Thanks for the post Jared..... my wife and I talk a lot about this show - but I don't know of anyone else who watches it but you!

What do you think of the new opening credits? The Beach Boys "God Only Knows" opener is still my favorite opener of all time - but this one is fitting and is growing on me.

One of the fun things about this show is that my wife and I are as equally "into it" as anything we've watched together in 25 years of marriage.

We have a blast every week saying to each other "I can't believe she did/said that" about someone on the show - and it's always someone different.

The twin-sister of the dead girl (forgot her name) letting the birds go was great.....that whole scene was set up for her....and we didn't see it coming at all, until she looked in the backseat (saw them sleeping) and got that smirk on her face - then I knew.......the first smile we've seen from her since her sister died.

I'm wondering how the creepy guy from Kansas is going to blackmail Joey......that will be interesting.

Barb has always been my favorite character - I actually felt sorry for her last year when she thought she had been banished to the darkness for all eternity.......she was so torn up about that......also, the scene at the end of last season where they have communion and decide to start their own church was very cool.

It is a testament to how well the show is written that it has me rooting hard for a polygamist family.

I think I've said it here before - what makes the show soooo good is that Bill Hendrickson personifies trying to live "in the world but not of it" (albeit in a Mormon context) as well as anyone can.

I thought I'd have the same reaction Jen, but here's the thing - most Mormons have denounced polygamy even though the Book of Mormon commands it.

What is interesting about this family, is not that they're polygamists, so much as that they are trying to live according to what their doctrine says, without compromise and despite the persecution.

Their most harsh persecutor is the mainline Mormon church.......it really makes for an interesting character study about what its like to live under persecution from your own church.

Even though polygamy is completely whacked-out, I find myself having a lot more respect for Mormons who live according to what their book actually says.

Of course not........its a TV show.......if anything, I struggle with an anti-Mormon bias (grew up around a lot of them in California and I've seen how destructive it is).........I just like that the "bad guy" in the show is the institutional Mormon church, and the good guy is the one who just says - "this is what our holy book says, I'm just trying to live according to it".......I obviously have a huge problem with what the book says, but appreciate the commitment level of the protagonist.

Jared - where are you? You got me all juiced to talk about Big Love!

Good question Jared......I heard a missionary to a tribe in Africa tell the story once of how the new-believer-chief of the tribe he worked with asked him "How do I love all 5 of my wives as Christ loved the church?".......Per I Timothy, I don't think you can be a church elder and be a polygamist.....but not sure beyond that.

So.......back to Big Love......you didn't answer me Jared......s'ok though

OH! I forgot my biggest beef with the show this season: the replacement of the actress playing Teeny.
What is up?! Maybe they had to re-cast b/c the original actress dropped out, but the change is ridiculous. I loved that little girl before. She looked normal. The new Teeny looks like somebody off some Disney Channel show.

Jared - I loved a few years ago when Teeny told the black Baptist guy at the beach that he was going to hell because he wasn't Mormon........the old Teeny will be missed - I agree the new one is a little too glam.

@Bill: Not sure what to say. Here were some people discussing a show -- neither praising nor condemning the character's controversial lifestyle -- and I was completely taken back by by someone injecting the "too-holy-to-watch-such-unholiness, unlike, uh, some people around here" attitude and it stank. I also wrote my reply with one eye leering at the sumptuous can of worms Jared (almost) opened :-) So maybe she was being sarcastic, in which case I missed it. Whatever.

Well, we'll get nowhere debating this, E. Jen's an old friend of the site and a great lady and I'm just more biased toward her than I am toward you. It's not personal against you - I don't even know you. But I know her and, while her comment could potentially be taken wrong in general, you were being rude specifically toward her.

Perhaps you were justified, but I'm probably not going to see it that way.

I did think your zinger about how the OT was written by polygamists to be a bit of a stretch. It was also written by (and written about) philanderers, war-lords, liars, murderers, etc.

Not touching that can, though :-)

I'll hop off the thread now. Jared doesn't want it hijacked I'm sure . . .

I haven't seen the series, since I don't get HBO. I'm tempted to get it on DVD and if iTunes carried the season pass, I'd get it.

As a person who has known a plural family, I always find it curious when somebody labels polygamy as "sin", when Scripture never does.

Yes, Scripture was written by a long list of sinners - and those sins were labeled "sin". The number of verses condemning polygamy? Zero. I grew up being told that having a deck of playing cards in the house was a "sin".

I'm curious about the series because I knew a family guilty of the "sin" of polygamy. They were from a different country, where polygamy was legal. The first wife of the husband suggested that he take his brother's widow as a second wife - after she (the brother's wife) and her children were forced to watch their husband and father beaten to death for being a Christian. As an unmarried woman, she was a target for all sorts of evil.

What I do know is that what is required and nurtured in a plural relationship are all good things. Selflessness, unselfishness, love for all involved, grace, tolerance.

We live in a selfish country. If you ask a typical woman why she (personally) wouldn't want to be in a polygamous marriage (myself included), the answer is nearly always something like, "because I...

I'd be curious to see how the series handles the nurturing of all of these good qualities.

On that note(iTunes)...

I blame you all for that...this is how I got hooked on "Lost". ;-)

nhe - If I said what I wanted to say, it would get bumpier.

I believe that.

I don't think that (in principle) polygamy is sin. Scripture never labels it as sin and God doesn't regulate sin, He forbids it. He gave David mulitple wives and would have given him more.

If a person believes that polygamy (in principle) is sin, they should also believe that God gave David a sinful blessing.

In this country, where polygamy is illegal, the sin is not following the law of the land. In other places, where people are less selfish, it can work quite well.

just watched the pilot for "Big Love" - and can see why many people are opposed to polygamy (on principle.

I saw my own failings in every one of the wives.

In the first - the need to be in control. The temptation to respond to a big request by complying, then turning away.

In the second - the response to the need to be selfless is to turn to "stuff" - an idol. She controls through her ability to run up a charge card debt.

In the third - becoming overwhelmed and turning anger inward. The refusal to ask for help from those most committed to helping her.

All of these are froms of selfishness - one huge sin that is bad in any situation.

I have the opportunity from time to time to correspond with women who are in plural marriages - and all of the say that selfishness is the first sin to manifest and the first to need to go.

And again am struck with the notion that to call something "sin" that God never calls sin is a form of idolatry in itself - we make ourselves the god by (in error) adding to the Law of God - His Law is in error so we add to it.

There are plenty of sins in this first episode - polygamy (in principle) is not one of them.

Polygamy magnifies sin - it shows up in the oddest places.

If we were to boycott every show that has a basis that we disagree with theologically, we'd have to boycott most of the Discovery Channel.

Jen, you don't have HBO just because you hate polygamists? That's so narrow minded.




:-p

CYE and Big Love are worth the $6.95/month for me. Plus, we've got the Pacific WWII mini-series coming up and a new show (Jared) from The Sopranos folks about prohibition years in Atlantic City (Steve Buscemi) that looks interesting.....not to mention Real Sports, which is always excellent - love Bernie Goldberg.

I did however have to figure out the parent control features for some of the HBO shows......that's the downside. I trust my kids, just don't want to tempt them.