You must read Ta-Nehisi Coates comparison of his complicated Baltimore family with the Richardson family on Big Love. It's just good writing.
Douthat says that the show is a sympathetic portrayal of a conservative, religious family life. I don't think it's all that sympathetic this season. We're hearing a lot more of the abuses of conservative, religious life now. Ripped from the headlines, they are talking about forced marriages, abandoned boys, and double standards. Barb's religious Mormon sister is a mean-spirited, hypocrite. Every time the wives say that Bill is their Lord and master, it makes my skin crawl.
While I appreciate Ta-Nehisi's wonderful essay and sympathy towards the Bill character, I see too many differences between modern, complicated family life and polygamy. Still, Big Love is one of the best shows on TV.
Apt. 11d 
Big Love in Siberia: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/27/polygamy-study-russia-central-asia
It’s the man shortage. Where there are man shortages, there are women who will take a 1/2 man, or a 1/4 man. With very large numbers of black men in jail, moderate numbers marrying black women, there is a real problem for (particularly educated) black women finding someone to marry.
My wife’s cohort of highly educated white women has faced in some ways a similar problem: you spend years in school and building your career, then you are 34 and look around for a partner, and all your peers are marrying 26-year-olds.
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