Saturday, August 18, 2007

Big Love: I flippin' knew it!


Last night I finally got around to watching this week's episode of Big Love. In it, the diaboloical almost-child-bride Rhonda Volmer threatens goody-two-shoes Heather that she'll tell everyone that Heather is secretly in love with her best friend, Sarah Henrickson (the oldest kid in the polygamous Henrickson family). I had a feeling early in the first season that the show was going to go that direction, when Heather the Super Mormon mentioned to Sarah that she volunteered for a gay youth center. At the time, I thought (OK, hoped) they were going to go the relationship route with these two -- a theory bolstered a few weeks later when they made weird googly eyes at each other at a party.

But any hints the show seemed to be dropping tapered off, and then this season Sarah got a boyfriend. But Heather still seemed pretty intense about Sarah, so I started to think that either it was one-sided, or that maybe I was projecting the whole thing. After all, I used to be Heather -- super-conservative church freak, yet I considered myself to be thoughtful, open-minded and non-judgmental. I was particularly sympathetic to gay issues, trotting out that "love the sinner, hate the sin" business. (I loved the sinner, all right.) I was uncomfortable with and jealous of my best friend's boyfriend, but I never thought to examine why. If someone had confronted me with it like Rhonda did to poor Heather, my face probably would have registered the same expression -- oh, shit. Heather denies it, but you can see the lightbulb turn on. That's not true. Is it? It's not, right? Oh God, it probably is.

Rhonda astutely points out that even if it's not true, people will think it is, so either way, Heather is in trouble. I'm be interested to see where the show goes with this plotline. Wherever it lands, if it gets Tina Majorino (Heather) and Amanda Seyfried (Sarah) more screen time, I'm all about it. I loved those two in Veronica Mars, and it's been fun to watch them work with completely different material. They both have a boatload of talent. I've been particularly impressed with Seyfried, who shows a lot of depth in her portrayal of Sarah. As for Tina Majorino, well -- sometimes I have a TV girlfriend who is way too young for me, and she is one of them. I didn't come out until I was in my 20s, so I get a few retroactive TV crushes on girls my teenage self would have liked, had I been in possession of a clue.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

haha! you're funny. no need to feel creepy for crushing on cute TV girls who are way too young...it's TV, it's all fantasy anyway! I used to feel guilty as a college freshman for crushing on katie holmes cuz she was playing a 14-year-old...then I realized that in actuality, the actress herself was like 6 months older than me, so it's okay. but it's okay either way, that's my point. like how I am now head-over-heels for gabby christian on south of nowhere (also over 18 in real life!) but I think that might just be because she reminds me so much of my ex-girlfriend from high school.

what I am saying is. crushes are good. TV crushes are the best :)