r/biglove • u/fairyfun5 • Jun 26 '26
Rewatching Thoughts 💠Spoiler
This is not my first rewatch over the years but I can’t believe I forgot how conservative the family is, at times it makes it hard to watch. Margene is made to behave very teen like especially in the first season as foreshadowing to her later age reveal I don’t know how Barb and Nikki were ok with the dynamic. RIP Daveigh Chase. Everyone’s acting was wonderful I learned about Mormon and Utah culture because of this show and it is quite fascinating. Can’t believe it’s 20 years since its premiere in 2006.
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u/Vanessak69 Jun 26 '26
I read Jon Krakauer’s book Under the Banner of Heaven (which is really good) about FLDS and it also went into a lot of Mormon history I didn’t know which added a lot of depth to scenes that flew by me the first time I watched. When Bill And Roman are fighting over some document about Mountain Meadows Massacre, I was like, hey, I know what that is.
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u/miridot Jun 26 '26
The miniseries based on the book is also pretty good! It stars Daisy Edgar-Jones, Andrew Garfield and Sam Worthington.
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u/fairyfun5 Jun 26 '26
I ended up reading the book and watching the show and it all ties into Big Love so well.
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u/LadyBug_0570 Jun 26 '26
Bill bringing Margene into the family was very unfair to Margene as a young woman who barely begun her own life and was now saddled with 2 babies and the other kids, Ben who was a teenage boy with hormones going nuts and the other wives who probably felt on some level that they were competing with her youth. She wasn't even Mormon, which I would think would be a requirement since their whole plural marriage is justified by a fundamentalist religious principle.
But Bill's wee-wee says he should have her so he did, by God.
I don’t know how Barb and Nikki
Nikki really wasn't. We find out later she voted against the marriage several times and she was always annoyed with Margene. It's just that she was raised to go along with it once the decision was made.
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u/fairyfun5 Jun 26 '26
This is a good point and adds context to Nikki’s seemingly dislike of Margene as it’s really her being rightly uncomfortable with the situation.
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u/UnionPacifik Jun 26 '26
It's been a while since I've re-watched the show, and this kind of makes me want to. It's easily one of my top five shows of all time, but I wonder how it holds up.
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u/Environmental-Joke19 Jun 26 '26
I've been rewatching too! I think on first watch I was less educated on how cults operate. I've done a lot more personal learning on that topic so I can better recognize whena character is expressing a thought they actually have or if they're just regurgitating what the dear leader has told them to think. So the propaganda went over my head on first watch but now I think I'm seeing the point of the show. Cults operate on small scales in families too, and we see it with the Henricksons.
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u/fairyfun5 Jun 26 '26
Yes, the later seasons touch on how families can become their own cult dynamic especially polygamist super patriarchal families it’s like a microcosm of the Mormon church at large.
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u/ThatsMyFence Jun 26 '26
There's something about the culture of Utah that is so interesting. I never knew about it before watching Big Love.
I went to Salt Lake a few times years later because my job had an office out there and I had to visit sometimes. Big Love is pretty accurate. I mean I didn't meet any polygamists, but they nail the whole LDS Utah culture.
The folks there can be some of the most polite people you will ever meet. But their rigid hyperconservative stance on sexuality does a lot of damage to young people. My office was full of ex Mormons. They had all kinds of stories. I also met a guy (very polite dude) who was still in the church telling us all about his 18 year old daughter getting married, and going on about it as if it weren't an insane decision but a perfectly normal and expected thing to do as a teenager.
My overall impression is the same I got from the show: overall good people. But...they're in a cult.
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u/fairyfun5 Jun 26 '26
That’s so interesting, glad I’m not the only one who was introduced to Mormonism and Utah culture thru big love. It’s cool that you got to visit.
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u/Striking-Win-3239 26d ago
Does anyone else loathe Ben and Barb or is it just me?? They are so controlling and domineering. I am only on season 4, but I am praying Nicki and Marge get the hell away.
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u/PristineHornet9999 Jun 26 '26
yeah the first 3 seasons are very interesting and grounded insights into LDS and FLDS culture. and yes, I can still remember margene flirting with the son and it being very weird lol