I occasionally like to watch reality TV. When I was younger, I remember watching Survivor and American Idol. When I was in high school, my friends and I would watch Jersey Shore. One of my friends had mentioned The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives several months ago, but didn’t think much of it. I needed something new to watch, and I figured I’d watch an episode or two. I ended up watching all eight episodes back to back. My husband popped in and would watch a clip or two, and I would explain all the drama he’s missing out on. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is dramatic, and I can’t wait for the second season.

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives follows eight Mormon women who live around Salt Lake City. The wives are a part of a community they call “MomTok”, a group of moms who create social media content and TikToks about their lives in the Mormon church and being moms. Before the series aired, one of the women, Taylor, made a TikTok about how she tried swinging. Some moms were offended that Taylor revealed this because they weren’t a part of swinging, but got grouped in with her. The show picks up after that controversy.

As I mentioned, there are eight women that the show follows. Some of the women fade into the background, and some of the women are at the center of the show. Starting with Taylor, Taylor is divorced after the swinging scandal and is dating Dakota. Taylor discovers she’s pregnant with Dakota’s baby after only a few months of dating. She ends up having an Ectopic pregnancy and is arrested for domestic assault. One year after that, she’s pregnant again with Dakota’s baby. Whitney is another mom on the show. If you remember, there was a woman who danced in front of her baby when the baby was in the ICU, and everyone was upset about it; that was Whitney who caught flak for that. Whitney reveals in the first episode that her marriage was rocky because she discovered her husband had been messaging other people on Tinder. This was all revealed in the first episode.

While Taylor and Whitney carry most of the drama, they aren’t the only ones. In one of the episodes, Jen, another woman on the show, goes to Las Vegas. She goes to a Chippendales show, which wasn’t what she was comfortable with. Her husband blew up at her and threatened to take her kids away. What in the actual fuck? That episode made me super uncomfortable because the way Jen’s husband was talking to her was uncalled for. Jen didn’t even want to go to the show; she went because it was supposed to be a surprise, but didn’t realize it would be a Chippendales show. I feel for Jen. She wants to be a good partner to her husband, but the way he treated her was appalling. The other women: Mayci, Demi, Mikayla, Jessi, and Layla are around, but I would say the main three are Taylor, Whitney, and Jen.

I think what makes this show more interesting is learning more about Mormonism. Most Mormons don’t drink alcohol or coffee, get married at a young age, and have children. I think about someone like Taylor, who parties quite a bit, and I wonder if she started her family later in her life, would she still be the way she is? I couldn’t imagine having kids in my 20s. I feel like I needed that time to become the woman I am today. Some of the women on the show are pretty strict, whereas Jessi speaks out the most about how damaging Mormonism is for women. I appreciate her perspective on things because it seems like she’s the one who will take the pieces from religion that work for her and abandon the rest.

If you’re looking for a new reality TV show to watch, look no further than The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. The second season airs on May 15th, and I’m looking forward to it.