Shiny Happy People: An Indictment of Reality Television
A review of "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets."
Part 1:
I wrote an autobiographical reflection for WP3 and switched to a film review for WP4.
In the overcrowded landscape of reality television, where the line between entertainment and exploitation is often blurred, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets stands out as a strong critique of the genre. Facially a deep dive into the dark secrets of the Duggar family and their reality show 19 Kids and Counting, the four-part documentary series more importantly presents a damning indictment of reality television itself. Released in June of 2023 on Amazon Prime Video, directors Olivia Crist and Julia Willoughby Nason’s masterful storytelling and intense scrutiny of the darkness lurking behind the Duggar family’s wholesome facade calls the ethics and intentions of reality television into question.
At first glance, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets appears to be just another cult-focused reality television show in a flooded marketplace. Yet, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is unique in that it does not just explore a family intertwined with a cult, but a cult-involved family featured on a highly popular and extremely mainstream show. From 2008 to 2015, TLC’s lighthearted, family-friendly reality show 19 Kids and Counting followed the Duggars, a family with 19 children led by patriarch Jim Bob Duggar and his wife Michelle. Unlike 19 Kids and Counting, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets shatters any illusion of a peaceful domestic environment, aggressively confronting the allegations of abuse and exploitation that led to the abrupt cancellation of 19 Kids and Counting in 2015. Despite these allegations, TLC went on to create the spin-off Counting On, which featured assorted members of the Duggar family until further controversy led to its cancellation in 2021.
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets explores the allegations and controversies tied to the Duggar family, providing a range of powerful interviews and convincing expert analysis. The series provides incredible insight into the sexist power dynamics and cycles of abuse within the Duggar family. Additionally, directors Crist and Willougby Nason extend their scrutiny beyond the Duggar family into the cult the family adheres to, effectively leveraging the Duggar case study as an entry point into an examination of the right-wing Evangelical Christian cult led by Bill Gothard, the Institute in Basic Life Principles, also known as the IBLP.
While the exposure of the Duggar family’s allegations and the insidious practices of the Institute in Basic Life Principles is powerful in itself, the more profound critique within the series is its indictment of reality television. Throughout the documentary series, the directors and producers shine a light on the ways reality television distorts and manipulates narratives to fit a certain image, often sacrificing authenticity for the sake of ratings. And as Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets reveals, there are significant human costs to this manipulation. The show effectively shows how reality television can exploit its subjects for entertainment value and profit.
The series starts by presenting an intense narrative around the allegations of abuse at the hands of the eldest brother, Josh Duggar. In 2015, reports surfaced that Josh had molested several of his younger sisters before the show’s filming. The allegations quickly blew up, with widespread media attention leading to the cancellation of the show. The documentary series portrays the allegations in an incredibly powerful way that centers the victims’ perspectives within a wider culture of abuse. Jill Duggar, one of the older daughters abused by Josh, poignantly tells her incredibly painful story in a way that would leave any viewer disgusted and angry. She goes on to explain how she and the other victims were silenced by her parents, describing how Jim Bob coerced them into an interview with Megyn Kelly that minimized the allegations. According to Jill, Jim Bob forced them into that interview to mitigate the fallout from the allegations so that TLC would continue to put them on TV. And his campaign worked, with TLC airing the spin-off Counting On within the year. Through these interviews, the series exposes a culture of complicity perpetuated by reality television, where victims are knowingly exploited to protect the entertainment value. After watching Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, it is impossible to believe that TLC did not sweep knowledge of these allegations under the rug to preserve their financial interest in the Duggar family.
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets’ exploration of the IBLP cult and the Duggars’ adherence to their practices also underscores the unethical nature of reality television. By tying the Duggars to the harmful and widespread ideology of the IBLP, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets deepens the perception of negligence by TLC in allowing these practices to be sanitized in front of millions of viewers. Interviews with experts and those who have experienced the harmful culture of the IBLP firsthand effectively provide the viewers with an understanding of just how dastardly the IBLP is. The documentary series discusses the true nature of the horrors of the IBLP, from the teaching of slut-shaming in their homeschool curriculum to an examination of their umbrella authority practices that enforce abusive patriarchal power structures, stripping women of agency. The series also highlights how TLC allowed the Duggars to directly reference IBLP leader Bill Gothard in 19 Kids and Counting, despite his teachings and his role in a major sex scandal. An interview with pastor and journalist Josh Pease highlighted the danger of TLC’s sanitized portrayal of the IBLP’s practices, comparing 19 Kids and Counting to a “gateway drug” for the IBLP, much like Tom Cruise and other celebrities are accepted ambassadors of Scientology.
Another incredibly poignant example of TLC’s willful ignorance in allowing the Duggar family to spread dangerous ideology lies in the show’s discussion of blanket training. In 19 Kids and Counting, Michelle Duggar talks about her use of blanket training with her infant children on multiple occasions. While it may sound benign, blanket training is not an innocent parenting practice. As discussed in Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, blanket training is a frowned-upon practice tied to IBLP teachings and is widely considered abusive and neglectful to infants. Despite that, TLC allowed the Duggars to discuss this behavior on camera and aired it to millions of viewers. While this is just one of many deceptively innocent practices that TLC allowed the Duggars to model, it bolsters Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets’ argument that reality television often omits harmful information to sanitize and retain entertainment value.
