TLC’s ‘Sister Wives’: Train Wreck Fans Love To Hate?
Sister Wives has been a guilty pleasure that viewers cannot look away from. Since it first premiered, fans have been captivated by Kody Brown and his four wives. How does it all work plus how does he balance his time with all of them plus eighteen kids? A lot has transpired over the sixteen seasons that turned the series upside down. Throughout everything, has the show now become the train wreck fans love to hate? It certainly looks that way.
Sister Wives, The Real Big Love
When the show premiered in 2010, it was riding high on the wave of the popular HBO fictional series, Big Love. Starring Bill Paxton as a polygamist from Utah, he had three wives, much like Kody. It only made sense to create a reality that showed what life was like living in a plural family. The Browns were a great choice as Kody and his three wives (Meri, Janelle, and Christine) resided in Utah, all under one roof. At the time, they had twelve children with one on the way. Additionally, he was courting a fourth wife who had three children from a previous relationship. Bringing her in was supposed to benefit the family but it was actually divisive.
Upon moving to Las Vegas, it was clear that Kody favored Robyn and his kids noticed this. She soon welcomed their first child together, baby Solomon. Furthermore, she offered to be a surrogate for his first and only legal wife Meri who had struggled with fertility. She did decline as her marriage was crumbling. Then, she got catfished, and her only child with Kody came out as gay, Meri opened her own bed and breakfast, and the family moved again.
Soon after the move, the pandemic hit, and the family had yet to build on the land they had bought in Flagstaff. They were emotionally and physically distant so no one wanted to quarantine together. Kody was being extra stringent with his rules so he was barely seeing Janelle and Christine. He fought with Janelle as well as her sons. By the end of Season 16, he needed therapy with his kids and Christine had left the marriage. Plus, Meri admitted they had not been intimate in a decade. How were people still watching this?
Love To Hate The Browns
A Reddit thread was started asking fans why they keep coming back to Sister Wives. Was it the drama? There had to be more to it than that. Other Redditors had their thoughts on why it worked:
- “Train wreck in action. It was fascinating at first to see how the women would manage their relationships w/ each other in such a strange family dynamic. But since they no longer get along that’s no longer interesting.”
- “I love the cringe”
- “The family has always been fascinating to me, and at this point its become a familiar/comfortable show that I rewatch when I need something on that I don’t need to pay a lot of attn to.”
- “I think that the breakdown of relationships and general deterioration of their family life, makes us want to go back and try to pick up on early signs.”
So, there is a bevy of reasons why people keep tuning in. Some like the train wreck appeal while others enjoy the mindless entertainment. For some, it is fun to rewatch and see if there are any clues this was headed for disaster. As for what the next season hold, that is up in the air.
Why do you watch Sister Wives? Let us know in the comments below.
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