Mormons<\/a>. Immediately, it\u2019s clear that we\u2019re going to see a lot of lazy stereotypes that don\u2019t match the lived experience of those on the inside. Yes, there is a throwaway line that these are \u201ccostumes,\u201d but it\u2019s hard to believe that the obvious association with modern polygamist couture is unintentional. When we see the Laffertys at a picnic later in the episode, the young girls and even adult women are similarly attired, reinforcing the deliberate choice to paint Mormons as weirder than we actually are.<\/span><\/p>\nIn fact, all the Mormon cultural references are weird and jarring, even the small ones. When Garfield says that he\u2019s going to take the lead on the investigation and speak to the suspect \u201cMormon to Mormon,\u201d he says it with the confidence of someone who assumes this is a normal thing for a Mormon to say. As an active Mormon for 53+ years, I can confidently say that it really isn\u2019t, although I can\u2019t quite put my finger on why. Yes, Garfield speaks his tin-eared dialogue with grace and conviction, but when he\u2019s forced to deliver clunkers like \u201cthe Church vigorously discourages beards,\u201d it\u2019s not really his fault that none of it rings true. And when he bursts into the interrogation room quoting the Doctrine and Covenants from memory and barking questions about covenants and altars and temple recommends, it finally shifts from awkward to laughable.<\/span><\/p>\nThen we get a flashback where Brenda Lafferty talks about how much our Savior hates Democrats and how she can\u2019t go to the ungodly cities of New York and Chicago and how Jesus wants her at BYU in Salt Lake City, despite the fact that BYU isn\u2019t in Salt Lake City. At this point, the Simpsons episode where Bart gets married in Utah got more things right than this show does. There\u2019s absolutely no way Church members are going to see themselves in this increasingly ludicrous narrative.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd it just doesn\u2019t let up. \u201cHeavenly Father knows you can\u2019t turn an upside down cake to save your life,\u201d Garfield tells his wife. Who talks like that? In or out of the Church? The Attack of the Clones monologue about the evils of sand sounds almost Shakespearean in comparison. In the next flashback, Brenda meets her future in-laws [who] immediately tell her that \u201cgossip is the devil\u2019s playground\u201d and she responds by saying \u201cPresident Kimball said \u2018stand ye in holy places,\u2019 and BYU is a far better fit for those who want to live gospel standards.\u201d It\u2019s as if they lifted all the dialogue from New Era MormonAds.<\/span><\/p>\nThe problems here, then, have little or nothing to do with the Church. It isn\u2019t just that these characters aren\u2019t authentic Mormons; they\u2019re not authentic human beings. It\u2019s impossible to care about what happens to these stilted cardboard cutouts. No human being has ever asked another human being \u201cDo you all abide by the Word of Wisdom at BYU?\u201d In fact, no human being has used the word \u201cabide\u201d in casual conversation since 1896. Given that Brenda Lafferty was a very real person, it\u2019s sad that her death is being used as agitprop in a weirdly disturbing melodrama that is entirely disconnected from reality.<\/span><\/p>\nWe get a bizarre lemonade party Book of Mormon reading, and then Brenda causes a scandal for leaving the womenfolk at the lemonade stand to do unwomanly manual labor. Did someone decide that the best way to research Mormon social gatherings was to watch an Amish barn raising? And why couldn\u2019t they be bothered to get simple details right? When Ammon Lafferty announces that he\u2019s going to serve a senior mission for two years, every member of the Church who served a mission in the 1980s knows that senior missions back then were only 18 months long. Not that it matters in terms of the plot, but it matters if they\u2019re trying to convince me that my church is inherently violent and terrible. Why should I take them seriously when they couldn\u2019t be bothered to do even the most casual research to figure out how my church actually works?<\/span><\/p>\nThe first Joseph Smith flashback makes no sense at all. It shows a prepubescent Joseph wooing a prepubescent Emma with tales of his vision of God, strongly implying that he\u2019s making it up to impress her. But Joseph didn\u2019t meet Emma until he was 19, five years after the first vision was supposed to have taken place. That\u2019s not a meaningless detail like the length of a senior mission. It\u2019s a significant misrepresentation that demonstrates how fast and loose they\u2019re willing to play with the historical record. This series has exhausted all claims to credibility in its first episode.<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m in no hurry to watch the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Munich, Bavaria, Germany<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 *** \u00a0 Although I had his kind permission to share this here already a while ago, I\u2019m not sure whether I\u2019ve done already done so or not.\u00a0 (I have just a few minutes to spare, and no time to check.)\u00a0 So here is Jim Bennett\u2019s response to the first episode of the FX\/Hulu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28248,29039,1809,28272,28236,28239,28269,28278,29036,2905,1812,1815,7113,788,55,1667,28242],"class_list":["post-95519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrew-garfield","tag-brenda-lafferty","tag-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints","tag-hulu","tag-jon-krakauer","tag-krakauer","tag-lafferty","tag-lafferty-brothers","tag-laffertys","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-latter-day-saints","tag-lds","tag-lds-church","tag-mormon","tag-mormonism","tag-mormons","tag-under-the-banner-of-heaven"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Neuschwanstein](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/10\/800px-Neuschwanstein_Castle.jpg\")
<\/a>