'Big Love' Stirs Controversy with Mormon Temple Scene

The writers and creator of Big Love -- the HBO drama about a Mormon, polygamist family in Utah -- knew they weren't going to win any friends among followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when they started airing the critically acclaimed show.

But now word has gotten out that the season finale will include a dramatization of a sacred Mormon ceremony which is supposed to only be seen by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

The show's staff said they researched the ceremony and consulted former Mormons for accuracy, but church members are upset by what they see as a violation, the Associated Press reported. In a statement, church leaders said, "Certainly church members are offended when their most sacred practices are misrepresented or presented without context or understanding."
HBO responded to the controversy by apologizing and saying: "In approaching the dramatization of the endowment ceremony, we knew we had a responsibility to be completely accurate and to show the ceremony in the proper context and with respect. We therefore took great pains to depict the ceremony with the dignity and reverence it is due."

Regardless of the hullabaloo over the temple scene (or scenes, I'm not sure it's one or more), Big Love is down to only two more episodes. And they're shaping up to be intense. The last one, where Nicki was finally unmasked as the manipulating liar she's been -- criminally undermining her father's prosecution by assuming a fake identity (Margene's) to work in the prosecutor's office and then having an emotional dalliance (unconsummated) with the prosecutor -- was one of the strongest episodes of the season, that and the road trip episode.

Any predictions for the last two episodes, other than controversy?

Image credit: HBO.