Last week, Hulu made official the long-rumored “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” California spinoff.
At the streaming service’s Get Real event on April 22, “SLOMW” originals Miranda Hope, Layla Taylor, Mayci Neeley and Jessi Draper introduced the stars of “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives: Orange County.” They are Neeley’s sister McCall Dapron, Chandler Higginson, Madison Bontempo, Ashleigh Pease, Aspyn Ovard, Salomé Andrea, Bobbi Althoff, and Avery Woods. A few days after the Get Real event, “SLOMW” original castmember Jen Affleck posted a TikTok announcing she, too, would be joining the Orange County cast.
The announcement of the show is not unexpected. Reality television breeds quicker than rabbits and every popular series on Bravo and beyond can be traced back to another show from which it originated. “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” has arguably been the buzziest show in the reality television landscape over the last couple of years. From a business perspective, a spinoff only makes sense.
What makes less sense is casting women who are not — and never have been — members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — on a show that labels them “Mormon Wives.”
According to my sources and extensive internet research, some of these women consider themselves active members. And some were raised in the faith. Some have an adjacency to it through relationships. But there are a couple of the cast members who have never been part of Mormonism, even tangentially.
To be clear, I do not care what these women’s religious affiliations are. Honestly, I would prefer they didn’t discuss it on screen, ever, because I get very nervous and sweaty anytime that they do, scared for what misperception might spread through the internet. I’ve hit a point of “Mormon” representation on television that has me exhausted and longing for the days of my peoples’ relative obscurity. And also, it’s really none of my business whether any of these women go to church every Sunday, sometimes or never.
What I do care about is calling women who have never been a part of my church Mormon because it doesn’t make sense on a linguistic level. Words have meaning. Or at least, words are supposed to have meaning. And I fear this show’s title is a harbinger of a language that has a vocabulary without definitions.
I’ve actually had this gripe with “SLOMW” since the premiere of the original series. Not because I doubted the religious ties of any of the Mormon wives, but because the title claimed their lives were secret. HOW COULD THEIR LIVES BE SECRET WHEN THEY’RE ON TELEVISION? BEING ON TELEVISION IS THE OPPOSITE OF LIVING A SECRET LIFE! It was hard enough watching a show whose title had one misnomer, and now they expect me to watch a show with two?!
This might be the first domino to fall in a trend of nonsensical reality television titles that promise a mix of faith and identity, but ultimately deliver neither. I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of these shows on my screen in the next six months or so.
Or maybe the Hulu powers that be come to their senses and rename the Orange County spinoff something more accurate. MomTok Orange County is the obvious solution. But we could get even more specific if necessary. Pretty Moms with Social Media Prowess. California Natives Who Have Driven Past an LDS Meetinghouse. Women Willing to Sign an Insane Contract.
Fine. I never claimed to be good at naming things. In fact an editor once told me “I’ve never met someone so bad at coming up with headlines.” So I may not be the best person for brainstorming a rebrand for this new show.
But a rebrand is necessary if we ever hope to have words attached to meaning moving forward.