The allegorical realism of Big Love

At TNR, Lee Siegel offers an excellent critique, mostly positive, of HBO's Big Love, my favourite first-run show on TV, and of HBO dramas generally (like Six Feet Under and The Sopranos).

Best line: "Once TV looked for the extraordinary in the ordinary. Now TV looks for the ordinary in the extraordinary."

Key point: "The question that Bill's wives keep asking themselves is: are we here by choice or are we trapped? That is to say, how much are you willing to pay for financial security, for emotional safety, for romantic or sexual attachment? That is a pretty fundamental question. Usually it gets asked when couplehood reaches a dramatic breaking point. The really absorbing quality of Big Love is that it can ask fundamental questions without constructing breaking points. The calm, ordinary course of a polygamous day is inherently combustible. You don't need any splitting to see the seams."

Exactly. Which is why it's such a great show.

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(Recommendation: If you don't already have a subscription to TNR, even an online one (which I have), you should consider getting one. Its center-left hawkishness may turn some off, but, overall, it's an exceptional publication.)