A Highly Logical End

It was an ending I wasn't totally expecting, but as I cleared the tears from my eyes and forced myself to stop bawling, I came to a zen-like, Spock moment: it was highly logical.

Yesterday, I finished the final season of what has become my most favorite guilty pleasure, Big Love.  HBO's dramatization (and at times glorification) of a polygamist family in Utah caught my attention in its first season.  I was in a Ft. Worth hotel for a few days visiting my uncle and his family.  The second episode of the first season aired three times while we were there, and I watched the same episode each time it was on.  Each season has been purchased on DVD without being viewed beforehand: I call that a cold buy.  After that one episode I saw three times, I knew this show was something different and dare I say to much public chagrin...special.  Special for centering its attention on such a hush-hush/taboo subject, and outstanding for towing that line between sheer drama and guilty soap opera plotlines.  I knew a show that is on the network that has taken TV drama to a new level, one that demands perfection and greatness, would not let me down.  My money would not be wasted on these cold buys.

The acting was incredible, the characters so well drawn and played out that I feel like they were actually in my life, and the ending was perfect for where the family Henrickson had come from and where it had gone.  To continue my Star Trek references, the Henricksons had boldy gone where no polygamist family had dared go before in this or the last century: PROUDLY PUBLIC.  I loved their bravery, the reality of their family struggles, and their desire to put faith above all else in their family lives and drama. 

Many wonder how I could love a show about polygamy so much, and I still think it goes back to the last bit in the paragraph above.  Even though these were fictional characters, their need to be a part of a church and a family of people centered on God was refreshing, especially for a network such as HBO.  When you strip away the outrageous history and mythos behind polygamy and Mormonism, when you get the crux of their faith, you realize they are just fighting for what they believe in...and, don't we all have a right to do that? 

I'll miss you, Henricksons...yes, even you, Nicki.