Big Love

I'm not a huge TV watcher, at least I don't think I am. In part because who has time to watch TV? I don't, not until after homework is done, kids are in bed, lunches for the next day are made, etc etc. The other reason I don't think of myself as a big watcher of TV is the lack of anything worth my time to watch. Lisa's guide to choosing a show to watch - if it has a laugh track, forget about it. I know most of the shows that were popular when I was a kid all had laugh tracks - MASH, Happy Days, Threes Company - so maybe I just over did it, because now I can't stand the laugh track. So I gravitate towards watching the Food Network, because I love to eat, and almost anything on HBO. One of my favorite shows the past few years has been Big Love. That's the one about the polygamists in Utah. When I first started watching it I would tell people about it and they would be like, ewwwww, that sounds so WEIRD! Now of course it's all the rage. Everyone is talking about polygamy, it's in the news right here in British Columbia where we have our own controversial little polygamist community, and then there's a new reality show called Sister Wives, which I would swear was the basis for the fictional Big Love. Anyhoo, weird or not, I find the whole concept and hence the TV show quite fascinating, albeit in a kind of creepy morbid way, like when you drive by a car accident and you don't want to look but you just HAVE to look...
It's just not possible to watch the show without stirring up a discussion. Aside from all the religious hoopla about how God said that basically they'll go to hell if they don't engage in plural marriage (whew, the things men will say to get laid, I tell ya) what would it be like to actually have several wives if you were a man? Or share one man with a group of other wives? I have to say I like the concept of the built in daycare system - one wife goes to work, another stays home and takes care of all the kids - and I don't mind the idea of having my bedroom all to myself at least a couple nights a week. But come on. Ultimately it's just begging for trouble. I bet they have some amazing knock down drag 'em out fights, some serious hair pulling if you know what I mean. Eventually someone would have to rebel.
And really, why the hell would you want to share your husband? If you're going to go to the bother of being married, at least be married to someone who can practice enough self control to just be with you. Isn't that the point? Otherwise you might as well stay single. Aside from the daycare set up, I really can't see the difference. It seems to me it's just the man's way of saying okay, now you're mine, you can't see anyone else. If you were single, you would be free to date other people if you wanted to. Just like he is, as long as he's "married" to them, that is. It's a win win sweet set up for the men in that society.
I think the name of the show should be changed from Big Love to Big Ego. Because that's what those men have, egos the size of a small planet, in order for them to set themselves up with multiple wives and multiple children in their own little kingdom.
Whew. It's too early for this much drama. I think I need to go watch something on the Food Network now...