Let's Talk About Mormons (and 'Big Love')!

Tonight, HBO’s “Big Love,” which has become tremendous television, runs its season finale. In spite of the fact that the first large media portrayal of Mormons living and working in America (in my memory) is based around a rogue polygamist family, a truly cultish “compound” of polygamists worshiping a nefarious self-proclaimed prophet (Harry Dean Stanton!), and some corrupt elements of the actual Church of LDS, I gather that at least some Mormons watch each new episode eagerly. I understand, because however you want to describe the structure of the show or how it portrays the Mormon Church, it has produced one memorable character after another and as many compounding plot twists as the genre can handle so well. And then there’s the acting – it’s wonderful.

Watch it now or later, but if the premise of one man with three attractive wives somehow turned you off from the series…or let’s say, turned someone in your house off from the series…the show’s exploration of love and family will surprise you with its heart and concern for tradition. Jeanne Tripplehorn’s performance as “Barb” (the first wife) could carry you through this season alone. Hey, the main title song is literally “God Only Knows,” with Carl Wilson singing forever through the opening credits.

More about the show after the jump, but here’s my question: how has the show changed or informed your impression of Mormons? If you’re LDS, what do you think of the show? People older than I say that George Romney faced nothing like the anti-Mormon bias that his son Mitt did in his Presidential campaign. I’m REALLY not hoping for a stream of religious doctrinal lecture, because I think we’ve bottomed out with our current President’s religious “commitments” anyway. (And I know that’s kind of an unsubstantiated slag, but I grew up watching certain dads fake it in Church on holidays, and I think I know someone doing it for appearances when I see him.)

So, can the GOP get past an LDS candidate running for national office?

Are the traditional families (with the exception of the polygamists) on the show not some of the most wholesome seen on TV in a while? And what about the fact that the good characters on the show are naturally softening some hearts toward plural marriage, which the LDS Church condemns – will this lead to faster acceptance when Islam asks for it as it will in time?

Please discuss – don’t hate, as our friends like to say!

Now, I watch a lot of HBO. I think the 13 hour drama may be the greatest form of multimedia art at this point. Watching small characters come to life through the writers’ direction is always a pleasure on cable, but the acting on this series somehow sets it apart for me. I’m almost never taken out of the show by an actor faking it. Every extra and bit player with a line comes across as real and well cast. Maybe it’s because the circumstances are so often unbelievable (actors can tell us), but I’m just impressed or delighted with one performance after another as this show rolls on. Needless to say the leads are all strong, and the supporting cast – teenagers and adults – are no less believable and interesting. The only character I didn’t believe for a while, Nicky, as played by Chloe Sevigny, has finally revealed herself to be the sociopath acting through life we all hoped she would. I proudly watch this soap opera.