Author Spotlight
Connor Vogel
Sex scandals, teen pregnancy and toxic friend groups.
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” has all the classic cliches that make up most reality TV shows — but all mixed together, they made me excited for the eight-hour binge fest.
Taking place in a Mormon community, the show focuses on the group of women behind #MomTok — a TikTok influencer group compromised entirely of eight faithful Mormon moms who disregard most (if not all) of the religion.
The show takes place nine months after the group disbanded for the first time due to Taylor Frankie Paul — the self-proclaimed leader of the group — revealing that she and her ex-husband had been part of a swingers group.
Now before you start thinking this dramatic, life-altering event is the main focus of the show, it’s not. Unfortunately, the members of #MomTok — Taylor, Demi Engemann, Jennifer Affleck, Jessi Ngatikaura, Layla Wessel, Mikayla Mathews, Mayci Neeley and Whitney Leavitt — focus more on parties and baby showers than the impact the scandal had on these women’s lives, especially with the potential comments they received online and the reaction of the church.
What makes this show different isn’t the lack of screaming fights or sharing their problems in a talking head. It’s the honesty about their relationships. The group was brought together for business — they make their living sharing a screen together, whether on TikTok or “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.” While I’m not usually a fan of reality TV, the show’s approach fascinated me.
These aren’t the Kardashians. They’re passive-aggressive, gossiping and backstabbing each other just to protect their image or get extra screen time.
OK, maybe they are a little bit like the Kardashians.
Though I enjoy the occasional popcorn entertainment in other genres, the odd choice to give the show an episodic format leaves me wanting more content than the quickly resolved conflicts each week, much like an episode of “The Real Housewives.”
The moms in question explain their decision to continue making content in order to help them exercise their individuality outside of their religion and family.
But this can be undercut at times since they all look like they were copy and pasted from a plastic surgeon’s waiting room.
Repeatedly, the women declare their commitment to the church and all its rules — many of which I was unfamiliar with — including no tattoos, alcohol or caffeine.
The difference in commitment to these rules creates two factions within #MomTok with some fundamental differences in the rules they choose to follow. Dubbed by producers as the Sinners and the Saints, these two groups slowly start to separate throughout the course of the show.
But when the camera crew catches everyone breaking the rules at least once, I can’t help but laugh at the irony of these women who claim to be faithful to the church.
Whether going to the soda-making shop Swig — a very popular establishment in the Mormon community — or having a girls’ weekend upstate, these obviously rehearsed events are perfect for a 45-minute show. But the commitment to avoid cliffhangers ends up glossing over major plot points like an arrest for domestic abuse that gets maybe 10 minutes of screen time and a teenage pregnancy that’s mentioned once throughout the entire eight-episode run.
I’m not going to pretend this is some in-depth documentary, but I did expect them to maintain the message these women are trying to send.
The whole point of the show was supposed to be them reconnecting after one (and then several more) scandals. Unfortunately, by the finale, these women are either fed up with each other or so angry they implode in front of their friends and family.
Going into “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” I was hoping to learn more about what I’d seen on social media, but this show just becomes another dreadfully predictable reality cash-grab that leaves viewers with more questions than answers about these women.
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