractions, they found themselves working as plane pushers on an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. This was in 1971 - Viet Nam. That guy was a bastard.
coming from, read a couple of books about some extremely sexually perverted, criminally insane former Mormons. What? I've read the first book, and was disturbed by it. But that didn't change my view of Mormons. Seriously, that's like reading an "expose" about Joe Lieberman and concluding that the Jewish faith encourages its members to be narcissistic, whiny pigs.
C'mon, guys. It's a friggin' television show, for crying out loud. So the creator's done some research. So did Bruckheimer for CSI, but watching it won't make me any more of a forensic investigator than watching Elmo.
PS - the armed forces in the Vietnam War were full of racists, that was the nature of the war. The armed forces in general attracts a higher proportion of racists than our population at large. Most of them are not Mormons. All of them you'd call a bastard. Let's be fair here.
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