It's something of a feat that the makers of Big Love are willing to put the ugly side of this phenomenon up against the mainstream sheen... and -- thanks in great part to the marvelous acting on display -- still offer up a family to root for.
The series makes a powerful case that fundamentalism of any stripe exists in an uneasy truce with the civil and economic religion of American mass culture.
Unless you're a diehard fan of the actors involved, or a closet polygamist yourself, you'll likely have a hard time caring about any of the characters or what happens to them next.
The Henricksons struggle with the same tensions that beset every family, but because of their peculiar living situation, those tensions are writ large. The characters are marvels of complexity
Big Love works as well as it does, which is fairly well, because it's thoughtful and playful, and it approaches its sensational subject with restraint.
