On another thread I mentioned several things wrong with the video. One thing that still really stands out to me is the extremely undersized cast. Except for the couple in their basement, this JW family seems to live completely in a vacuum. No JW friends shown or even mentioned. The only reference I seem to recall was the daughter saying her worldly friend (from what I saw, I'm not even sure he qualifies as a boyfriend) was nicer than JW dudes. That would be one reference to them knowing any JWs, and puts them in a less than glowing light. Toward the last that I was attending, there were no picnics or 'get-togethers'. There was no social life. So I guess the video was accurate to show that unless you have a JW couple living in your basement, you'll avoid contact with other JWs outside of the Kingdumb Haul. And I suppose if they would have had any scenes at a KH, they would have to show the reality of a mostly empty building, sheeples with vacant stares, and lots of other parents whose kids have already left the cult.
It wasn't just the lack of JW friends, it was the lack of anybody. When I was a kid growing up on a rural farm, I could relate to just being around the family most of the time. But for a family like this, in a big house in suburban utopia and kids with wheels, the video setting may as well be rural North Dakota for the lack of any people interacting with the members of the family in any meaningful way. The 'boyfriend' seems to be the only significant nonJW character, and frankly, his character wasn't developed. It was like a random collection of lines spoken by an "actor" (who looked too old for the part, in my opinion). Except for the dead brother and some reference to the wife's dad (did he actually say he went to 'the old country' to meet him? Did he travel to Europe AND 100 years back in time?), it was as if they had no extended family on either side. If the kids knew nothing about this dead uncle until this age, the dad must have no living family. The wife also has no reference to family. If it is a case where all her family is "in the old country", why is it that she has no accent of any kind? If these parents are so determined that their kids need to cling to them as they're reaching adulthood, how is it that these parents seem to have absolutely no relationship with their own parents? Personally, if I were working on my relationship with my children, my primary frame of reference would be my relationship with my parents, not some 'we need to have family worship night'... and I would talk about my childhood and family at nearly every turn. That's something that is completely ignored in this video. So for me, it all seemed fake and scripted.
After observing that during the video, it just made the conclusion all the creepier. The family continues to be shown with no friends in many different times and circumstances. They sell the house to simplify, so does that mean the older kids downsize to twin beds and the youngest sleeps in a crib? In my estimation, it wasn't that they 'came together as a family'. It was like they went back in time so that the kids were more childish, reliant on their parents with no plans for growing up, planning careers, and being independent. Their plans for the future were to play bible games until they all grow old and die.
Creepy.
