Synopsis: In the Season 3 DVD of TLC’s hit television series 18 Kids & Counting, viewers follow the daily lives of the Duggars, a 20-member family from a small town in Arkansas who have become a pop culture sensation and have all of America talking. As former high school sweethearts, Jim Bob and Michelle firmly believe each child is a gift that should be cherished. With only two sets of twins among the 18 children, each with a name starting with the letter “J”, Michelle has been pregnant 12 years of her life.

Review: The Duggars have managed to become a huge cultural phenomenon in their brief time on television.  Their show, whose name has been evolving as more and more children are born, is now titled 19 Kids and Counting.  TLC has released season 3 on DVD for those that just can't get enough of the family trying to re-populate the earth.  The interesting thing about the Duggars..thats exactly what they're trying to do.  This isn't a simple Christian family, as they portray on television.  The Duggars are, in fact, part of the Quiverfull movement.  

I honestly watch most reality television with disgust.  Its there to make us all feel better about our own lives with train wreck after train wreck.  While the Duggars aren't as up front of a train wreck, if you spend time watching them you see right through the cracks.  The show sends the family on all types of adventures to keep their lives seemingly interesting, but what you have is a house of 18 children.  Lets face it, I have three children and I struggle to keep them all feeling valued and accepted.  When you have 18 children, not because you love your kids SO much, but because you have a whacked-out religious agenda to destroy abortion, you tend to create kids for the sake of creating kids, rather than raising any of them.  The older kids are raising the younger ones and there is a complete disconnect between the parents and their many children.

In this day and age I guess I expect to see parents actually engage and raise their children in a hands-on manner.  This isn't yesteryear, regardless of how some would like to pretend that it is.  We have a responsibilty to society and our own offspring to love and nurture them each as individuals, rather than a herd.  The hefty irony is that during the current season of the show (not featured on this DVD) the Duggars had their 19th child and there were complications.  It turns out that technology that was developed through extensive stem cell research saved their baby's life.  They were just fine with that, of course, since it suited them at the moment.  Hypocritical?  To the worst degree.

If you can't tell, I don't enjoy the Duggars.  I think they're insufficient parents and this show should serve as evidence for social services to remove those children from their home and be placed in a decent environment.  If you enjoy train wrecks, and honestly I do, watch 18 Kids and Counting.  You won't even believe your eyes.