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List Price: $59.99 | | Label: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Salesrank: 2011
Released: January 5, 2010 |
| Our Price: $38.99 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
As if juggling three wives weren't tricky enough, Season Three of Emmy®- and Golden Globe®-nominated 'Big Love' finds modern polygamist Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) tackling problems outside his three-house suburban home. Bill a practicing polygamist who lives in suburban Salt Lake City with his three wives and seven children. An independent businessman who runs a growing chain of hardware stores, Bill faces a myriad of challenges in meeting the emotional, romantic and financial needs of his wives Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin).
Description of Big Love: The Complete Third Season:
Three seasons in, the popular HBO series Big Love remains a highly entertaining and rewarding viewing experience. The cast is enormous and the storylines are numerous, with each of these ten 60-minute episodes adding new wrinkles to the plotlines already being pursued. This is business as usual for those who've been on board from the start, but while newcomers may need a couple of episodes to get up to speed, viewers of all stripes will be inexorably pulled in by the show's tangled combination of drama and black humor, personal peccadilloes and internecine strife, and big time social and religious issues. There really is nothing else like this on the television landscape, and that's entirely a good thing.
As usual, the series centers on the anything-but-normal life of Salt Lake City businessman Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton). Bill’s a study in contrasts: while he has plenty of objections to modern Mormon mores (he and his family are no longer active members of the church), he’s committed to the practice of polygamy, which remains the single most controversial aspect of Mormonism despite having been officially banned. Bill, his three wives, Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin), and their various children find themselves waging constant skirmishes on several fronts: with their nosy, judgmental neighbors, with the splinter Mormon clan headed by the evil, self-proclaimed holy man Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton), and with the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But the Henricksons' most pitched battles, and they are legion, tend to be amongst themselves. Though the wives generally get along with one another, the jockeying for position is endless, and Bill's desire for a fourth spouse this season definitely doesn’t make things any calmer. Other ongoing storylines include Grant’s trial for rape (similarities to the real-life prosecution of Mormon fundamentalist Warren Jeffs are no coincidence), which presents a serious conflict for Nicki, who happens to be Grant’s daughter; Bill and his partner’s ongoing efforts to open a Mormon-friendly casino on Indian land; and sub-plots involving teen pregnancy, kidnapping, adultery, and a host of other lurid behaviors. And while there’s a certain amount of what may be perceived as Mormon bashing going on, the edifying sixth episode, "Come, Ye Saints," in which the family visits Mormon landmarks from Utah to New York, features several of the season’s most moving scenes. --Sam Graham
Stills from Big Love: The Complete Third Season (click for larger image)
Big Love: The Complete Third Season Reviews:
These Characters Can Be Infuriating--the Lure of the Outlaw Mormons 
2009-08-08 - These are outlaw Mormons in this series. I didn't realize this until I had seen enough episodes of BIG LOVE. I erroneously thought that those Mormons living lawfully, one husband and wife only, are tolerant of polygamous Mormons. No, the lawful Mormons are the first to turn the outlaws in to the authorities and or to shun them upon discovery. I also did not realize that the outlaw Mormons view their polygamous lifestyles as part of their religious hereafter planning. They all plan on being reunited in the hereafter and being together in the large family they have built together. That is why being fruitful and multiplying so many times is important.
I keep watching this show every season even though I find these characters infuriating. Most infuriating is the effect this lifestyle has on their children. It's not so bad when they are young but when they become teens, any decisions they want to make about their own futures and lifestyles are stomped on because they have to follow in these polygamous footsteps. Talk about being in a straight jacket for life!
Salt Lake City businessman Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) is our polygamist in chief and he usually drives me absolute bats. Servicing this guy, in any sense of the word, is a full time job for every other character. One must be a huge egomaniac to occupy this position. Anything less than having full egomania and you would be forced to find yourself insufferable. When I am about to hurl something through my tv screen at his his head, I do remember though that he was brought up on an outlaw Mormon compound with a guru head and totally insane parents. Compared to them he is a model of decorum and the placid lifestyle. His entire business will collapse if he is discovered to be an outlaw polygamous Mormon. No one who is not one of these will patronize his business. So everyone faces complete financial ruin on a daily basis too.
Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is his original wife. This means all of her children are legitimate but she has two other houses attached to her house with two other wives and their children. This is not what she signed on for and she has lost her entire family of mother, sister and sister's children as a result of her husband's outlaw election. Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) are the other two wives. Their children are illegitimate and can not be seen in public with their father as it would blow their cover.
In this third season, Bill, incredibly enough, starts dating a fourth woman whom he wants to make his fourth wife. Bill doesn't believe in affairs or pre-marital sex. No, it is marriage or nothing for him. This fourth recruitment of a wife particularly infuriated me and I was grousing at the set, "Why can't you go out and have an affair like a normal person?"
This "moralist" also is trying to get in on the casino gambling business and out of his other consumer products business. Reason? No one in the gambling business cares how he leads his life and if they discover his lifestyle, nothing bad will happen financially.
This is another series, like WEEDS, which I would love to grade down. However, if I have watched three full seasons, got so engrossed that I felt like throwing something through the tv set, then I suspect I must be enjoying it. HBO has done it to me again, I'm afraid, hooked me in for the duration with these outlaw Mormons.
When will this be available 
2009-06-09 - I ordered this a few days ago, and can't seem to figure out when it will be released. Does anyone know when I can expect to get it? It was meant to be a birthday present, and now it's going to be a belated birthday present, and I am trying to figure out just how belated it will be.
Any information would be helpful, thanks.
No Other TV Series Like It
2009-05-18 - As some of the other reviewers mentioned, it was a long time coming for Season 3 to come out, but definitely worth the wait. I've been a loyal viewer of Big Love (it's one of my favorite HBO shows) since the beginning. The first one or two episodes of Season 3 may seem a bit trite (and boring) but that's because the writers are building up the story line. Hold on to your seats because after the first couple of episodes, you're going for a thrilling ride. As always, character development is superb as is the drama between the characters (inside and outside of the Hendrickson family). I won't go into the storyline, as I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but this is a definite must see.
The third season is the BEST one
2009-04-25 - I've been watching "Big Love"from the start,and to be honest,I was getting bored untill the third season started,and everything happened.The writters and actors really made this year the BEST,and I'm looking forward for season 4 to start in the fall.
Stellar writing and brilliant acting...
2009-04-18 - I have read on several Web sites that the ratings for this show are only so-so. It's a shame more people aren't watching it. This show has attracted the best character actors in Hollywood. And what a dream it must be to play characters that are so complex and multi-layered.
I will admit, the storylines are all very similar. They all revolve around either Bill having some issue with his wives or Bill struggling against people who are trying to keep him from the business deals he wants to make happen. (This season is focused on making Weber Gaming a success and all the trouble the getting into gambling is causing him and his family). The thing is, even though there is a predictable pattern of going back and forth between family drama and work drama, all the people in Bill's life continue to evolve and we continue to see them grow and struggle.
I truly hope this show is renewed for a few more seasons. I am still very invested in these characters and want to know what happens to them.
