Breaking the Faith: A Final Summary Review

Ben not having a good day.

When this series started, I had hoped that it would not be a clone of Breaking Amish. In fact, I  brazenly remarked how I liked the show.

I was fully aware that many of the young people on the show had already left the FLDS on their own - some at least two years prior. But I thought, hey, Sam Brower was a producer, so it couldn't be that bad, could it?

Almost a month after the last episode aired, I can now categorically concede that yes, this show could be bad. I mean really, really bad.

I overlooked the problems in the first episode, like the extremely faked "extraction" of the girls from their homes in "the Crick". You see, I was dazzled by the narrative the young people told about their lives under Warren Jeffs FLDS. So I forgave their obvious lack of acting skills, and the plot holes.



Thank goodness that "priceless" antique platter wasn't harmed!


This show's turning point for me was when I realized I did not like these people or the parts they tried to act out. Angie and Connie were the high and mighty "United Order" girls (i.e. the "mean girls")  while Val and Martha played the part of the rebellious "repentants".  Val wins the honor of being the worse actor of the bunch. She couldn't even thrown a cup on the floor convincingly. And it was amazing how her "trashing" of the posh Salt Lake City safe house did not harm one expensive piece of china or piece of antique furniture.

Ben talking to Connie and Angie

And I still don't understand what role Ben was suppose to play. Was he a rescuer or just an ex-FLDS guy who started out as the self-proclaimed  "protector" of the girls but in the end was just a lonely guy looking for love in all the wrong places?

Zack and his brother from another mother, Matt

That leads us directly to brothers (from different mothers) Matt and Zack. Cute Zack got cut from the FLDS fold for kissing a girl (or was it getting a blowjob?) Brother Matt, who found it necessary to mention every episode that he was a member of the infamous "God Squad" that patrolled "the Crick", got cut because he didn't lock the bathroom door while pleasuring himself. Not to mention that Matt and his uncle Warren Jeff also share some common...personality disorders. Like being a bully - evident when he taunted a Native American  by flicking the man's necklace while asking over and over "What's this?"

Matt not making a good impression on a first date

I swear the producers could have done Salt Lake City and the world a favor by having Matt get his sorry ass kicked, but instead he was shown trying to "court" a "nice Mormon girl" (i.e. paid actress). By taking her to the top of a smallest mountain at dusk with nothing but a can of beans and a sleeping bag to woo her with. Classy. Thank goodness she had a flashlight with her.

More Mormon friends provided by central casting...

Anyway, I could go on and on, but, in the end, this series was a big disappointment. From the obligatory makeover of the girls from prairie dresses to Salt Lake City chic (which apparently is wearing bright red lipstick and lots of makeup while showing a lot of skin) to the "Boot Camp R Us" training of mercenary bound Matt, this series was a severe waste of time. Well, maybe not a waste of time for Matt because he's working on his GED and wants to join the National Guard.



For the sake of humanity, let's hope there won't be a season 2.

Breaking the Faith: Into the Unknown and Temptation S01Ep03 and 04

In episode 2, Jake made a major faux paus by 1) extracting his sister Valerie from the "crick" in broad daylight, and 2) losing recent extractee Linda in the process. Loose lips can sink ships, so our intrepid band of newly ex-FLDS were forced to flee like Kody Brown from their St George safehouse for another one in Salt Lake City, just in case Linda blurted out the "hidden" location of their safehouse to the infamous God Squad.

Next time invest in blindfolds, fellas!

Jake's "stealth" mobile in the middle of the "Crick"

It just makes me wonder...what the hell was this kid thinking? Or better yet...what the hell was this TV show's scriptwriter and director thinking?

For one thing, it didn't cross their minds that Jake's sleek black sports coupe would attract the attention of the "crick" God Squad?  Even Michael Cawley got the infamous God Squad once over when he ventured into the "crick" on Polygamy USA.

Sorry Jake but that was dum dum dum.   And Ben's really mad now because not only were they at risk of being accosted by the evil God Squad, he still hasn't got a girlfriend yet.

