Stream It Or Skip It?

Taylor Frankie Paul, Mayci Neeley, Mikayla Matthews, Whitney Leavitt, Demi Engemann, Jessi Ngatikaura, Jen Affleck, Layla Taylor, and Miranda McWhorter have managed to become cultural phenomena in the short amount of time that their show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, has been on the air. What started as a swinging scandal has turned into something so much more salacious, if you could believe it. Now, the women must navigate outside voices, affair allegations, and, of course, figure out who their queen bee is once and for all. MomTok is back for round three — but will it survive this latest string of scandals? Spoilers ahead!

Opening Shot: The first scene of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives gives us an update on Taylor after her split from Dakota Mortensen last season. The mom-of-three reveals that she decided to attend a therapy retreat for the first two weeks of filming, leaving Mayci, Mikayla, Layla, Miranda, and Jessi to hold down the fort at the start of Season 3.

The Gist: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives picks up immediately after the events in the Season 2 finale, during which Vanderpump Villa star Marciano Brunette claimed he and Jessi were having an affair, Demi was iced out of MomTok, and Whitney was voted back into the group.

Now, the ladies must get to the bottom of what actually happened between Marciano and Jessi that fateful night in Los Angeles, and what allegedly happened between him and Demi in Italy the summer before (he claims they kissed, but Demi claims he sexually assaulted her). Plus, the drama in Taylor’s life is ongoing as she uncovers a new secret about her baby daddy, Dakota, shortly after their reconciliation. And Layla, for her part, is finding her voice, whether it means standing up to her friends, or embracing her identity by finding a new hair stylist.

What Shows Will This Remind You Of? As I’ve said before, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives feels like a mix between Teen Mom and The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. However, its format is unlike any other reality show I’ve ever seen.

Our Take:  The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is doing reality TV the right way. Instead of ending a season and waiting months to start production again, producers never take the cameras off of the women, making for authentic interactions and reactions to all of the drama going on in their lives. The cliffhanger we saw at the end of Season 2 (Jessi and Marciano’s affair bombshell) is immediately addressed in Season 3, Episode 1. Not to mention, because the cameras kept rolling, there’s something incredibly satisfying about watching them film Season 3, before ever even learning the fan response to Season 2.

There’s also something to be said about the scandals this season. While the show started off with Taylor’s swinging ordeal, it’s taken a hard pivot to prove that Taylor is hardly the only one with skeletons in her closet. Jessi and Marciano admit to their affair, leading to Jessi’s brief separation from her husband. Demi is hurling sexual harassment allegations against Marciano, but the majority of the women are questioning her story. Mikayla’s marriage is in turmoil as she works to embrace intimacy after facing years of sexual abuse as a child. And Taylor learns that her baby daddy, with whom she had recently reconciled, had been sexting her mom’s best friend amid their split. The old saying, “You just can’t make this stuff up,” repeatedly rang through my head as I watched episode after episode. My only complaint? It’s only 10 episodes. For storylines to cut even deeper and for each woman in the cast to get the rightful amount of spotlight they deserve, we need to bring back longer seasons for this show and this show only.

Sleeper Star: I’m going to give this season’s sleeper star to Jessi. While the storyline becomes less about her bombshell affair as the episodes go on, from the standpoint of someone who has watched a lot of reality TV, it was refreshing to see someone be so open and so honest from the start. There was no poking and prodding to get the answers out of Jessi about her affair with Marciano. Instead, she laid it all on the table, and then some.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I can’t handle toxic men. I can probably handle toxic women a lot better. It’s the men,” Mayci says in the premiere. If one thing is for certain, this show has some toxic men and some toxic women! It’s up to you to decide who is who.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I once said Season 2 was better than Season 1. But now, Season 3 might have them both beat.