More Wives, More Drama: “My Five Wives” on TLC

TLC builds on the success of its popular, yet controversial show Sister Wives, with a new offering that examines the pluralistic lifestyle. My Five Wives, premieres Sunday, March 9 on TLC and follows Brady Williams, his five wives, their 24 children, and their life on a family property in Utah. TLC has ordered 9 episodes of My Five Wives, and it will take at least this long to learn the names of all of the family members. They are an interesting and intriguing bunch, and each of the wives is markedly unique. The kids, however, seem to move around in a huge, skateboarding blur.

My Five Wives on TLC

Brady married his first wife Paulie 21 years ago and they have six children. Nine months later, Brady married Robyn, wife two, and they have five children together. Rosemary, wife number three, and Brady have been married for 19 years and they have four children. Nonie, the fourth wife, has been married for 16 years and has five children with Brady, and fifth wife Rhonda has four children with Brady over the course of their 14 year marriage. Each wife and her children has separate living space, but duties such as cooking dinner for the family of 30 is shared on a rotating basis. Also rotating is Brady’s sleeping schedule; he spends each night in a different household, with a different family, and a different wife. “There’s no ‘more than one wife in the bed’ at one time,” Brady is quick to point out. “Except that one time in Vegas,” rebuts Rhonda (wife #5) to a peal of laughter.

Brady’s schedule is a busy one. He works as a project manager at his brother’s construction business while earning his college degree in philosophy. He tries to spend time each day with each of his children, and his morning ritual of visiting each of his five families before heading to work is visually exhausting!

My Five Wives on TLCOne of the differences between My Five Wives and Sister Wives is that the Williams family is relatively progressive.  Their style of dress, mannerisms and beliefs are a little more lax. Explains wife #3, Rosemary: “I think the biggest thing that everyone would be surprised about me is that I’m a Polygamist. Everyone expects me to be wearing a prairie dress and have a bun in my hair, or a braid, and to not have a personality.” The Williams’ are also independent pluralists, having recently separated themselves from the fundamentalist Mormon Church. Also, the Williams family allows TLC’s cameras into the marital bedrooms, but don’t expect to see any romantic trysts, the only intimacies viewers will be privy to are private conversations.

Episode 1 introduces the Williams family, its members and household living arrangements, and what I will call “Brady bonehead move #1.” Brady wants his wives to have a way to work out their differences without involving him, so he institutes “Safe Talks,” where the wives can speak openly and honestly with each other. Brady’s heart is in the right place, and he tells his wives, “It’s not ‘multiple monogamy.’ We’re living a plural marriage well, but I want to live it in a grand way and the next step for us is to have a safe space where you can be real with each other.”

Uh oh, Brady, this seems like a bad idea. Asking five women to stop being polite and start being real is a recipe for disaster. Have you never watched MTV’s The Real World? Well, the “Safe Talk” experiment fails miserably, and after a lone “Safe Talk” leads to several rounds of crying and hurt feelings, Brady scraps the idea. Note to Brady: If your solution to a problem needs air-quotes, you are putting too much hope on the solution to a problem that you created. On the plus side, the buckets of tears shed by wife #4 Nonie, make for great TV.

My Five Wives is perfect for viewers who find that the four wives on TLC’s Sister Wives are not enough wives for their viewing tastes. The Williams family is entertaining though, and the show’s opening is so utterly cringe-worthy that I hope the show is a smash success so it can be parodied on Saturday Night Live.

 

8 Comments

  1. They should go to school so they don’t have to breed to have something to do
    They only breed to feel important
    Why not the state pays all the bill maybe they should take better care of the kids they have the little ones still on bottles and diapers they might want to care of them before they adopt MORE but hey why not government assistance
    And as they say there’s not enough hours in the day to spend with his kids so adopt MORE

  2. I find it hard to believe he supports 30 people as a construction manager. Government assistance is usually relied on by these “families”. Really, that other show with the unhappy, competitive wives fawning over the narcissist is more than I can take. However, I’ve been thinking of starting my own religion and acquiring 4-5 husbands to compete over me. We could adopt a bunch of babies and get government aide, then our own tv show! I want to live somewhere nicer though, like Hawaii or California. At least it wouldn’t be the same old thing!

    • Tini,

      Several of the wives have full-time jobs too, but with a grocery bill that Brady claims is $4000 per month (!!!!!), I would think that Brady, every wife, and several of the older children would need to be employed just to feed everyone.

  3. I just watched an opening clip of the show on another website where the ‘husband’ makes the rounds to each ‘wife’ who is still sleeping in her own bed and gives them a good morning kiss. Most of the wives have one or two small children sleeping in their bed. Bizarre. And what kind of a life is this? Sleeping in while the man is the only on up and getting ready for the day? Or maybe the women are just depressed and don’t realize it, sleeping their lives away. I don’t understand how women could live like this.

  4. The blond on his left with the long hair looks familiar…………who is she?

    • Bonnie,
      When I watched the series’ sneak peak, I thought she looked like Tonya Harding! What do you think?

  5. Wow only a woman with low self esteem would let a man do that to them!!! These women are not happy at all they are just doing what he wants them to do….wake up ladies this is 2014.The only person having fun out of this whole thing is the so called husband, he gets to sleep with each one of these women any time he feels like it and thats sad.
    The law needs to do something about this, im really shocked that this is happening in the USA.i hope some day these women will be brave to look into the mirror and say im beautiful I deserve better than this.

    • how true……this is ridiculous…..i wouldnt do it!!…….yes, the only one having fun here is the so called husband…….lets get real here, this benefits the man……

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