Hey, isn't that the God Squad over there?

So now in episode 3, our travelers have been on the road for a while and have decided to make a pit stop.

Maybe it was the embarrassment of losing Linda in the "crick" or maybe it was just bad script writing but Jake believed he was being followed by...THE GOD SQUAD!! Damn that Linda!

Inside the pit stop convenience store, Jake decided he couldn't take it any longer, jumped back into his sports coupe and drove off. Did he drive back to the "crick" to extract the missing Linda, and no-show Marie?

Who knows. But something tells me he'll be back with both Linda and Marie. At least that would give his short appearance some purpose, right?

After everyone squeezed into Ben's vehicle, the girls and the Jeffs boys hit the road again for Salt Lake. Martha mused to Ben that she hopes he has high speed driving skills because if her step-father is looking for her, he can drive over 100 miles per hour.

Sorry Martha, but you've been out of the FLDS for 2 years, so why would your step-father suddenly get the urge to come looking for you now?

Eventually, they arrive at the "safehouse". Call me cynical, but who leaves the front door of a house chocked full of expensive electronics and other toys unlocked, with only a very loud security alarm to drive intruders away?

Just like Brandi Glanville found out on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, it doesn't take long for a determined criminal to break into a house. So imagine how easy it would be to just walk through the front door, grab the expensive stuff and leave before the police can arrive to investigate.

But of course, nothing bad happens.

Once Matt figured out that he could shut off the alarm by entering that security code Carolyn Jessop gave him instead of letting it rot on that piece of paper in his pocket, everyone preceded up the stairs to claim their territory.

Martha finding out she's not FLDS top drawer from the UO princesses

Connie and Angie decided to room together because they are cousins. I have to giggle because in reality, aren't they all cousins to each other in the "crick"?

We  got an interesting lesson on the haves and the have nots that make up FLDS society from Connie and Angie. It's split between something called the United Order, and the Repentants. United Order folks get the cream, while the repentants (made up of people who don't follow the rules set by their prophet) get nothing. Oh yes, they still have to wear the prairie dresses, the "tidal wave" hairdos, ugly shoes and sacred underwear but the fathers can only have one wife and they can't shop at the co-op in town.

Bummer!

Later, we discover that although Matt and Zack's father is the reigning big man in the FLDS while Warren Jeffs cools his heels in prison, his families were allowed luxuries and freedoms that Ben's family was not. Ben mentioned that the Jeffs boys had this air of entitlement about them, and it was obvious he was jealous how they attracted babes with little effort.

Hey Ben, how about a hot LDS girl!



 I don't think many people would know how to talk to these girls...creepy

For fun, Lisa (I think she is just the extractees handler because she doesn't live in the safehouse) takes the ex-FLDSers  to chill at the local mall.

Of course, the girls wore their prairie dresses and tidal wave hair so that people could gawk at them on camera. But, to my surprise, their appearance wasn't as jolting as the gaggle of giggly casting call LDS girls that showed up.


After being treated to some yummy frozen yogurt (which princesses Angie and Connie declined to eat because milk products were forbidden by the prophet and they believe you can take the girl out of the "crick" but you will never take the United Order out of the girl). Oh yes, the princesses don't like it when people call their religion a cult, either.

Where are the girls from the "crick"?

Later on in the episode, the girls go shopping for gentile clothes and meet up with the guys to crash the Pioneer Days parade.

How ironic that their prairie outfits finally were not out of place...well, they sort of blended in the crowd....

At the parade, they met a pair of LDS missionary boys, who feigned ignorance of the FLDS. Now, I don't know if those 2 boys were really missionaries, but they sure looked  and played the part well.

Then, it happened. The unfortunate incident with the Native American man wearing an arrowhead necklace and that hot-headed Matt...you know, the guy with "issues".

Hey Zack! Stop grinning and help out your dumb a$$ bro!!

In true bully form, he flicks the man's necklace while taunting him with "Is that a arrowhead?"  This was ugly, and the man showed his displeasure by grabbing Matt's neck with one hand and not letting go.

