I'm not sure whether it's the buzz surrounding polygamy or the fact that I dressed as a compound sister-wife for Halloween -- or both -- but I've been voraciously awaiting the third season of HBO's Big Love, which finally kicks off this Sunday at 9 p.m. after more than a year away.

I'm happy to the report that the first three episodes do not disappoint; in fact, the start of Season 3 is so sharp, so tautly executed and so entertaining that Big Love has finally, after two hit-and-miss seasons, proven itself worthy of the network's self-important slogan, "It's not TV. It's HBO." Oh, and did I mention it's gotten pretty hilarious, too?

The first ep, "Block Party," picks up a few months after the close of Season 2. The youngest Hendrickson wife, Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) has given birth to a cherubic baby, leaving her and elder wife Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) to speculate on why second wife Nikki (Chloe Sevigny) has yet to reproduce for the second time.

But it isn't Nikki who's got health worries on her mind; Barb, who beat cancer seven years prior, may or may not be facing a recurrence. This potential bad news forces Barb to reconsider the addition of a fourth wife, Ana, a spunky non-Mormon waitress whom Bill met last season. Slavic actress Branka Katic (looking and sounding like a young Kathleen Turner with an Eastern European accent) is perfect as Ana, who offers an "outsider" perspective on the Hendrickson's non-traditional family that we hadn't really seen before.

Besides being busy wooing Ana, Bill (Bill Paxton) is beleaguered at work (hard times have hit the Salt Lake City home-improvement market) and still facing resistance in launching his Mormon-friendly gaming-machine business. There is a particularly compelling scene in which Bill and Margene are plugging the project to a Native American businessman whose wife pointedly questions their faith. "Don't Mormons believe the dark-skinned people are cursed? Why would you want to be in business with us?" Bill looks painfully puzzled and embarrassed, marking one of the first moments in the show's history where specific beliefs are put on the spot, though it's done with sharp respectfulness.

In fact this first episode (and the new season) centers wholly on the family's struggle to live their "principle." Between Nikki having to hide her identity on the block (the new neighborhood "ward" map shows her house grayed out), Bill being ousted from his post as the wiener-roaster at the annual block party (best line of the episode, delivered by Barb: "But Bill is always the hot dog man!") and Nikki's father, Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton), still in prison and facing the possibility of multiple counts of rape for his multiple young wives, the family is under fire on all fronts.

It's funny; as many issues as I have with the Mormon faith (namely the subjugation of women), I feel nothing but respect -- almost envy -- for the Hedricksons' lifestyle. Their home(s) burst with support and teamwork, and, though I'm not in the family way myself, I can imagine how nice it might be for a mother to have that much help as her disposal. You know, as long as she didn't mind her husband having sex with two other people on a regular basis.

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