Big Love

I was invited recently, through a chain email message, to ask HBO to cancel their brand new series "Big Love" which portrays the faults, foibles, and frustrations of a polygamous family living in Sandy, Utah. The heart of the chain email is that this show defames the Mormon church somehow (even though HBO and the writers have been careful to point out that the family is NOT Mormon). I decided I couldn't handle this email request the way I would normally - completely ignore it. Instead, I replied with the following

-------------------------------------

First of all I’d like to thank you for thinking enough of me to send this to me, knowing that I would not automatically respond but would consider the message thoughtfully. Since I am not a subscriber to HBO and have not seen any episode of the series “Big Love” I didn’t feel I can respond as the email requested without doing a little research of my own. This situation is not the same as a sustaining vote in church where it is automatically assumed we will show agreement “by the usual sign”.

A simple Google search of “Big Love” returned dozens of citations including the following two articles I would like to cite – one from the Salt Lake Tribune and another from the National Review Online.

In the National Review Online article, the author Catherine Seipp says:

But the remarkably well-written and engrossing Big Love is no more in favor of polygamy than The Sopranos is in favor of mobsters. Instead, like its lead-in, the new series uses the dynamics of a bizarre but functioning suburban family to underscore tensions inherent in all families. The show opens with a disclaimer that the characters are most certainly not Mormons, who indeed should have no reason to be offended by the series. The Latter-Day Saints — seen by Big Love polygamists as the enemy — come off in this show as in comparison almost actual saints, squarely law-abiding and responsibly monogamous.

I like that. Mormons “should have no reason to be offended by the series” and Mormons “come off.. as.. almost actual saints, squarely law-abiding and responsibly monogamous.”

Seipp continues with “I don't think the show glamorizes or even sanitizes polygamy, except that of course actual polygamists never look as fit and attractive as the Big Love family.”

Remember this is a review by a woman who says that “legalized polygamy is legalized slavery” which seems to echo the (current) official church policy on the practice of polygamy and concern about women and child abuse.

In the Tribune article Series creators Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer said “they want viewers to know the difference between the polygamists depicted in the show and mainstream Mormons. They have included a disclaimer at the end of each episode that underscores the church's position. “

Olsen and Scheffer were quoted as saying, “When we proposed polygamy [to HBO], we indicated head out we were not interested in the glib, the sensational, the tawdry, the salacious. Our interests went much deeper than that and we also wanted to communicate to HBO - and it was important to us to make this point to have credibility as artists - we had no ax to grind against the Mormon church. That also was not what the show was about, and those remain our guiding principles in this material."

Yes, there will be Mormon references because the setting is Utah where a great many polygamists live and attempt to be a part of the culture. Remember that many, if not most, polygamist sects are apostate churches or descended from apostate churches which split off from the Mormon church when the Church stopped practicing polygamy. Their members revere prophets and read the Book of Mormon. Of course, they’re going to reflect a lot of the LDS culture that is so pervasive in Utah even if they aren’t Mormon.

Often the best way to tackle a problem in society is to have a serious discussion about the problem, not to ignore it or complain when someone produces a show about it. If I were to write HBO a letter based solely on my research, I would thank them for taking on this project in a thoughtful, sensitive manner. But I probably will still wait until I see for myself what sort of a show “Big Love” really is.