Now it was obvious this was staged, because Matt had this stupid grin on his face the entire time. I only wish it wasn't and that a$$hole Matt turned blue and fainted into a heap on the ground. I'm starting to think maybe the FLDS was doing their community a favor by expelling a bad seed from their midst.

Anyway, after being lectured by another Native American to never touch another man's necklace, especially if he's about 50 pounds heavier than you, Matt showed a little remorse by saying he didn't understand Native American culture and would never do that again.

And if you believe that, I've got some land I'd like to sell you...



At the beginning of episode 4, we found out that United Order princess Connie hadn't seen her boyfriend Cody since he left the "crick". Now that she's out of the "crick"  too, she arranged to see him again.

Now, Ben was skeptical of Cody. Even Matt thought that if Cody cared about Connie he would have gotten her out of the "crick" himself, right? Zack thinks Cody is a womanizing jerk, and he may be right.

...will you still love me, tomorrow?

On their date, Cody is all smarmy smiles and kisses. And it's not surprising when he admits to Connie she's the fourth date he's been on since he left her in the crick. A normal girl would have thought better of the situation, but not sweet, UO princess Connie. Nope, she acts like it's normal for her man to be dating 3 other girls. Maybe in the crick, but in the real world she's opening herself up for disappointment. Let's just hope she can at least keep her virtue intact.

Boys will be boys...even in Salt Lake

Back at the safehouse, the group decides to go a bar. Now, this was just stupid. If those women aren't comfortable wearing "gentile" clothes, how the heck are they going to handle the weirdos that frequent bars...especially one located in of all places Salt Lake City, dressed like they just got off the plyg bus from the "crick".

These girls need to try harder if they want to blend in their new environment. Take it from me, weird attracts weird.

Valerie got so spooked by the bar patrons she ran out. She didn't get home until 4:00AM, so like, where had she been? Val refused to tell.

Something that was weird about the whole Val situation was not her disappearing (after all, she probably just took a quiet walk for a couple of hours, right?) but it was Ben, Matt, Zack and Angie waiting for her IN THE FRIGGIN' DARK! And then when she walked through the door and started up the stairs, Ben turned on the lights and asked her where she'd been.

Creepy...

If I were Val, I would probably act just like she did, and tell Ben to mind his own business. I don't care if he feels she's like a sister, the point is, she isn't and she has the right to privacy.

Ben needs to find himself a woman. Unfortunately, Matt's only looking out for himself.

Two  of the LDS girls ventured over to the safehouse to see Zack. Well, Zack wasn't home, but Matt invited them in. Nothing happened, but later in the episode,  Matt invited Molly to come back, and they were shown making their way up the stairs while her girl friend/chaperone chatted downstairs with Ben about his lack of "game".



And I don't think Matt was showing Molly his car collection. I just hope someone had on their secret underwear for protection.

Later, Matt was more than happy to explain to the princesses why bikes were banned from the "crick". It was kind of funny watching Angie riding a bike while making a weird face...and she reported that she didn't have an orgasm, either.

Something tells me Matt has a lot in common with his sex crazed Uncle Warren besides sharing the same last name.

Finally, Zack and Ben ventured over to a private investigator's office to see if he could find Zack's missing mother. Apparently she was relocated by the FLDS hierarchy for giving her apostate son his clothes.

The PI had some information, which gave Zack some hope he will find her someday, but that hopeful feeling was dashed when he got back to the safehouse.

 

It seems Matt was highly agitated that Zack didn't tell him he was looking for his mother. Matt was also upset that Zack chose to take Ben with him to see the PI. Again, Matt showed his out of control wild side by shoving Ben while yelling at the top of his lungs.

Of course, we won't find out if Matt actually hit Ben until the next episode...I'm hoping Ben wipes  up the street with his sorry a$$.

Review: Breaking the Faith S01Ep01 and 02

Episodes: Keep Sweet and On the Run

A wall of FLDS sacred undergarments

OK, I just going to say this: I like this show.

