'Jill and Jessa' Review: 'Counting On' A Duggar Scandal
The Duggars made their… triumphant?… return to TV on Sunday night with the first of a three-part series, Jill and Jessa: Counting On. The two reality-TV plot-lines here centered on Jill preparing to leave for Central America, and Jessa preparing to give birth to her first child. But the real reason they were on-camera, as far as the TLC producers were concerned, was to bring up the Josh Duggar scandals yet again.
“My brother [was] leading such a double life”; “Josh was not to be trusted”; “Josh was addicted to pornography and had been unfaithful to his wife”; “This person that we knew is no longer the same person”; “making bad choices again”; “leading a double life”; “his lifestyle… it has to be wrong.” One by one, sisters Jill and Jessa — and then siblings Jinger and Joy and Jana and Josh and John-David and Joseph and Josiah — each sat in front of a TLC camera, and as the close-up moved in tighter, each one, in her or his individual scene, broke into tears while phrasing the details of Josh’s wrongdoings in a vague way.
I felt badly for the siblings, of course. But, given that this was a new reality show — and the Duggars’ bid to reclaim their TLC status amidst the channel’s desperate attempts to turn out a new hit — I also felt: Well, kids, you wanted to get in front of the cameras again, and you still aren’t particularly articulate or thoughtful people, so this is pretty boring.
(Did I mention that the Duggar return was a lead-in to TLC’s new surefire smash Married By Mom and Dad? Hoo boy, was that show — parents as matchmakers for their grown children — ever a mawkish drag.)
No matter how euphemistically the Duggars chose their words, what came through for me was a general air of Josh-can-go-to-hell mixed in with all the forgiveness chatter — a lingering air of disgust with the hapless, arrogant boob Josh. The closest the show came to showing any anger, though, occurred when John-David said, “I always wanted to be like him. But one of the toughest things I had to tell my older brother was, ‘I don’t want to be like you anymore.’”
Duggar parents Jim Bob and Michelle were glimpsed in the background of a couple of scenes in Jill and Jessa, and we never saw them speak. They know that at this point that the safest route back into the hearts of their fans is through the blameless kids. Stretched out to a tediously repetitive 90 minutes, Jill and Jessa broke up the politely-phrased betrayal and bitterness with happy action scenes. Jill and husband Derick prepared for their journey to Central America — some sort of ministry work was alluded to, along with many more allusions to how “dangerous” and “not safe” Central America is. This was contrasted with Jessa and hubby Ben, buying baby clothes, setting up a nursery for the impending blessed event.
I confess it took me a while to figure out what the devil the title meant: ‘Counting On’ what? Oh wait, I get it — a play on 18 Kids and Counting, the Duggars’ pre-scandal hit. And Jill and Jessa are counting on a better future. God bless and I hope that’s true, girls.
Jill & Jessa: Counting On will air two more new episodes Sunday nights at 8 p.m. on TLC.
