If "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" Were Submitted for Coverage

Can Mom-Tok survive this coverage report?

If you know me personally, you know I'm obsessed with reality TV.

I honestly think *I* wouldn't survive if there wasn't petty Mom-tok drama to watch.

If you don't know me, this revelation probably has you questioning my tastes and ability to properly analyze screenplays and films...

Before you judge me, just watch this trailer for THE SECRET LIVES OF MORMON WIVES and tell me you aren't immediately ready to binge-watch the entire series right now

This series is, in my opinion, one of the best reality shows to come out in the last few years.

The whole concept is built on conflict and drama -- a group of modern, devout Mormon women who drink, get botox just to get high off laughing gas, and post "sexy" dance videos on TikTok.

It's reality TV GOLD.

So I thought I'd explain why I love this show in the form of a coverage report!

Thank you to this commenter for the suggestion!

I wrote this report as if I were reviewing the first cut of this pilot episode.

This is report most similar to my Standard Studio Coverage for a Pilot (Filmed).

Although this service isn't officially one of the options listed on my site, it's something I'm more than happy to do for your completed or work-in-progress pilot, film, or short.

Just email me for any inquiries 😊

And with that shameless self-promotion out of the way, let's get into the coverage!

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COVERAGE REPORT

Title: THE SECRET LIVES OF MORMON WIVES

Genre: Reality, Trashy TV

Length: 44-minutes (hour-long pilot)

Logline: Months after a swinging scandal shatters her marriage and friendships, the leader of the Mormon "Mom-Tok" influencers attempts to rebuild her life and reputation, but her estranged friend and o.g. member of "Mom-Tok" drags her deeper into a world of drama and betrayal.

Brief Synopsis: After her highly publicized "swinging scandal" shakes her Mormon community and ends her marriage, TAYLOR FRANKIE PAUL, the self-proclaimed leader of "Mom-Tok," quickly rebounds with a new boyfriend, DAKOTA, despite resistance from friends and family. Tensions flare with her estranged friend and o.g. Mom-Tok member, WHITNEY, who blames Taylor’s scandal for rumors about her husband CONNOR using Tinder surfacing online.

Whitney decides to reveal to the Mom-Tokers that the rumors about Connor are true, and right after, Taylor announces her recent miscarriage, causing Whitney to become upset that Taylor is centering herself, as usual. This incites a divide in the group, which the end-of-episode full-season teaser suggests deepens further as Whitney tries to push Taylor out of the group. "Can Mom-Tok survive this?"

Full Synopsis: A MONTAGE of news and TikTok videos depict how TAYLOR FRANKIE PAUL, the self-proclaimed leader and creator of "Mom-Tok," was involved in a "swinging scandal" with other members of the Mormon community.

In interview clips, the rest of the Mom-Tok women briefly discuss what it means to be Mormon, and the often toxic beliefs instilled in girls from childhood through adulthood (no sex before marriage, but have multiple kids by the time you're 25, etc).

Taylor meets with MAYCI, who she hasn't seen since the swinging scandal. Taylor talks about her new boyfriend, DAKOTA, who people online have been saying is a cheater. Mayci tells Taylor she's worried about her getting into a new relationship so soon after her divorce, which was a result of the swinging scandal. In a recorded livestream, Taylor explains how she and her ex-husband were in a "soft swinging" group, and she had broken their promise to each other when she "fully switched" with another man. After this scandal, Taylor was forced out of her position as the Mom-Tok leader.

After the Mom-Tok crew films a dance video without Taylor, the women talk about the swinging scandal, and JESSI asks if any of them were involved with the swinging group. DEMI says she and her husband were at parties with them but never realized there was swinging happening behind the scenes. She explains how she did notice Taylor flirting with her husband, though, and she's still mad about it.

Taylor's mom leaves a comment on a video of her and Dakota announcing their relationship, saying "As your mother, I think you should let your divorce settle before entering a new relationship." Later, Taylor and her mom discuss the swinging scandal, and her mother lectures her about making bad decisions with her life -- and partners. Taylor decides this is the perfect moment to reveal another choice of hers: she's possibly pregnant, and needs to take a test to know for sure. Her mother walks away from her, leaving Taylor to reflect on her choices alone.

