By Michelle Lerner

HBO’s BIG LOVE has a unique look which makes it instantly inviting. The show is shot in bright, hot whites and dazzling colors — making its setting, Utah, seem like a big, shiny, clean place. It is a vision of the American dream; of immaculate, just-built homes near wide-aisled shopping centers and gleaming new cars for everyone.
   
Maybe it is telling, then, that Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) the first wife in the Henrickson clan, drives an old wood-paneled station wagon. In this episode, the reality of her situation seems to cave in on her. She chose polygamy to please her husband, Bill, and not because of any religious beliefs; as a result she feels all wrong. The car is a talisman of the life she knew before — of 12 monogamous years and traditionally-accepted values. Barb flees, looking for answers, in that very car.
   
The real pleasure of this show is watching the subtle, shifting relationships between Barb and the other two wives, Nicolette and Margene. (Sometime I feel the shiver of high school in how they treat each other — Nicolette especially.) Unlike the polygamists living the old way out in the country, these three have all the comforts of the contemporary world — no trucks to fix or outhouses to build — and their relations with Bill are almost modern. Except, of course, that there are three of them. More importantly, they all recognize the others are a part of the deal; they’re married to each other as well as Bill. Without each of the pieces, there is no puzzle. And, with Barb’s defection, the puzzle looks for a moment like it may fall apart.
   
Nicolette (the brilliant Chloë Sevigny) is the most old-style of the three. She’s the one that mends the dishwasher, wears the strange clothes and packs heat. This episode finds her both praying for Barb to leave for good, so she can become first wife, and urging Barb to come back, out of true friendship and for the good of their marriage. Her pride, arrogance, strength and, well, vanity are amazing to watch as they all do battle, shifting across her face. Nicolette is one of those people who is positive she is right all the time. I know a thousand just like her —  and I can’t stand any of them — but they make great TV. They are the characters you love to hate.
   
Margene (a perky Gennifer Goodwin) is the wife that was once lost, but found religion and a family in her strange arrangement. She’s the youngest, the most nubile, unformed and, frankly, irritating. There’s no way she’s as stupid as Nicolette and Barb treat her, and I wish she would realize that and take a stand. But, in every pecking order there has to be an omega, and she’s it.
   
Bill Paxton’s Bill makes an odd focal point for these women, but he’s strong enough that I buy it. He believes what he believes, and he does so truly. It’s where he’s from. His family is everything to him, and he will stop at nothing to protect them.
   
I want to mention three other characters that I think are just great — almost reason enough to watch the show just for their performances. Mary Kay Place as Adaleen Grant, Nicolette’s mother and the wife of Roman, the head of the sect, may be a country sister-wife, but she has all the moxie of an old-fashioned gun moll. She knows how the world works, and she raises that eyebrow perfectly at Nicolette’s silliness.
   
Harry Dean Stanton is spot-on as the creepy Roman Grant — leering at his 14-year-old wife and foisting blackmail on Bill’s cornered brother, all crinkled face and hoarse voice. He blatantly uses his religion to manipulate, the whole time convinced that the Lord is on his side. Kind of like Cardinal Wolsey on THE TUDORS.
   
Last but not least is Grace Zabriskie as Bill Henrickson’s absolutely mad mother, Lois. In the league of bad mothers, she is up there with Livia Soprano. Her lemon pucker mouth and pruned face have the completely wrong thing to say for every occasion. She is just good fun to watch.
   
I found this episode on the slow side, but I am looking forward to sinking back in to the crisp, clean world of BIG LOVE. The dirty laundry that was stuffed into the closet seems about ready to burst through the front door.