Big Love mousings: S1E6-8

Man, I am just not digging this show, and really struggling to find redeeming qualities for the majority of the characters.  I still like daughter Sarah but she's hardly ever around.  Bill and Barb were fun while they were sneaking around but that's over now.  My new favorite might be Bill's mom, Lois, but she's a total nutball.

E6:  Bill's dad's first wife (not Lois) has died and a bunch of Hendricksons go to the funeral, which is awkward.  Lois wants to be moved up to first wife; her husband is not inclined that way until Bill pays him off.  On the closer-to-home second-wife front, Nicki continues to be frustrated with her second-class citizenship (lying about her status, not being able to use the family discount at Bill's store).  But any sympathy that is engendered is totally obliterated when we learn that her whole "I want to bring a new soul into the family" was just a ploy to put the kibosh on Bill and Barb's affair.  Everything is complicated further when we learn that Nicki came onto the scene in the first place to nurse Barb through her bout with cancer, and these two wives do, in fact, have a connection.

E7:  Roman tells his weirdo son Alby that he's off the "harass Bill Hendrickson" detail and Alby heads in town for a wild night of convenience store groceries and a cheap motel.  A hustler invites himself over and it almost seems like Alby might go Brokeback for a minute, but he starts pounding his head against the wall and the hustler runs away, terrified.  Nicki's starting to show some cracks: breaking down when Barb confronts her about her $58,000 debt, and then later freaking out on some pushy LDS missionaries who knock on her door and call her out for being a polygamist.  The missionaries were sent by Margene's new BFF Pam, who is working her churchy wiles to bring Margene back from the dark side.  The best part is when Sarah brings her straight-arrow LDS friend Heather (the amazing Tina Majorino) home for dinner without telling her plural family about it.  Heather is super-polite and friendly but does tell Bill and Barb that she has some strong feelings against polygamy and would love to talk with them about it.  Bill looks completely poleaxed and Barb stammers, "That ... would be nice, dear."  Heh.  Also, Roman kicks all of Bill's family members out of the compound, just because he can.

E8:  This was a particularly annoying episode as Bill's dad and all his wives descend upon Bill's three homes.  The wives are morons and put a big scratch in poor Margene's new car.  And Bill's dad refuses to use toilets, preferring to pee in the kitchen sinks.  Margene sulks about being the baby wife; Nicki worries that Bill will kick her out of the family when he learns about her credit card debt; and Barb is heartbroken over her ended affair with her husband ... and is gobsmacked to learn that Bill's brother Joey is - gasp! - a monogamist and wants to take his ONE wife and leave the compound.

I'll finish this season but I won't be picking up S2 any time soon.  What I am looking forward to (aside from The Walking Dead on AMC 10/31) is the fact that I moved 10 or so horror films to the top of my Blockbuster queue ... and that's what we'll be doing in October!