There’s so much iterated IP these days that it can be hard to pick up on smaller narrative trends, so I have been on the lookout for some to put into this Monday recommendations series. This week I want to talk about an uptick I’ve noticed in the number of shows set in Mormon communities. These shows tend to be set in the past, usually the 70s and 80s, thereby avoiding the charge that they’re about present-day Mormon practices. Yet they’re also firmly set in either the documentary or true crime universe, which means viewers can’t help but think of real Mormons while they’re watching. Perhaps these choices are just incidental; the practices and mores of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (or LDS) don’t need that much fictionalizing to be fascinating. The most famous of LDS-related dramas is HBO’s 2006 series Big Love, which focused on the most famous of LDS former practices, polygamy. But it's been a long time since that show aired, and the sudden surge in content suggests there’s a trend afoot.
I think that trend is actually an extension of the Stepford Wives phenomenon, which satirizes mid-century culture to critique traditional values. That phenom is a bit played out (see every review of Don’t Worry Darling), but critiquing Mormon culture is a way to accomplish the same goal. The way the LDS is depicted in these pieces, the 1980s might as well be the 1950s, as the gender roles, clean living, and even costuming are virtually identical. Both the Stepford Wives-type of satire and the Mormon true crime show are essentially making the same observation: societies in which women are subordinate to men, the heterosexual nuclear family is held up as the only option in which to raise healthy children, and men in the community are explicitly trusted simply because they are men will always lead to harm and exploitation for women and children. Jon Krakauer, the author of the book Under the Banner of Heaven is based on, was clear in his introduction that he did not consider Mormonism as more susceptible to these things than any other religion, but that any religion which operates under similar patriarchal conditions (so nearly every major religion we’ve ever invented) is going to have its violent, extreme, and dangerous elements. It is no surprise to him, or to his reader, that the victims of that violence are so often women and children. No faith is inherently violent, but extreme adherence to faith can open that door. In all of the stories below, that has been the case.
Under the Banner of Heaven (Hulu/FX): This limited series is set in 1984 and follows the investigation into the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her baby. Brenda is LDS and so is everyone in this community, including the detective investigating her case, Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield). The series is based on a true story so there’s not much mystery involved. A quick Google (as well as some heavy foreshadowing) will inform you that Brenda and her baby were murdered by two of her brothers-in-law, men who had become obsessed with fundamentalist Mormon beliefs and believed Brenda, a fairly progressive proto-feminist, had to be killed to purify their family. The most interesting thing about the show is its exploration of LDS and FLDS (fundamentalist LDS) beliefs. The show uses flashbacks to two other timelines to flesh out its story, one being the timeline of Brenda’s marriage into the prestigious Lafferty family (the Mormon Kennedys, apparently), and the second being a low-budget historical recreation of early Mormon history. The flashbacks are used in extremely interesting ways, playing with perspective and reliable/unreliable narration. This is sometimes great and sometimes messy, so I think it is fair to say the show can be uneven. It’s also controversial, with LDS members pretty universally condemning it for depicting their faith as violent and far more connected to cult-like tendencies such as polygamy and child abuse than they believe fair. A great review on that here. Watch if you enjoy True Detective or have some feelings about Mormons you’d like to explore.
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (Netflix): This is a documentary series about the FLDS cult leader Warren Jeffs, who is currently rotting in federal prison, thank the good Lord. Jeffs took the FLDS, a small but devout offshoot of the Mormon church that believes in plural marriage, and turned it into a cult of personality centered around him. The church has been accused not only of practicing plural marriage, but also of marrying female children to old men, trafficking young girls in to feed the need for more young brides, and ostracizing young men to keep the gender ratio good. The series is extremely well-sourced. Many young women and some men who have since left the church spoke openly to the documentarians, detailing how a church that shares a belief system with one of the world’s thriving religions could weaponize and twist those beliefs for their own ends. It is clear that most of the people involved in the church very sincerely believed they were living good lives. The series subtly reveals how the apocalyptic nature of those beliefs, along with the isolation church members were expected to maintain from the outside world made it easy for powerful male leaders to exert near total control over members. The best thing about the documentary is it never lingers over the more salacious aspects of all this: there’s no discussion of Mormon underwear and the more explicitly sexual crimes Jeffs committed are reported with sympathy and respect. Watch if you like excellent documentaries or if you want to better understand the FLDS aspect in Under the Banner of Heaven, which was written before Jeffs took control of the church, but predicts his rise.
A Friend of the Family (Peacock): In my discussion of true crime last week, I ranted a good deal about two very bad examples of current true crime fiction. In that review, I mentioned that I wanted to talk about some good examples of this genre, as I do think the genre has produced some of the best shows on television. A Friend of the Family is one of these. Based on an insane true story about a young girl named Jan Broberg who was kidnapped twice by the same man, two years apart, the series is set in a very different time and place from our own. The action begins in the early 70s in a Mormon community and many of the hallmarks of good clean faithful living are evident early on. The children are obedient and prayerful, the father is played by Tom Hanks’ good son, etc. But this is a community that has literally never heard the word “pedophile” and seems to trust every adult man only has good intentions towards children. It is hard for us today to imagine people acting from a place of such innocence that they would allow the same man to kidnap their child more than once, but the series is excellent at setting that scene for us and making it feel believable.
Although nowhere near as explicitly a critique of the LDS church as Under the Banner of Heaven is, A Friend of the Family is clear that the kidnapper (a man named “B”) was able to perpetrate these crimes largely because the societal conditions allowed him to. He was just clever enough to take advantage of an overly trusting, patriarchal society that was also uniquely susceptible to wacky claims about aliens. When B kidnapped Jan he convinced her that they had both been abducted by aliens and had to essentially repopulate the earth together. I think it would be hard to convince a modern 12-year-old of this, but a sheltered Mormon girl steeped in a faith that teaches aliens are real was very susceptible. In his review, Brian Tallerico of Rogerebert.com remarked on how surprising it is a story this nuts was treated with the sensitivity it deserved given our current times, saying
Just think about how easily a story involving infidelity, aliens, and multiple kidnappings could have become lurid, campy, and exploitative. Antosca, his directors, and the cast walk a very fine tonal line, never turning their show into a depressing dirge but also not giving in to the potential to “Ryan Murphy” this thing up.
Need I say more? Watch if you’re interested in respectful, balanced treatments of things like child kidnappings (which are hard to find, in my experience. Shoutout to Room).