I have an absolute fascination with true crime and religious documentaries so to see the two marry in this documentary was absolutely brilliant and I’m sad that it was so short.

The Duggar family became famous due to the fact that they were a quiverfull family and had 19 children all with their names starting with J. They started by having one off specials on TV where we got to dive into their world for a short while but then things quickly changed as they got their own reality TV show that ran for many years. But beyond this shiny exterior of the perfect religious family there was a dark secret, and that secret was held by the parents of the family and their eldest son, Josh.

Josh in his early teenage years inappropriately touched his sisters and other girls that were under age because he was curious about their gender. Now of course this is absolutely disgusting and something that no one should do but I do find it fascinating that in their religious sect and what they are told growing up it’s not that surprising that someone as confused as a teenage boy would take the matter of sex and hormones into their own hands. We speak to people outside of the Duggar family who are also part of this religious organisation and how warped and disingenuous the learning they had around sex and relationships was, including the fact that they called tampons devil sticks and they were an instrument that women were not allowed to use because it took away the right of the husband’s chance to deflower them because apparently using a tampon takes your virginity.

As we’ve seen in the press Josh’s misdeeds did not just stop there and it turned out that it wasn’t just teenage boy curiosity that had gotten ahold of him but something much darker and much scarier, and we learn all about what he did but also how he became the person he did by his upbringing and the people around him. Even the girl who he was courting when he was young’s parents had met when the wife was only 14 and her husband was 19 which immediately goes to show that boundaries and consent are just not something that is really taught or shared in this culture.

I find it absolutely fascinating that people can be indoctrinated into this way of living and how they don’t see it as a cult, how they think that it’s correct and right and holy when actually it’s causing a huge amount of torture and pain to their children. Thankfully we get to speak to one of the children of the family who appears to have been able to get out of this situation and become her own woman and have her husband there to support her in this, but to have to completely alienate yourself from your family I can’t imagine anything worse, and to have to rewire your brain from what you thought was right to what actually is must be a monumentous task that I can’t imagine many of us would be able to do.

If you enjoy religious documentaries then this is one for you because it really dives in to the quiverfull community and gives you an insight into what it means to be part of it, from the home schooling and the indoctrination of your children into thinking a certain way, to even the overall plan of taking over Congress by having so many children that they can all be elected into the White House and change the way America is run just so it suits their own needs. It’s an absolutely terrifying concept but fascinating all the same and I just wish there was more to it that we could dive into because it is so intriguing.

What do you think of the Duggars?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Film and TV critic. View all posts by shonaharding