If there's a better-written, better-acted, more originally conceived show on television, I defy you to name it.
Sure, virtually every character is a polygamist, but there are plenty of shows about the humanity of folks you might not want to invite to dinner.
Serial killers, pot mums, corrupt cops and mobsters of all variety get their fair share of nominations and wins, while Big Love thus far has gone without.
Fans have waited long enough - the writers' strike kept the show from its original return date.
But it seems to have been worth it.
Next season promises to be the best yet, as the Henricksons are forced to stand up for who they are.
As soon as they figure that out.
With Roman, the Juniper Creek prophet and patriarch played by Harry Dean Stanton, in jail, local tolerance for polygamists has grown increasingly thin.
And for good reason: more and more women are recounting brutal tales of forced marriage.
Bill (Bill Paxton), Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) begin to feel not only increasingly threatened, but also, although they are no fans of Roman's, his trial will only bring more scrutiny to their pre-fab triptych, especially considering that Nicki is Roman's daughter.
Eventually, however, they each will face a choice.
No longer is it enough for any of them to blindly follow the Principle.
The family members must re-examine their relationship to Juniper Creek and the modern world, reconsider the reasons they live as they do and come to some understanding of what it means.
That, of course, is the larger journey.
Episodically, all the fun happens in the meanwhiles.
Nicki remains torn between her love of Bill and loyalty to her father - although she realises her identity makes her a danger, still she works with her scheming mother, Adaleen (Mary Kay Place), to out and thwart the women who have agreed to testify.
Bill is still struggling to find a place in the world for Weber Gaming; Barb remains at odds with her sister and mother; and Bill's mother (the incomparable Grace Zabriskie) seems to have gone around the bend, while his brother Joey (Shawn Doyle) has made his crazy wife Wanda (Melora Walters) even crazier by marrying again.
Among Generation Y, the always plotting and creepy Rhonda (Daveigh Chase) is no healthier, and the older Henrickson children have secrets and troubles of their own.
Oh, and as if this weren't enough, Bill is thinking about expanding the family - Ana (Branka Katic) is back, by popular demand, offering viewers a chance to see exactly how a white-bread like Bill gets a regular woman to agree to this whole thing.
Many shows over the years have attempted to redefine family, but it's hard to imagine one that pushes quite so hard at our cultural and emotional borders without leaving viewers feeling bruised, conned or forgotten in the quest to be edgy.
Big Love screens on Wednesdays after News Tonight on ONE.