I don't love this show, like those rabid Brown family fans love TLCs Sister Wives show. But, contrary to those equally rabid anti-polygamy activists who believe polygamy is the root of all evil (as personified by Warren Jeffs and to a lesser extent, Kody Brown), I  don't hate this show.

I just don't.

As entertainment, in my opinion, it is one of the better reality show on TV nowadays. It certainly is better than TLC's scripted trailor park mess "Welcome to Myrtle Manor", and in some respects, better (at least visually) to TLC's own polygamy side show Sister Wives. And the producers are careful to note at the beginning of each episode that scenes were recreated for dramatic purposes.

Too bad Sister Wive's production company didn't post a disclaimer like that, particularly when Kody and family supposedly had to sneak out of Utah like thieves in the night for the safety of a cul-de-sac with four McMansions in Las Vegas.

But understand that if this show is cancelled next week, I wouldn't lose sleep about it.

For the most part, the two episodes of Breaking the Faith highlighted the beauty of the St. George, Short Creek area of Southern Utah. The camera work of the scenery, especially of Angie as she takes a 'swim' in a large body of water (I believe it's called the Reservoir on Google Map) is beautiful - almost as good as John Boorman's Lady of the Lake from his movie Excalibur.

Except we see the full 'lady' as she slowly sinks, fully dressed in a plyg dress with plyg hair, into the water, with the mountains illuminated by the setting sun looming behind her.

Where Breaking the Faith lets me down (and the audience) is how it tells the story of women being  "extracted" from the polygamous community, like so many bad teeth in the middle of the night.

This is where the re-enactment takes over from the real truth as these women apparently left the FLDS at least two years earlier. But instead of the show's producers having the girl's tell their stories (like the men were allowed to) the audience is subjected to dramatized recreations.

So all those scenes showing the girls praying in solitude, slipping notes to the "Lost Boys" extraction team, doing laundry, cleaning the house with only their right hand, running away in the dead of night, with the girl's supposed hidden camera lighting their way and their faces for the benefit of the God Squad were all fake.

 I also found troubling  the apparent over preoccupation with sex (mostly talks about blowjobs and masturbation) of the young men that made up the extraction team. Especially since these apparently were the reasons for their being turned out of the community. One of them even said if getting a blowjob meant burning in hell, he'd rather burn in hell. Nice...

It's enough that the audience knows (or should know, dammit...read a book!) how perverse Warren Jeffs was when he was making wives out of 12 year old girls, but was it necessary to hear the sexual transgressions of the Lost Boys extraction team?

Maybe the FLDS bishops should have told the boys too much preoccupation with sex before marriage could make them go blind, or grow hair on their palms. It works in the monogamist world, doesn't it?

Anyway, once the girls got settled into the safehouse, they went to the  kitchen refrigerator and cupboards and cleaned them out of every bit of banned foodstuffs it contained. About $200 worth.

When that little chore was completed, the next item on the agenda was to actively shun none other than Carolyn Jessop who escaped Short Creek a decade earlier and was the "house mother" at the safe house. In what was truly bad acting, the girls were so fearful of her, they refused to look at Jessop as she tried to talk to them.

I just hope the producers will enroll those girls in acting classes because all that faux crying was really ridiculous. I mean, really, here's Carolyn Jessop whose testimony sent her father to prison, and Linda can't even muster up a measly tear or two?

Finally, a member of the extraction team named Jake decided to do an "extraction" on his own to get his sister Val out of Short Creek. So he leaves in BROAD DAYLIGHT and takes with him Linda (you know, the girl with the lazy tear ducts) so she can say goodbye to her sister who was born with no bladder and kidneys.

Of course, this little venture ends disastrously with the successful extraction of the Jake's sister, but the unfortunate re-insertion of Linda back into Short Creek plygdom as she disappeared from the car without a trace.

As the episode draws to a close, the remaining girls plus the new one along with the extraction team quickly gather their belongings and are off to another safe house located somewhere in Salt Lake City.

I am totally hooked on this show. Will they make it to Salt Lake? Will the God Squad raid Carolyn Jessop's safe house in St. George? Will Ben get another blow job soon?

Stay tuned....