Meet Kody & the Wives [HD]

Wives galore
There are reality shows for minor celebrities, musicians, tattoo artists, rich brats, people with huge families, lesbians, superheroes, and presidential wannabes.

And with "Sister Wives Season 1," you can add polygamists (or rather, polygynists) to the long list of slightly-off-the-norm people who have put themselves on reality TV. And while this show initially seems like an interesting glimpse into a family with, um, unconventional marriage habits, it starts getting disturbing and creepy as we see more of the family patriarch.

That would be Kody Brown, who belongs to a sect that splintered off the Mormon Church about a century ago (they share many of the tenets, but still practice polgamy). He lives in an enormous house with his three wives -- bubbly Christine, down-to-earth Meri, and earth-mama Janelle -- and their vast brood of children.

Over the course of the show, a few subplots crop up. Kody courts and becomes engaged to the weepy Robyn...

One Man, Three Wives, One Fiancee (I Can't Even Count The Children)--Fascinating Topic With Superficial Execution
In a bold programming stroke, TLC flouted convention and dropped "Sister Wives" onto its 2010 TV schedule. A reality TV show in which the subject matter is considered both taboo and illegal is a daring bit of maneuvering that might have garnered TLC more press than actual viewers though. In truth, I don't watch many of these types of reality show--but I suspect people tune in because they identify with the participants or because the antics are so outrageous, they can't wait to see what happens next. As an avid fan of "Big Love" (who despite a rocky last season is TV's most consistently underrated drama) and Brady Udall's "The Lonely Polygamist" (one of my top five books of 2010), I threw caution to the wind with "Sister Wives." It might be interesting to note, at this juncture, that this TV show did open up a Utah legal investigation into the Kody Brown clan and they have subsequently relocated to an unspecified domicile in Nevada. Such is the price of fame!

I suppose the...

One Man, Three Wives, One Fiancee (I Can't Even Count The Children)--Fascinating Topic With Superficial Execution
In a bold programming stroke, TLC flouted convention and dropped "Sister Wives" onto its 2010 TV schedule. A reality TV show in which the subject matter is considered both taboo and illegal is a daring bit of maneuvering that might have garnered TLC more press than actual viewers though. In truth, I don't watch many of these types of reality show--but I suspect people tune in because they identify with the participants or because the antics are so outrageous, they can't wait to see what happens next. As an avid fan of "Big Love" (who despite a rocky last season is TV's most consistently underrated drama) and Brady Udall's "The Lonely Polygamist" (one of my top five books of 2010), I threw caution to the wind with "Sister Wives." It might be interesting to note, at this juncture, that this TV show did open up a Utah legal investigation into the Kody Brown clan and they have subsequently relocated to an unspecified domicile in Nevada. Such is the price of fame and publicity to launch...

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