Back with Mom-Tok, the women discuss how WHITNEY is returning to Utah soon. Mayci mentions that people online have been posting screenshots of Whitney's husband CONNOR on Tinder. In an interview clip, Whitney blames Taylor's scandal for sparking these "rumors" about Connor, and talks about how all the drama caused by Taylor was affecting her so much mentally that she had to move to Hawaii for two months.

Whitney and MIKAYLA, two of the original four Mom-Tokers, meet with Taylor for the first time since the swinging scandal broke. Taylor expresses how she's upset that Whitney didn't tell her she was moving to Hawaii or moving back to Utah -- she thought they were closer friends than that. Whitney explains she doesn't trust Taylor after the swinging scandal, and feels Taylor brought all of Mom-Tok under suspicion when she talked about it in her livestream. Taylor says she thought they were cool, especially since Mikayla and Whitney posted TikToks joking about the situation shortly after. The women come to an understanding and agree to be friends again.

At Whitney's house, she confronts Connor about the Tinder rumors, and he cries as he explains how he's working on himself and is deeply sorry for his actions. Whitney worries about what people in their church will say, and Connor says he doesn't care what anyone other than she thinks of him. Later, all the Mom-Tok crew gets together, and Whitney talks about Connor's Tinder scandal and how he was struggling with a porn addiction throughout their marriage. She explains he was "just confused" and they're working through it. Whitney admits the main reason she moved to Hawaii was because of this, not because of how Taylor handled the swinging scandal like she previously claimed. This revelation incites Taylor to mention her recent miscarriage, and Whitney becomes upset that Taylor stole her moment.

Taylor and Dakota go out for sushi, where Dakota says he can't believe she's dating him after he initiated contact by "sliding into [her] DMs." They discuss possibly getting married, and Dakota mentions how he doesn't approve of her drinking habit. In an interview clip, Taylor says it may be a dealbreaker if she can never drink again.

That night, one of Taylor's neighbors calls the police on her after seeing her drunkenly yelling at Dakota. Police bodycam footage reveals that Dakota forced her to leave the house because she was physically attacking him. Taylor, however, says Dakota initiated the violence. Despite this claim, Taylor is arrested.

A preview of full season reveals Taylor is pregnant, Whitney wants to exclude Taylor from Mom-Tok because of all the drama she causes, and the entire group is divided over who to support. More clips of future drama culminate with a quote: "Can Mom-Tok survive this?"

Reader Comments:

Although it was a challenge to tell these women apart (aside from Taylor and Whitney), and the range of drama covered in this pilot episode was like emotional whiplash, it's abundantly clear a full series about these women would thrive. Between the growing Taylor vs. Whitney conflict, the toxic romantic relationships these women have with their partners, Taylor's absolutely wild life choices, and the pure silliness of their actual careers being based on making TikTok videos, there's no shortage of entertainment with this cast. The main concern is, with so much going on in this pilot episode, it does feel there could be more focus on streamlining the core conflicts in order to avoid certain storylines feeling underdeveloped or even irrelevant.

The first half of this pilot is almost solely focused on establishing the swinging scandal and Taylor's life, whereas the second half taps more into Whitney's relationship with her husband and her festering resentment towards Taylor. There was such a heavy emphasis on the swinging scandal in the first 20 minutes, it felt like a major tonal shift when the central conflict became Taylor vs. Whitney. In order to create a smoother introduction to this main storyline that will drive the remainder of the series, there are a few scenes that could potentially be removed or condensed.

One area that didn't quite seem to fit in with the rest of the episode was the scene with Taylor and her mother. Their dynamic is certainly ripe for conflict and tension that can (and should) be explored in the full series, but in the pilot episode with so many other central players to introduce and only 40 minutes to do it, it felt the time spent on this scene would have been better spent on a scene that more properly establishes the Mom-Tok group -- mainly Whitney, who becomes a main character opposite to Taylor.

