The Shows Big Love and The Simpsons - Essay Example

Both shows: deal with relatively large families, although one show is about an extended family and one family is a nuclear family; have interpersonal relationship troubles, although one show’s interpersonal problems are more complicated than the other; and deal with people who have troubles, but one show is less easy for people to relate to than the other.Big Love and The Simpsons both deal with large families. However, Big Love is really more about a quite larger family than The Simpsons.

In Big Love, Bill’s family is a fundamentalist Mormon family practicing polygamy, which means he has multiple marriages. The main characters of the show are Bill (the businessman who owns a chain of home improvement stores), and his three wives, Barb, Nicki, and Margene. The first episode was about their family’s struggle to live their polygamous way of life while keeping it a secret. The Simpson family is a nuclear family with bold traits. Each character is an icon by itself, but when they are together they form the iconic nuclear family.

The key family members are the parents Homer and Marge and their three children Bart, Lisa, and Maggie.Big Love and The Simpsons, in their first show, both breach the topics of relationship troubles within the family. The difference is that the troubles described within Big Love are more serious in nature than the troubles in The Simpsons, which are rather petty problems. The first episode of Big Love focuses on Bill’s effort to find balance in the midst of having three wives while dealing with Nicki’s father, who wants a larger share of the store's profit.

Meanwhile, in The Simpsons, Bart sneaks away and goes to get a tattoo saying “Mother.” However, while getting the tattoo, Marge—his mother—finds out and interrupts the procedure.