Posted on 09/05/2014 4:16:03 PM PDT by Kaslin
The new season of "19 Kids and Counting" is here. And I'm excited. So what?
Generally speaking, I enjoy the most salacious, violent and depressing television shows I can find. Maybe it's just a perverse form of escapism, maybe it's the high quality of shows being produced these days, but I can't resist "prestige" television -- "The Wire," "Breaking Bad," "Fargo," "The Sopranos," "Game of Thrones," "House Of Cards," "The Walking Dead" and so on. For that matter, I also hung around for four seasons of "The Killing" and watched every episode of the "Halt and Catch Fire." So, apparently, whatever you make, I' y for watching such dreck -- and I never left. I can't remember when it happened exactly, and I don't know if I'll be able shake this bizarre feeling, but I do know that I'm hooked on what has to be the most countercultural show on TV these days.
For the unfamiliar, "19 Kids and Counting" is a reality television show featuring the Duggar family of northwestern Arkansas. The Duggars are devout Independent Baptists, a fundamentalist offshoot of Baptism that, from what I can gather, is a bit cultish and has experienced some rough patches over the past few years. No matter; the Duggars never proselytize as far as I can tell -- unless you count making a pious life with tons of kids seem fulfilling and extraordinarily fun.
What the Duggars do is engage in the reactionary act of producing a large number of offspring -- all of whom are given first names that begin with "J" (though "Jinger" seems like cheating to me). Jim Bob and Michelle have also have gone through two miscarriages (the show deals with the family's grieving process) and have a couple of grandkids. And other comparably enormous families tend to pop in and out of their lives as the Duggars do their mission work and disembark in various cities and tourist sites around the country.
This week, the new season kicked off. It will focus on Jill Duggar, one of the older girls, and her pending marriage to a ridiculously respectful young man named Derek. This relationship blossomed after a courtship -- the Duggar children court prospective mates, they do not date. (As a father of two daughters, this seems far less outrageous than I would have imagined.)
Though it stands to reason that the show is often staged, what I see cuts against many cultural notions we have about family: what children strive for, what parents owe their kids, how a family acts towards one another, what young people are capable of. Considering what we see on TV, it's basically transgressive. A place where homeschooling is treated as a reasonable way to educate your children, where kids talk about "honoring" their parents rather than demanding things from them, and where older kids start successful small businesses without a traditional college education.
I can recall that the shows my children grew up watching almost always featured some bratty kid with an endless supply of snappy comebacks and the ability to outwit all the hapless adults in their lives. Most reality TV I've run across oscillates between depravity and stupidity. "19 Kids and Counting" is basically the most earnest show I've ever watched. And while almost any mainstream show I grew up watching saw social conservatives through a political prism -- irrational and hopeless -- the Duggars' charitable spirit allows people to see the manifestation of religious ideals in real-time. Or so this apostate imagines. In any event, it's almost impossible to not be charmed.
The Duggars lifestyle is completely foreign to me. By any measure, their lives should rub my secular sensibilities the wrong way, and the austerity of their beliefs are still somewhat off-putting. But whether you believe the family's lifestyle is optimal or not -- and I don't -- you can learn from them. What will most impress any parent is the boundless patience Jim Bob and Michelle have towards their many children. They handle situations with calmness and purpose, focusing on preparing capable adults, but also good people. Which all sounds terribly boring, but it's not. I never imagined that I would ever find myself asking the question "What would Jim Bob do?" ... But, well, there it is.
Now, I certainly don't want to be a Duggar, but I have to confess that I want to be more like a Duggar than I am right now. Or maybe I just need a break from all the cynicism. So what?
“I’m Addicted To ‘19 Kids and Counting”
Too much is never enough.
If he was REALLY addicted, he would know that they have THREE Grandchildren!!!!! I LOVE...LOVE....LOVE this family!!
I don’t watch it and I could handle only one off spring but this family seems to know how to do it right and produces lovely, modest, respectful children. Good for them....
