With each passing day, we come across several heart-breaking stories of religious cults manipulating people using religious values. It doesn’t come off as a surprise when Prime Video’s Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets portrays yet another religious cult, does it? What comes off as a surprise is a story presented to us by Jill Duggar Dillard, her husband, Derick Dillard and a dozen other people. The manipulative, sickening cult portrayed by Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets isn’t just heartbreaking but mind-numbing, too.
With one of the most popular families in the United States being involved with this religious cult camouflaged as an educational institute, the stakes are running high for the series. The questions surrounding it become prominent and the characters presented in it become a hot topic. One major question surrounding this series is about the Duggars. Who are they? What was their motive? All your answers lie below!
Is Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets Based On A True Story?
Directed by Juliya Willoughby Nason and Olivia Crist, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is a 4-part-long series hosted by Amazon Studios. It commences with introducing us to Jill Dugger Dillard, one of the 19 kids of Michelle and Jim Bob Dugger. Yes, the couple have 19 kids out of which 4 are twins. Right from the start of the series, Jill is seen wistful and on the verge of tears. Narrating the story of the infamous Duggers family, Jill and her husband, Derick, demonstrate the struggle of speaking against the people they call family. But as Jill says, it is better if she comes out and tells the world the real story instead of some tabloid spicing up the Duggars’ tale.
Prime Video’s Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is a true documentary series, centred around the lives of the Duggar family. It explores the secrets of this conceited family by using heartfelt narrations of the victims, facts that prove the authenticity of these statements and images to paint the picture of the shimmering family. However, not everything that shines is gold and not every smile is the stamp of happiness. Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets proves that through its 4 episodes.
Who Are The Duggars?
The Duggars are one of the most prestigious families in the United States, popular from their presence on the reality television show, 19 Kids and Counting. This show premiered on TLC on September 29, 2008, and ran for 10 seasons until 2015 before the channel decided to show a red light to 19 Kids and Counting. It wasn’t the most popular TLC show, nowhere along the realms of other popular reality shows like Outdaughtered and Counting On. Still, it garnered enough fame and wealth for the Duggars to shift from a 2000 square feet, two-bathroom and a tiny living room to around 4500 square-foot house with nine bathrooms.
Jim Bob Dugger didn’t only garner popularity from 19 Kids and Counting, his run for a government seat also brought him enough recognition. However, the major source of recognition for Jim Bob, Michelle and the rest of the family is their involvement with the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). This organisation aligned with their religious-oriented mindset and soon after Jim Bob and Michelle became the brand ambassadors of IBLP. The children followed right after.
Why Are The Duggars So Controversial?
This institute taught parents the significance of homeschooling children through a book of wisdom. The lessons taught by this book helped several parents tame their children and turn them into Jim Bob and Michelle’s meek children. It taught them the true manner of living, breathing, dressing and even talking by brainwashing the girls. The Duggars didn’t only garner attention due to their show and their questionable life approach but also became a hot topic of controversy.
The oldest Dugger, Joshua, contributed immensely to making the Duggars one of the most controversial families. The former senator of the United States and the best friend of Jim Bob, Jim Holt, was the first one to recognize Josh’s sick mindset. At that time, in the late 2000s, Josh was dating Holt’s daughter, Kaeleigh. Before they could marry, Holt discovered that Josh was harassing his younger sisters. Though he reported it to Jim Bob, the latter brushed it away with shocking ease. A few years later, Josh married Anna and as Jim Bob claims, Josh planned to reveal everything to his wife after their wedding.
Like, WHAT is this?
Anyway, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Jim Bob and Michelle accumulated 19 children just because they believed the more children they had, the more they’ll be able to propagate their religion. Not only this, Jim Bob solely kept all the earnings from TLC’s show to himself because all of his children and his wife were under his authority. Even after reaching adulthood, none of the children received a dime. Eventually, the Duggars’ family was brought down by Josh’s arrest for watching child abuse videos and molesting several women including 4 of his sisters and his wife.
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