TVSquad

The season three finale of Big Love the other night left viewers with one heck of a cliffhanger. It also revealed some major secrets and saw the Hendricksons on the verge of a brave new world. If you haven't watched yet and don't want to be spoiled, now's the time to stop reading.

On the other hand, if you're still pondering what it all meant, jump with me and let's consider what we watched.

Last week's episode of Big Love received more hype than any other show this season for one simple reason. The Church of Latter-Day-Saints (LDS) was protesting – in advance – the HBO drama depicting a secret church ritual. The church felt that the producers had gone too far by showing a sacred ceremony that was not meant to be revealed to those who are not members of the faith. While I respect their desire to protect their traditions, I think they should have waited till the show aired, because now that I've seen it, my attitude is simply this, "No big deal."

(S02E10) I'm going to go out on a limb here and argue that Bill has essentially not changed since the beginning of the show. Oh, sure, he is still acting and behaving-- but I don't think there is anything inherently different about the way he is behaving. He is still ambitious, still thinks he is right, and he is a salesman: He thinks he can talk his way into or out of any situation. However, I bet that was cold comfort at the end of tonight's episode, considering who he ended up in bed with...

(S02E09) Things are certainly heating up on Big Love. I don't know for certain what big finale we are gearing up for. I used to think that it was Bill taking over as head of the U.E.B. (United Effort Brotherhood). I thought last season was leading Bill toward being the prophet. But now I'm not so sure. Now, more and more, I think things are careening toward Bill losing everything. I don't think he'll lose the store (though, that would make Margie's concerns foreshadowing), but I think he is going to lose Barb. And that, in Bill's world, would be everything.

(S02E03) I was reading Meredith's post from last week's episode, along with the comments. Boy y'all must have really loved this episode! Lots of time spent on the compound this week, with Nikki and Bill there for a big family reunion. I was thinking about this because even though the compound parts of the plot line are also not my favorite, it's not because the compound creeps me out. I just prefer the dynamics of the three households. There isn't anything particularly familiar about the compound to me either, though I love the scenery they show of Utah. That is the scenery of my childhood memories.

(S02E01) I am so happy that Big Love is back! Oh, I have missed them all. Sometimes when Bill is talking on the phone and he tells Barb that she has been humbled, it just brings back my entire Mormon youth. And it also makes me wish she would reach through the phone and slap him. But before I get to that, let me just do a couple of housekeeping announcements: First, I am going to be sharing custody if this review slot with the lovely and talented Meredith O'Brien. So, next week, look for her by-line.

Here's a few shows coming down the pike from PBS and National Geographic:

Tonight at 9 p.m. (but check listings) on PBS, "Hijacked" will be shown on American Experience. The film tells the story of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine whose members hijacked four commercial aircraft and commandeered a fifth in 1970 to attract attention to their cause. Six hundred people were taken hostage, four planes were blown up, but no one was killed. The documentary will explore both the parallels and differences between terrorism then and now.

(S01E07) Bill Henrickson wasn't kidding when he told his first wife Barb in bed at the end of last night's episode, "Everything is spinning out of control." Talk about an understatement!

His other two wives Nikki and Margene are indulging in behavior that Barb feels will draw unwanted scrutiny to their family unit. Margene seems to be increasingly desperate for attention and her very-forward neighbor Pam is showing up any time, anywhere. (Think Marie Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond.)

Nikki is battling with her own issues, including her mounting credit card debt ($58,000 and counting) and her jealousy over Barb getting the most attention from Bill. It also appears that her religious beliefs are being called into question, whether from some very annoying missionaries (who would even allow these knuckleheads onto their property a second time?) or her own father, the cunning Roman Grant.

Speaking of Roman, his battle with Bill over his expected "tithing" from the Home Plus stores is getting nastier and could explode into violence before long. Roman's minions end up bulldozing the homes of Bill's family, and they end up in a fleabag motel. To top things off, if Bill's brother Joey ends up going off the deep end, his wife Wanda is going to hold Bill responsible.

So what do real-life polygamists think of HBO's Big Love? Today's New York Times features an interview with some women who have been or currently are "sister-wives" and gauged their opinions on how people like them are portrayed in the show.

For the most part, they thought the show seemed to cast them in a fairly positive light, although they weren't thrilled with the sexual content, saying that they would never put that type of pressure on their men. What was surprising was their take on Bill Henrickson--they all thought he was not "standing up" to his wives and not taking control of the family dynamic.

The women expressed concerns that the show will give viewers a more negative impression of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, and they want to make a more concerted effort to educate the public about their lifestyle. (Good luck on that one!)

According to the story, Big Love is not drawing a large audience (3.4 million last week), and the producers are determined to portray the more "darker" aspects of the polygamous lifestyle, so get ready for some serious plot twists in the next few weeks.

After having been transfixed by last night's episode of The Sopranos, I was pretty much in the mindset that anything following the show would be a tremendous letdown. Well, the premier episode of Big Love certainly did not come remotely close to The Sopranos, but I was still rather intrigued by what I saw.

Now we all have to remind ourselves that when we watch anything on TV, we have to accept dramatic (or comedic) license and have to suspend reality. In the case of Big Love, you're going to have to kick reality out of your house. When you watch this program, you have to constantly remind yourself that this isn't real--at least you don't think it is. It's hard to believe in this day and age that polygamy still exists, and in this particular case, that it seems almost normal.

Bill Henrickson owns a chain of home improvement stores, and he is doing his best to keep his own house in order. Make that three houses in order, because he has three wives--Barb, Nicki, and Margene--and seven children who all live together in a trio of houses joined by a common backyard. It doesn't take long to see who among the three wives seems to yield more of the power. Barb aka "Boss Lady" pretty much runs the entire show, and comes across as the most logical wife of the bunch. Nicki seems to be the most unstable (if you can believe that) of them all, constantly seeking out attention and making her jealousy over Barb rather obvious. Margene, the youngest wife, trips over herself to get Bill's attention, and is ready to satisfy him at every opportunity. Bill manages to move from house to house to house to wife to wife to wife to family to family to family without much effort. Just picture a typically dysfunctional American family and multiply it by three.