Just some dashed-off thoughts about the Big Love series finale. I'll leave the legitimate criticism to the big guns, but I needed to register my discontent.
When Big Love first started, I thought it was going to be as good as Six
Feet Under. It certainly had the potential. The first two seasons were
amazing! But then the bottom dropped out. The characters stopped being
believable. No matter how frustrated I got with any of the Fishers, I
still empathized with them. Over the years, the Henricksons have become
unrecognizable as humans. They have no limits -- to their
self-sacrifice, to their insanely irritating behavior, to their
megalomania, to their gullibility.
The only remotely satisfying thing to happen on Sunday's Big Love series finale (I'm late, I know) was that Bill was murdered. When the shots rang out, my boyfriend and I turned to each other and yelled, "Hooray!" If only, God willing, someone stakes Vampire Bill in the season opener of True Blood, then all the wooden Bills on HBO would be dead and I would be so very happy to see their tyranny of boredom and lousy acting come to an end. How we're supposed to think that reasonably attractive women find these annoying ciphers remotely attractive is beyond me but, you know, such is television.
So Bill -- who, unlike Vampire Bill, is an actual psycho -- bleeds to death in the street (hooray!). Before that, he has a vision where these olde-timey sepia-toned Mormons tell him that Barb should be allowed to hold the priesthood. Any possible satisfaction I derived from this revelation was robbed by the preceding scene, in which Barb refuses to get baptized in her new reform church. If Barb were one of my friends (which she would never be), I'd kick her so hard. Grow a spine, Barb! All that leadup to the possiblity of you maybe someday having a spine was dashed -- dashed! -- when you refused to be baptized. Ultimately, you couldn't disassociate from your family, a family which consists of a sociopath, a narcissistic harridan, and an adorable box of rocks. What gives, Barb? Maybe you're an asshole?
Oh yeah, and all the people on this show are assholes, except Lois, who is sort of an asshole, but for clear reasons. Then she dies. That was sad. I liked Lois.
Was this ending feminist? I guess so. Barb got to preside over the weird church and Margie's hair was short. I liked that Heather was holding Sarah's hand in a sexy way -- that seemed subversive. But nothing made up for the fact that Barb stuck with those jerks.
I don't really buy that anyone would hang out with Nikki if they didn't have to. And how did the wives afford to keep their houses when Home Plus went under? Did any of them, I dunno, get jobs? It's not like they could sue Murderin' Carl, since he broke.
And where was Brother Selma? It's a total crock they didn't bring her back. Also: Teenie. Is it any coincidence her name sounds like Tino?
Almost forgot: my absolute favorite part of the episode was the Godfather reference. That part where Bill went "Muuuh! Muuuuh!" with an orange in his mouth and a kiddo on his lap was really funny, especially because Bill is just as gross as an aging Marlon Brando.