Beyond Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets discussion of the harmful practices TLC allowed the Duggars to display, the discussion of contractual and financial manipulation by Jim Bob allows a further indictment of reality television as irresponsible and unethical. According to interviews with Jill Duggar and her husband Derick, Jim Bob effectively misled them into signing contracts on multiple occasions. Jill recalled Jim Bob presenting her with a contract the day of her wedding and pushing her to sign it without giving any information on its contents. Unfortunately for Jill and Derick, the contract was not one of the many benign, informal family contracts the Duggar family frequently signed, but a five-year commitment to appearing on Counting On. Jill also alleges that she and her siblings did not receive proper compensation, going so far as to allege that she received no compensation in the 7.5 years 19 Kids and Counting aired, despite being over the age of eighteen for a significant portion of the show. The way that Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets presents this information pushes the viewer to consider the role of TLC in these contractual relationships and financial matters. TLC clearly did not do their due diligence or enforce proper practices when it came to contracts and finances. By presenting how TLC’s negligence directly led to financial exploitation, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets puts one last nail in reality television’s coffin.
To anyone interested in reality television, I urge you to watch Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. The show not only provides incredibly interesting insight into the Duggar family and the IBLP, but also serves as a powerful indictment of the reality television industry. By exposing the frightening culture of abuse hidden in plain sight on 19 Kids and Counting, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets offers a poignant reminder of the ethical pitfalls of pursuing entertainment at any cost. As someone who grew up watching 19 Kids and Counting and many other reality television shows like it, watching Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets was an incredibly eye-opening experience. In contrast to most reality television’s tendency to manipulate reality and create certain narratives, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets forced me to confront the incredible amount of problematic content hidden from viewers to create a more palatable narrative. Ultimately, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets serves as both an indictment of reality television and a reminder of the importance of questioning the narratives we are presented with.
Part 2:
In order to situate my work within the discourse around my topic, it is first necessary to define my topic. While that may seem simple on its face, there are multiple ways that my topic could be defined. Although my film review focuses on how a docuseries effectively indicts reality television, it more generally presents an analysis of a cult portrayal in popular media. My Writing Project 2 focused on researching different topics related to cults and my Writing Project 3 was an autobiographical reflection narrowed in on the portrayal of cults in popular media. Given that, I think it makes the most sense to situate my work within the discourse surrounding analyses of cult portrayals in popular media.
Beyond defining the topic, it is also key to identify other key qualities like genre and audience before I situate my piece in the discourse around my topic. My WP4 was a film review targeted at an audience of reality television viewers, with a potential focus on those interested in cults or those who may have watched 19 Kids and Counting.
Concerning genre, the use of a film review fits comfortably into the discourse around my topic. In the discourse around portrayals of cults in popular media, reviews and analyses of specific pieces of media are fairly common. They typically evaluate the efficacy of the media they are reviewing or analyzing, as well as provide a recommendation to their audience. During my research process for WP2, I read multiple film reviews, book reviews, podcasts, and articles by former cult members critiquing cult portrayals. While I did read a few scientific studies exploring this topic, the majority of works aligned with reviews and analyses in publications like magazines or in podcast form.
In terms of audience, my targeted audience of viewers of reality television does fit into the discourse. Since some of the media released about cults is reality television, there are likely many pieces that target this audience. However, documentary-style media is more common, so many of the pieces target viewers of documentaries or viewers specifically interested in cults. By focusing on general reality television viewers rather than those specifically focused on cults, I reach a larger audience and make a more powerful argument.
Generally, the content of my piece aligns with many other pieces in the discourse around my topic as it analyzes a specific piece of cult media and its efficacy. However, I think my review differs in that it focuses on how a comparison of a docuseries and a related reality television show to make an overall critique of the genre of reality television. While it does discuss the accuracy of the portrayal of a cult in some ways, that is not its main focus like many other pieces within the discourse. Especially when looking at reviews of other series, they typically look at the portrayal’s accuracy and an analysis of the artistic elements.
The focus on the exploitation of victims is also a common theme in the discourse around my topic. However, that discourse typically focuses on the exploitation of the victims by the cult. While my piece does have some discussion of how the cult damaged the victims, the main focus was how reality television itself exploited the victims of the cult. This may facially contradict some pieces in the discourse as the representation and exposure of cults by reality television or other media is typically seen as positive. However, when considering that the docuseries I reviewed exposed a reality show that contained a completely sanitized portrayal of a cult and exploited the victims of a cult, this does align with the support for victims and cult exposure in the discourse.
Furthermore, while both my WP3 and WP4 are relevant to the discourse, they play different roles. First, WP3 appealed to an audience of cult viewers, rather than reality television viewers like WP4. Additionally, autobiographical reflections typically come from cult-involved individuals rather than consumers of cult media like in my WP3, while my use of film review in WP4 is more common within the discourse. Content-wise, WP3 makes a point about ethical consumption and problematic portrayals like WP4, but it addresses cult media specifically rather than the reality television industry. Although both make a point about unethical practices in relation to the portrayal of cults in popular media, WP4 is much more narrowly focused and makes a stronger argument. WP4 effectively calls out a systemic problem, while WP3 appeals to viewers to be more ethical consumers.