The television gods have spoken. Okay, not really. But the people in power at HBO have had their say and 'Big Love' will be back for a fifth season. Ten more episodes have been ordered as the fourth season continues to unfold. Hallelujah! The story of the Hendricksons goes on and on.

Unlike some other HBO drama series, 'Big Love' has not been a sky-rocket. It's been more a slow boil, gradually picking up fans and followers as the show evolves. Perhaps it was the very nature of the situation, a polygamist family living in plain sight in modern day Utah while keeping their way of life a closely guarded secret.

Bill and his three wives and passel of children try to keep to the principle while blending with suburbia, but they're continually pulled into controversy based on their individual pasts and the choices they've made. It all adds up to great drama.

TV is often considered a medium that's especially friendly to women, both in the audience and in front of the camera. (Certainly more so than the movies, which have been all but abandoned to teenage boys.)

This year, however, there didn't seem to be as many strong roles for women on TV's comedy and drama series. The Golden Globe TV races in the Best Actress categories are especially tight this year, and few newcomers will be jockeying with veterans for the five nominations in each category that will be announced on Dec. 15.

"It's Burke's Law." That was the opening tag for one of three successful TV series that starred Gene Barry, one of the classiest actors to appear on screen. On Wednesday, TV star Gene Barry died at at 90 of undetermined causes. He was living in an L.A. rest home, but I will remember Gene Barry as the man who made Burke's Law, Bat Masterson and The Name of the Game memorable TV entertainment.

Barry was also well-known as the original star of the 1953 version of The War of the Worlds, and when Steven Spielberg remade the film in 2005 with Tom Cruise, he gave Gene a quick cameo. In addition to being a versatile leading man -- capable of playing a bad guy, a bon vivant, cops, spies, gentlemen, gunslingers, and magazine publishers -- Gene Barry also was a song and dance man. In 1984, he was one of the toasts of Broadway in La Cage aux Folles. Currently Kelsey Grammer is about to play Gene's role in a 2010 spring revival.

If you want great acting, she will come. The Field of Dreams allusion is purposeful. The leading lady from that film, Amy Madigan, is joining ABC's Grey's Anatomy. The actress who's a past Oscar-nominee for Twice in a Lifetime will have a recurring role, becoming part of the Seattle Grace Hospital coterie on April 24 when the show returns with new episodes.

Last year, Amy was seen in Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone, which interestingly came out soon after she appeared on CBS's Criminal Minds for two shows. Going from features to television is clearly not a problem for the gifted actress. In fact, she won a Golden Globe for the TV movie Roe vs. Wade in 1990.

NBC brings us the Golden Globes tonight, and this is the last in our series of preview posts looking at the television categories. Sandy will be blogging live updates of the show here on TV Squad, so if Jack and 24 already have your attention, keep a browser open to play along. That said, let's look at the award for Best Television Series - Drama.

Inertia is a powerful thing. And it is one of the big problems with Emmy nominations. Too often the same show will get nominated year after year because that's just what they do, while newer, more deserving shows, are overlooked. The Golden Globes doesn't fall into that particular trap quite as often, but they have their own issues. The Globes have a tendency to favor shows with a lot of buzz, or big ratings, whether their quality is up to snuff or not. I think it's something we see again in the list of nominees this year.

(S01E07) The fine folks at Medium decided to kick off the new year with what I am calling an Ariel episode. And two big thumbs up to Sofia Vassilieva. I guess working along side the Golden Globe talent of Patricia Arquette must help, because she did a terrific job in a much more involved role than she usually gets.

Things got off to a creepy start with Allison's Carrie-esque dream of Ariel at the spring dance. Not only creepy because of the blood and stuff, but also because of how we know it will effect Allison. It's hard enough having all of the visions in her head, the lending library of horrible images as she puts it, but having it be one of her kids just amps it up. The parallel dream theme was set in motion very nicely in the breakfast scene when Ariel explained that she had the same dream, only with a rose petal ending, instead of the blood.

The nominees for the 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning. Here are the nominees in the major television categories:

Best TV Series - Drama
24
Big Love
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
Lost

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama
Patricia Arquette, Medium
Edie Falco, The Sopranos
Evangeline Lilly, Lost
Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy
Kyra Sedgewick, The Closer

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Drama
Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Hugh Laurie, House
Bill Paxton, Big Love
Kiefer Sutherland, 24

Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Desperate Housewives
Entourage
The Office
Ugly Betty
Weeds

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Zach Braff, Scrubs
Steve Carell, The Office
Jason Lee, My Name Is Earl
Tony Shalhoub, Monk

(UPDATE: One of our readers, Zachary, was kind enough to look up the miniseries nominees -- they weren't announced during this morning's ceremony. He posted them here.)

(SECOND UPDATE: Our sister site Cinematical is covering the movie nominations, if you're curious.)