"You awake?"

Appropriately, this is the first line in Big Love, a new HBO drama that's already generated plenty of pre-launch controversy with its dreamlike subject matter.

Big Love revolves around Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) who, on the surface, is not dissimilar to many clean-cut, suburban dads.

Bill lives in Salt Lake City. Bill drives an SUV. Bill takes an active interest in his children. Bill is a doting husband. Bill is a religious man. Bill is the savvy proprietor of Home Plus, a big-box emporium.

Like the rest of us, Bill worries about money, work, family — especially family. Because, well, Bill has three.

It's a peculiar situation. And one that's deftly captured in this early scene:

After a day at the office, Bill parks his GMC and stumbles toward his manicured abode, toting a briefcase and the dry-cleaning. He walks through the front door, kisses wife Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn), jokes with a teenage daughter, hugs a young son, kisses wife Nicki (Chloë Sevigny), walks into the kitchen and kisses wife Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin), all in one non-stop trajectory of amplified domestic bliss.

The weird part? It seems so ... normal.

In fact, after you get over the startling conceit — Bill has three wives and seven children? — you'll find that producers are not interested in shining a tawdry spotlight on the polygamist subculture for the purposes of salacious voyeurism.

Inside the Henrickson household(s) — three detached but contiguous homes that have a compound-feel thanks to the removed party-fences in the backyard — the characters, especially the women, are shot through with universal traits that render them entirely sympathetic.

Barb, Bill's first and oldest wife, is a substitute teacher. She serves as the unofficial den mother to the extended clan. She has accepted "The Principle" of multiple marriage, despite some obvious psychological issues arising from an illness.

Nicki, the second wife, is a shopaholic who believes most convincingly in the "celestial" arrangement, despite some obvious jealousy issues.

And then there's Margene, Bill's third and youngest wife, a former clerk at Home Plus who has embraced the lifestyle despite some obvious self-esteem issues.

So what you get is a mix of the outlandish and the mundane, the sacred and the profane. This is not surprising for a network that has masterfully tweaked the conventions of "family" on shows such as Sex and the City, Entourage, Six Feet Under, and The Sopranos.

But here's the kicker: Big Love may be HBO's most earnest, sincere, nonjudgmental, family-oriented drama to date.

Which brings us to the controversy. Although the Henricksons are not identified as Mormons, by the third episode, there's no mistaking the show's connection to that faith.

The Mormon Church has even taken the unusual step of issuing a statement pointing out that adherents who practise polygamy are excommunicated. Just so there's no confusion, Big Love tags each episode with this epilogue: "The Mormon Church officially banned the practice of polygamy in 1890."

This disclaimer, in turn, has angered anti-polygamists, such as the Utah-based Tapestry Against Polygamy, which claims that while the Mormon Church explicitly forbids the practice, implicitly, it's quietly tolerated.

Producers are thus faced with a curious dilemma: they must construct a series about Salt Lake City polygamists that doesn't tar one of that area's dominant religious groups, while hoping to avoid whitewashing something that's illegal and has been linked to criminal abuse.

The solution? Present polygamy in two separate made-for-TV contexts.

First, we have Bill and his wives, the present day polygamists — remember, there are still approximately 20,000 to 40,000 practitioners in the United States alone — who are trying to conceal their pariah status and integrate into modern society.

Second, we have Juniper Creek, an unsettling, fundamentalist compound in the hills where Nicki's messianic father, Roman Grant (the scene-stealing Harry Dean Stanton), rules among the squalor. Roman epitomizes the malevolent, anachronistic polygamist, a "Prophet" prone to extortion, violence, teen seduction, and perpetual menace as he inveighs against the unfaithful while riding in the backseat of a Hummer.

By the end of Sunday's premiere, it is the uneasy relationship between Bill and father-in-law Roman that seems destined to drive the conflict.

Undoubtedly, this Tom Hanks-produced series is sure to trigger more protests during its 12-episode run.

But this is fiction. So the real question is this: do you think Big Love will engage viewers with its themes and characters and storylines? I don't want to sound like a polygamist, but "I do," "I do," and "I do."

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