Okay, I don’t normally watch network TV (or any TV), but this season I have found myself catching (occasionally) a couple of reality TV shows that are in proximity to Lost and 24.
These shows are called WifeSwap and (if I remember correctly) Trading Spouses. They are on ABC and FOX, respectively.
Both involve (from the 3-4 episodes I have seen) the mother of one family switching places with the mother of another family. When this happens then–formally or informally–the mother at first conforms to the rules of her new family and then begins to impose the rules that she is used to.
The producers of the shows seem to be trying to pick the most extreme (and clearly dysfunctional) families that they can find.
From my limited viewing experience of these shows, it seems that they involve pitting commonly stereotypical families against each others. Specifically: One mom comes from a messy, cluttered, rambunctious, and (usually) more-explicitly-Christian family than the other, who comes from from a clean, spartan, sedate, and (usually) less-explicitly-Christian family.
Part of the point of the shows is to see how the introduction of both moms affects both families. Inevitably, the "messy" mom comes across as more human than the "cleaner" mom–and the "messy" mom seems to have longer-lasting and more positive effects on the "clean" family than visa-versa.
That’s fiine with me.
Though I appreciate cleanliness (and especially hygiene), ultimately people are more important than things, and while venturing too far in either direction is unhealthy, it’s better to be messy, cluttered, rambunctious, and Christian than clean, spartan, sedate, and non-Christian.
Here’s to bigger famlies!
(Which regularly accompany the "messy" families rather than the "clean" moms.)