Big Love, "End of Days": We stand alone together

A quick review of last night's "Big Love" season finale coming up just as soon as I try on the dress you picked out for yourself...

"You sad, stupid man." -Marilyn Densham

There are several moments in "End of Days" where Bill is confronted with the hypocrisy, selfishness and destructiveness of his actions, first by Don, then by Marilyn, then by Barb. Considering what a monster the character has become, these should be satisfying moments of reckoning. But they're not, because Bill Henrickson is so lacking in any kind of self-awareness, so consumed with a belief system that, as Marilyn notes, is really "just another excuse for f--king around," that he's incapable of feeling shame or remorse. It doesn't matter if the wake-up call is coming from a hated enemy like Marilyn, or the best friend Bill betrayed, or his #1 wife - Bill had a testimony, and he's going to follow that no matter who gets hurt in the process, end scene.

And while I've been known to obsess on TV shows with reprehensible main characters who are incapable of learning or changing (Tony Soprano, to name one), those shows came with charismatic actors in those roles, and/or such assured storytelling around the anti-hero that I accepted the lack of growth as the price of admission. But as played by Bill Paxton, Bill is an incredibly bland and opaque main character. And as we've discussed in many previous weeks, the show's storytelling this year has become such a ridiculous mess - trying to stuff what felt like three seasons worth of plot and character arcs into a 9-episode bag - that I'm finding it hard to care about any of it.

The acting by many of the female castmembers (here the wives plus Melora Walters as Wanda and Mary Kay Place as Adaleen) is still great, even if the characters' journeys only sometimes make sense (Nicki's arc, in particular, was all over the map this year). That, plus my vague curiosity at seeing how much ruin descends on the family now that Bill has stupidly come out of the closet, may keep me watching through gritted teeth next season. But this year was a pretty spectacular creative failure, and I hope the creative team is more capable of learning from its mistakes than Bill is.

What did everybody else think?

Big Love, "Next Ticket Out": If you can dodge an accusation of adultery, you can dodge a tetherball

Well, nothing on tonight's penultimate episode of "Big Love" season four was as gonzo or ridiculous as last week's Mexican adventure, but there's still too much going on and I have yet to see anything to convince me that Bill's political campaign isn't the most credibility-damaging storyline on a previously-good drama since the Dillon Panthers' backup tight end went on a 12-state killing spree.

On the plus side? Tetherball fights always remind me of good times at summer camp.

What did everybody else think?

Big Love, "Blood Atonement": One-armed bandits

We're in the home stretch for this season of "Big Love," and things continue to feel much too busy to me. You may feel otherwise, and since the point of these posts at this point is to let you discuss the show, have at it.

Big Love, "Sins of the Father" & "Under One Roof": Busy busy busy

The Super Bowl and then the busy week of programming that followed it kept me from watching last week's "Big Love" until this weekend, when I watched it as a screener double feature with tonight's episode. Gotta say that the show at the moment is feeling way, way too busy for me, with Bill's idiotic political campaign on top of the casino problems, whatever JJ's up to, Alby, and tonight's return of several old characters.

But since these posts are mainly an excuse for you folks to discuss your thoughts on each episode, I'll let you have at it in the comments.

Big Love, "The Mighty and the Strong": The candidate

A few quick thoughts on tonight's "Big Love" coming up just as soon as I stay at a Holiday Inn Express...

There are shows with insufferable main characters where the creative teams clearly don't recognize how insufferable those characters have become. (See, for example, Jack in "Lost" seasons 2 and 3.) The "Big Love" writers, fortunately, don't have any myopia when it comes to Bill, made abundantly clear by an episode like "The Mighty and the Strong," in which Bill bullies and/or manipulates everyone around him to get what he wants (in this case, his idiotic, obviously doomed plan to run for office so he can come out of the polygamist closet) while his friends and family struggle to keep up with his megalomania. Bill chose politics over trying to succeed Roman as the next prophet of Juniper Creek, but in a moment like the show's closing scene - where he agrees that Ben is wise to leave home for a while, in the same way the old men of the Creek always chased away the young boys when they threatened their access to the young women - is there really any difference? Hell, he even sends Nicki undercover to get dirt on his opponent, just like Roman did last season.

What was interesting about this episode was in seeing how, despite Bill's increasingly selfish, destructive behavior, the people around him have often turned out to be good. Ben is stand-up from beginning to end in this one (aside from his Benjamin Braddock moment in the family swimming pool), Sarah takes care of the baby (and we see that her marriage to Scott is everything that Barb once thought her marriage to Bill was), and even poor Don is such a good friend to Bill that he lets himself take the public fall, putting his freedom and his family at risk to enable Bill's run for office.

Even Alby has become, if not sympathetic - you can't use that adjective to describe someone who sells his mother into slavery with his sister's hated ex-husband - then recognizably human. Alby still has too much of Roman in him, but his father's death is letting him question things about himself and his upbringing (at the same time Nicki's doing it, interestingly enough).

Still not interested in JJ, or the usual antics with Bill's mom and dad, or the casino, but at the moment the good stuff's outweighing the bad - even if a lot of the good involves depicting how bad Bill has become.

What did everybody else think?

Big Love, "Strange Bedfellows": Mr. Henrickson goes to Washington

Tonight's "Big Love" offered up a whole lot of Bill Henrickson at his most smug, stubborn and irritating, and the return of Teeny in the body of a different actress, but it also had some great interaction between Nicki and Cara Lynn (who is absolutely her mother's daughter), a great turn by Sissy Spacek as an influential Washington type, and some very interesting developments on the Margene front.

What did everybody think of it?

Big Love, "The Greater Good": Will I still love you tomorrow?

Again, I'm not going to have a lot to say about "Big Love" each week, but I thought "The Greater Good" was a really strong showcase for Chloe Sevigny, as she played Nicki's epiphanies about her marriage, her upbringing and her entire outlook on life. At the start of the series, Nicki annoyed me so much (as she was supposed to) that I kept hoping they might find a way to write her out of the show. Now I can't imagine the show without her as one of the most important figures.

What did everybody else think?

Big Love, "Free at Last": Know when to walk away, know when to run

I reviewed the start of "Big Love" season 4 in a column last week. Because I'm occupied right now at press tour, and because I've been pretty clear and consistent about the parts of the show I like (the wives and kids) and the parts I don't care for (Juniper Creek, Bill's businesses), my approach to blogging the show this season is going to be to put up a post like this after I've seen an episode and invite you to comment. If an episode down the road strikes me as particularly great or bothersome, maybe I'll write more, but for now this is your show.

What did you think of the premiere?

'Big Love' season 4 review - Sepinwall on TV

Over at NJ.com is my review of "Big Love" at the start of season 4, which begins Sunday. Unfortunately, the re-examination of the series' priorities I was hoping for after last year's "Come, Ye Saints" didn't happen, and all the elements I find distracting (Juniper Creek, Bill's businesses, etc.) are still very, very present.

I think I'm going to take a similar approach to blogging this season of the show that I did for much of the most recent season of "Dexter": Assuming I've watched an episode, I'll put up a post for discussion purposes, but I'm not going to write much unless I have much to say (as happened last year with "Come, Ye Saints"). At this point, it's pretty clear to me that the show is what it is, and not what I want it to be, and there's no point beating that dead horse each week, even as I enjoy certain aspects of it.