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    Home » Everything Amish » Amish in the News

    New Season Of Breaking Amish Debuts Tonight, Will You Watch?

    Published: Sep 18, 2014 · Updated: Sep 18, 2014 by Kevin Williams | 3 Comments

    The Amish reality TV wave peaked a couple of years ago.  Producers have now moved on to all things Alaska or gypsies.  A few shows from the "Amish wave" have managed to stay on the air.  "Breaking Amish" is one of those shows.  The New York Daily News falls for it hook, line, and sinker and did a big spread about the show's season debut tonight at 10 10 p.m.  The programs center around the exploits of Miriam Troyer and Vonda Schrock as they adjust to life in New York City and decide whether they want to permanently reside in the Big Apple.    The show supposedly plays off "rumspringa," that period in some Amish youth's lives where they "let their hair down a bit" and explore.  But at age 27 and 29 respectively Troyer and Schrock are at the age when many Amish women have settled down and have 4 or 5 five children already.  So that alone sort of undercuts the show's "reality."

    article-amish4-0917 (1)Are the young ladies in the show really Amish?  I am sure they.  But here's the thing:  with over 250,000 Amish in the USA, statistically odds dictate a certain percentage oft them will be outliers.  Schrock and Troyer are obviously outliers and the definition of what is considered "Amish" can be very broad from pacifist Swartzentrubers to beard-cutting barbers in Bergholz.

    The fish-out-of-water premise is also a little tenuous.  To assume that just because an Amish person is Amish that they don't know the ways of the world is a bit naive. First of all, I think ANYONE - Amish or non- feels a bit overwhelmed by New York City.  I know I do.  I haven't been there in about 5 or 6 years but as soon as I get on Manhattan I am out of my element.  So part of what the TV producers are doing isn't so much showing the Amish reaction to NYC, they are just showing anyone's reaction who resides in the Midwest.

    TV producers interested in the Amish do still call me from time to time wanting to work on this or that project and usually it fizzles.  But two years ago at the height of the Amish reality TV craze, I was sucked into the morass.  And if you didn't read my ebook last summer, here is a link to it again:  My Amish Reality.  Read all 11 chapters and you'll know why I'm a little sour on reality.

    Even tried and true "reality TV" shows like the Duggars and Little People, Big World seem so heavily scripted (the term producers use is "heavily produced") that the line blurs between what is reality and what is scripted, staged reality. I suspect in those shows that there is much "scripted reality."

     

     

     

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    About Kevin Williams

    Hi, my name is Kevin Williams and I am owner of Oasis Newsfeatures and editor of The Amish Cook newspaper column.

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    Comments

    1. Kentucky Lady 717

      September 18, 2014 at 1:54 pm

      Yes I will be watching the new Amish show.....only to see what it is really like, and because really there is nothing else on tv fit to watch....I am seriously thinking of canceling my cable and go to Amazon Prime....will be a lot cheaper....the only thing I would
      miss not being able to see the daily new first thing in the morning, and I either watch GMA or HLN every morning and not sure Amazon will show them both, but even if they do it will be a day behind.....which I think won't be a big deal anyways.....
      I did not watch the Amish Mafia.....only saw part of it the first nite and that was enough for me.....but I did enjoy the first Amish show they did with CLAUDIA and her family.....and am hoping they will bring Claudia back......I could not stand a couple of the other ones on it tho.....and then the last show is really not fit to watch either......did not care for the girl who became a model....what a joke.....and didn't really care for a couple more either.....but will give this one a try.....

      Reply
      • Kevin

        September 19, 2014 at 10:47 am

        Claudia? What show was she in?

        Reply
    2. Carolyn

      September 18, 2014 at 8:57 pm

      Ditto Kevin.
      My sentiments exactly on reality shows . TLC and others like them are scraping the bottom of the barrel for just about anything that might be a little entertaining. They do a very bad job.

      Reply

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    Kevin Williams - The Amish Editor Amish Cook Column

    Hi There, I'm Kevin!

    Welcome to Amish365, where I share my knowledge of Amish cooking and culture! I’ve spent almost three decades exploring Amish settlements and kitchens from Maine to Montana and almost everywhere in between. I’ll occasionally throw in stories of my travels, journalism adventures (I’m a Pulitzer prize-nominated journalist), fascination with grocery stores and Kmarts, and much more!

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