BIG LOVE, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT & GREY’S
If you have HBO, you must watch Big Love. This new series is very original and thought-provoking, not to mention controversial. On a basic level, the show is about polygamy, but there is much more depth to it than that. Bill Paxton is a man with several families and a tremendous amount of responsibility; you can literally feel his tension as he goes from house to house, and wife to wife. While some might fantasize about the idea of having three wives, the reality is unglamorous. Paxton is perfectly cast as the sole patriarch, running a successful business while balancing two covert marriages (his first marriage is the only public and legal one), and battling the politics of the polygamy sect he chose to distance himself from. The youngest wife, played by Ginnifer Goodwin, has a blog: http://www.hbo.com/biglove/. I have to say that I will never be able to see actress Daveigh Chase (who plays Rhonda on this show) as anything other than the evil girl in The Ring. And it’s nice to see Tina Majorino on screen again – after many years as a child actor (Waterworld, When a Man Loves a Woman), she only recently reemerged in Napoleon Dynamite and on Veronica Mars.
The third season of Arrested Development is coming out on DVD in June, but I haven’t heard if Showtime or another network has picked up the show. Take a glance at the current primetime sitcoms that rank consistently high in the ratings each week; there is nothing as remotely funny or clever as Arrested Development. Sad.
I heard a rumor that someone is coming out on Grey’s Anatomy. Something tells me it will be a woman, she won’t be a main character, and she’ll be bisexual (especially given that the sexual proclivities of the leads have been on display since day one). I don’t believe there has been a recurring bisexual male character on television since Homicide: Life on the Street boldly and briefly delved into that territory in the 90’s.