No premarital or gratuitous sex, no sibling rivalry and back stabbing, no drugs, no cursing ... what’s not to like. ;-)
It’s a good, clean family show. Not too many of those any more..... if any!
I bought me the Amazon FireTV and am currently watching a BBC series called Lark Rise to Candleford which plays in a small British town from the 19th century
When Jill Duggar speaks, I’m compelled to smack her alongside the head!
Nobody really talks like that. Nobody. Well.......maybe a pre-school teacher.
I just recently started watching it again myself. It’s on the TLC channel, Tuesday evenings, 8pm I believe. There are reruns during the day but not sure of the exact times.
I read that there was some controversy that Jill Duggar just announced her pregnancy after just a few months of marriage. The controversy is that she did not wait until the supposed “12th week of safety” to announce.
Sheesh.
My wife is. Me Meh.
For the life of me, I just don’t understand why people don’t aspire to be good. Good is great fun, and being at peace with God is absolutely fantastic! I routinely see people run from God and morality and pay a heavy price for it. Is getting hammered really worth it? Is that woman who is not your wife really worth divorce and harming your children? I think I can understand why sin seems alluring, but it’s a big lie. Sin leads to trouble in this life and the next.
That said, I haven’t watched this particular series. The fact that the author finds it compelling is encouraging. Maybe more and more people are waking up to the cultural decline in America. We are on a steady downward death spiral, but miracles are always possible. For all I know, maybe God plans a great reawakening once people realize what’s really on the line here (our children, our country, our lives!). Once can’t have “America” by repudiating everything that made it great.
Correction: One can’t have “America” by repudiating everything that made her great.
I’m not claiming America was trouble free in the past. What I’m saying is that we were mostly good, very good when compared to other nations and the history of man. We didn’t grow up in a country that was made powerful by people being evil. Our ancestors were mostly moral, hard working people. Families like the one in this TV series were typical back then.
We loved Lark Rise! It is my one fault.
Nobody really talks like that. Nobody. Well.......maybe a pre-school teacher.
Or a preschooler....
I am at season 3 episode 4
We don’t have cable, but my daughters and I occasionally watch the older episodes on Netflix. My teen boys think it is the most boring show ever in the history of all television. When my daughter was younger she would watch a few episodes and then start wearing her long jean skirts for a few days before going back to pants. That really opened my eyes to how quickly and strongly the media influences kids. We also belong to an Independent Fundamental Baptist church but, sadly, apart from homeschooling and having a large family we appear much more worldly than the Duggars.
Pregnant within a few months of marriage? Back when birth control wasn’t ubiquitous, that was the norm. It’s what normally happens when newly married, young, healthy heterosexual couples have sex without birth control. For a fertile couple, it’s not unusual at all, and it doesn’t mean they were having premarital sex of course.
Sheesh is right, but it’s not unexpected. Evildoers like to tear down anything that sheds light on their own failures. A young, virtuous couple? Well, we can’t have that! The sin peddlers, aka entertainment media, will keep digging until they find some sort of hypocrisy somewhere (we’re all hypocrites in large or small—hopefully small—ways). They’ll point out that hypocrisy—no matter how insignificant—to tear down the larger message of virtue.
It’s why Democrats always get a pass no matter what they do, but Republicans are destroyed over relatively small matters. Try to live a pure life and you’re a target for anyone who lives in spiritual filth.
I admit that I read only the the first paragraph, but this guy sounds like an idiot.
Keep trying, NorthstarMom. You’re absolutely right about the media. Do they seriously want us to believe media doesn’t shape our culture? If that’s so, why do companies spend $ billions on advertising? No. I think the media knows exactly what it’s doing, and it’s quite good at culture shaping propaganda. It wasn’t that long ago when the “gay marriage” advertising campaign was relabeled “marriage equality” because the former wasn’t working as well. Abortion? Oh, no! We’re not baby killers. We’re “pro-CHOICE!” Puke!
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