Monday, June 11, 2007

Moving On

Big Love - TV - Review - New York Times

Enough ink and bits have been spilled over the ending of The Sopranos in the last 20 hours to keep even the fastest reader busy until autumn. But if you'd rather recover from your Bobby Bacala-sized TV hangover with some hair of the dog, I've got good news: Big Love is back tonight, and it's a really good show. Virginia Heffernan has the scoop:
It’s ingenious, HBO’s latest dark joke, and it investigates the same theme of family separatism that “The Sopranos” and “Six Feet Under” did. But let’s not kid ourselves. The quality of “Big Love” doesn’t even matter, does it?

The truth is, we have no choice but to watch, at least during this difficult time. “Big Love” is like Nicorette or Methadone. With the lights out on “The Sopranos,” and “Six Feet Under” a distant memory, we’re dope-sick, hard up for the bliss of great serialized fiction. A widespread tremor can already be detected among television viewers, and the street price of even midgrade drama has jumped.

So unless we rediscover novels or fresh air, we’re going to be watching some “Big Love” this summer.

If you're just jumping in now, DVR tonight's first episode and take a quick trip through the first season on DVD or, perhaps, On Demand (Comcast had the entire series available there when I checked last week). It's only an hour a week, after all--you'll still have plenty of time for novels and fresh air.

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