What to read, watch, and listen to if you lovedBig Love
Will Scheffer · Series · 2006
If you loved Big Love, start with Under the Banner of Heaven (Jon Krakauer) — a book on the same thread. Below: 4 books, 4 films and 2 podcasts, each matched to Big Love across media.
What hooked you in Big Love was the way high-stakes family dynamics collide with the isolating pressure of rigid, unconventional belief systems.
Books on the same thread
Under the Banner of Heaven
Jon Krakauer · Book
Explores: Religious extremism, Fundamentalist violence, Institutional secrecy.
If Big Love pulled you into the insular world of fundamentalist doctrine, this investigation provides the harrowing historical context behind the extreme violence such closed-off communities can foster.
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver · Book · 2013
Shares a thread with Big Love: Religious fundamentalism.
Just as Big Love explores the fracturing of a family under the weight of patriarch-led faith, this novel examines how one man's dogmatic rigidity destroys those closest to him.
Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtry · Book · 1988
Explores: Cattle Drive, American West, Frontier Life.
The epic scope of Big Love finds a parallel here, as you witness how a singular man's ambition and vision for a legacy fundamentally alter the lives of everyone nearby.
Sister Wife
Christine Brown Woolley · Book
Explores: polygamy, autonomy, leaving high-control groups.
While Big Love dramatized the complexities of polygamous life, this memoir offers an authentic, grounded look at the personal cost of autonomy and the difficult process of leaving such groups.
Films on the same thread
Breaking the Waves
Lars von Trier · Film · 1996
Explores: Faith and Doubt, Sacrifice, Guilt.
Big Love often interrogated the intersection of faith and sacrifice, a theme this film pushes to its breaking point, showing how religious devotion can complicate the most intimate human connections.
Giant
George Stevens · Film · 1956
Explores: Intergenerational Conflict, Racial Prejudice, Oil Boom.
Much like the power struggles in Big Love, this film highlights the friction between personal desire and the traditional, conservative social expectations of a deeply entrenched, isolated community.
Brokeback Mountain
Ang Lee · Film · 2005
Explores: repressed desire, homophobia, masculinity.
If you appreciated the internal conflict of characters in Big Love, you will recognize that same tension in this story of men balancing hidden, authentic lives against their conventional family obligations.
Big Fish
Tim Burton · Film · 2003
Explores: Father-Son Relationships, Storytelling, Life-Affirming.
This film mirrors the father-son tension seen in Big Love, focusing on how a complex patriarch's tall tales and larger-than-life persona obscure the truth from his own family members.
Podcasts on the same thread
The Archers
Podcast
Explores: family life, community, farming.
For those who enjoyed the serialized, domestic drama of Big Love, this long-running series offers a similar immersion into the intricate relationships and changing traditions of a rural community.
This American Life
This American Life · Podcast · 2026
Explores: The human condition, Personal narrative, Social observation.
The human curiosity that drove you to watch Big Love is satisfied here, as these narratives provide the same intimate, real-world window into the complexities of the human condition.
Keep exploring
Common questions
Is Big Love about a man living with multiple wives?
Yes, Big Love follows Bill Henrickson as he balances the needs of his three wives, Barb, Nicki, and Margene, while managing their seven children, three separate suburban houses, and his hardware store business in Salt Lake City.
Does Big Love feature the main character's parents?
Yes, the plot of Big Love involves Bill Henrickson being forced to reconnect with his polygamist parents after receiving disturbing news about his father. His parents live on a fundamentalist compound located in rural Utah.
How many wives does Bill have in Big Love?
In Big Love, Bill Henrickson has three wives named Barb, Nicki, and Margene. The story centers on how he manages the needs of these three women, their seven children, and his professional life in Salt Lake City.
Is Big Love set in a specific location?
Big Love is set primarily in suburban Salt Lake City, where Bill Henrickson lives with his three wives and seven children. The narrative also includes scenes at a fundamentalist compound in rural Utah where Bill's parents reside.