The scene with Taylor's mother mostly covers information and emotions already shown in previous scenes: Mayci expresses disappointment in Taylor's choice to get into a relationship so soon after her divorce in the first scene, and in interview clips Taylor talks about her possible current pregnancy. Therefore, it may be beneficial to cut the scene with Taylor's mother and use that space to move up the introduction of Whitney's storyline.

The other scene that could benefit from revisions is when the Mom-Tok group is chatting after recording their TikTok video. Their conversation centers almost entirely around the swinging scandal, which of course was a hot topic for them at the time, but by this point we already have a solid understanding of the events, so this conversation (in comparison to the rest of the episode) feels redundant. However, during this conversation, they also discuss Whitney returning home from Hawaii and her husband's Tinder scandal. This is the first mention of Whitney, and it occurs almost 20 minutes into the episode, and it's before we've even seen her face. Because of the episode's sudden shift in focus after this onto establishing Whitney's storyline, it could be helpful to trim the discussion revolving around the swinging scandal to make room for Whitney's introduction a bit sooner so she can more effectively be established as the major character she ends up becoming. In particular, removing the beats where Demi mentions that Taylor was flirty with her husband would be beneficial, since this minor storyline isn't addressed again after this first mention of it.

Freeing up some of this space in the first 20 minutes would allow more room to flesh out Whitney and Connor's relationship issues, which felt shortchanged to keep all the swinging drama in the episode. Bringing Whitney into the pilot sooner and focusing more on her storyline would provide more of a balanced feel to the episode overall, instead of the way it feels currently where it's half about Taylor and half about Whitney.

Aside from Whitney's plot, the other aspect of this episode that felt underdeveloped was Taylor's miscarriage and her relationship with Dakota, both of which become major plot points by the end of the pilot.

As far as her miscarriage, the first time she mentions it is when she announces it to the Mom-Tok group -- but she talks about how she's been going to the doctor for several weeks to make sure everything is okay. While there likely isn't footage of her doctor's visits, there's probably footage of Taylor discussing this either in an interview clip or with her boyfriend, Dakota. Ideally something of this sort would be shown before the big reveal so it doesn't feel like we've missed something major.

If the scene with Taylor's mother is removed, this area would be a good time to briefly introduce this plot point. Then it could be mentioned again in Taylor's interview after her meet-up with Mikayla and Whitney. Instead of her saying she didn't want to tell them about her pregnancy in that moment, she could mention she didn't want to tell them about her miscarriage. Including these moments will help flesh this storyline out more effectively, and build up the tension before Taylor talks about it at the "wrong" moment.

As far as Taylor's relationship with Dakota, there's a lot of discussion about it in the first 20 minutes from people who aren't directly involved, but we don't ever actually see these two together (aside from quick cutaways to their TikTok videos) until the last 5 minutes of the episode. And in those 5 minutes, we go from them being on a cute date to them screaming at each other in front of the police before Taylor is arrested. While this sudden shift was quite funny and will almost certainly make audiences invested in watching the next episode, it did feel there was a missed opportunity for their relationship to be explored a bit further throughout the episode, similar to how Whitney and Connor's relationship is portrayed. If there is more footage of them together, it could be worth it to inject this into Taylor's storyline in place of some of the repetitive beats where the swinging scandal is discussed.

Overall, this pilot is full of quality drama to keep the audience invested and engaged, and offers a solid foundation for a full series. The Taylor vs. Whitney conflict has the potential to be a captivating throughline, while Taylor’s whirlwind life choices, the cast's volatile relationships (interpersonal and romantic), and the social media spectacle surrounding the group provide multiple avenues for strong storylines to explore in future episodes. With some rebalancing of the first 20 minutes to introduce Whitney's storyline sooner, trim scenes that don't directly serve the main conflicts, and cut down on beats that repeatedly establish the swinging scandal, this pilot could more effectively set up its characters and core plotlines from the start.

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Soooo...... If you haven't seen it: first of all WHY, and second, are you going to watch it now? Like, right now 👀👀👀

If you haven't been convinced to watch this incredible show yet, what shows are you watching? What would you like to see me review next?

Leave your answer in the comments below!

And until the next post: