"Find out how Kody met his four wives: Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn. "

So goes the promo for a seven part television series on TLC - The Learning Channel. That's right, The Learning Channel—which usually contains documentaries about things that we are actually supposed to... ummm..., you know, learn.

Just like HBO's series Big Love, this series is about polygamists from one of the Mormon offshoot sects that practice plural marriage. But where Big Love is a fictional drama, Sister Wives is a documentary about an actual polygamous family—apparently one of many. The ad for Sister Wives urges us to:

Rethink Love.
     Rethink Marriage.
          Rethink Family Reality.

How is it that two television channels have been running very similarly themed series about plural marriage at the same time? And why now? As one critic entitled her review of the last week's series finale of Big Love, "Goodbye, 'Big Love,' you almost made the idea of polygamy attractive."

Mark my words, the battle over redefining marriage is just beginning!