As HBO prepares to usher in an all-new era of morally conflicted gangsters, childlike men, rich people with ennui, and women having sex and also living in the city, it’s also closing the door on its past, announcing today that Big Love, the drama about a sprawling family of polygamists overseen by the world’s most shortsighted and selfish patriarch, will end its run after this upcoming fifth season.
Creators Mark Olsen and Will Scheffer issued a statement on how the series’ end represents a natural conclusion, saying, “When we created Big Love in 2002, we had a strong conception of the journey the Henrickson family would make over the course of the series, of the story we had to tell. While we were in the writers’ room this year shaping our fifth season, we discovered that we were approaching the culmination of that story.” For fans of the show, this probably comes as no surprise, seeing as the Big Love story seemed to reach a culmination somewhere around season three, then seemingly went bug-fucking crazy last year with tangential stories about casinos and cockfighters and creepy, incestuous eugenics plots, then had Bill run for Senate for some reason. Anyway, I’d say this probably comes as a relief to critics of the show like star Chloë Sevigny, but you know…