Young, mormon and single and no I'm not talking about me

Now the program description read as Documentary which follows four single Mormons looking for their eternal partner at a weekend-long, non-stop but sex-and-alcohol-free party in Duck Beach, North Carolina.

The last time the church appeared on BBC the end results were more then a little mixed. However BBC three has shown some good documentaries in the past.

But then again we had heard nothing about this through regular channels.

So I was already starting to wonder.

But I couldn't help but have a look.

At within two minutes I had already grabbed my phone to check what was happening with facebook as I knew it was going to go into meltdown because my first sight of some of these LDS on a beach actually lead me to ask the quite honest question if the UK has a different strength of youth booklet to the uk plus the sight of a party being broken up police, a girl seemingly having a bikini top ripped off and a guy talking about sexually frustrated mormons who may well break the rules.

This opening immediately clued me into the fact that this could be nowhere official and as a media representative  I'm sure somewhere in the depths of Loughborough Bro H suddenly put down a book declaring he sensed a disturbance in the force.

Mormon doctrine was then explained in a two minute animation which attempted to explain the importance we place on marriage but probably confused people more then anything.

Now it may be that it was down to bad editing but most of the people weren't come across as very in depth shall we say. And that's not just my opinion, the uk mid single facebook group was going into meltdown, especially as it showed several girls who were 21, 22, 23, etc worrying about being old and not married.

One of the people they were following came across very well mind you, Brian who if he ever comes to the uk will be beating them off with a stick. He seemed to be the only one who really seemed to show what it is like to be a mid single and how it's not easy sometimes to be a church member

Well the others, well to my eyes most of them looked like they had just stepped off the set of the OC, and the fact that the guys spent a lot of time wondering round with their shirts off and the girls were in bikini's it didn't help that some of them were coming across as dangerously shallow.

For example one girl who mentioned that she spoke to God as it were on a regular basis asking for help with things like finding car park spots and always thanking him when she got one, but she then didn't go to church as she saw a lad she liked but  she then also mentioned she would never ask the lord if she should marry someone. 

Another group was mentioning that they didn't have a requirement for people to hang with them but they had a lot of friends who were attractive who they invited and wanted to come so they were lucky.

And there was a lad who was only interested in girls about five or six years younger then him, not that he had anything against women older then him but he just knew that had problems in dating and getting married.

The trouble was it went on and on and by the time it reached the hot tubbing on a Sunday night where the girls in their bikini's were discussed the lads I just wanted it to end.

After it had, I went onto facebook and realised the reaction the program was gaining was immense. One girls status update regarding the program had a whoping 158 comments!

The general reaction seemed to be one of disappointment and that they thought people were very superficial.

Asides from Brian. Everybody loved brian.

However I then saw a comment which made me stop and think. One church member said words to the effect of lets all snoop at the lives of other members of our faith like total voyeurs via a tacky tv reality show and discuss how much more awesome we are.

Yes we were being judgemental a little bit. But then again it was all a matter of context, we were going off what we could see on the screen and lets face it there's always the possibility they were playing up for the camera's.

And hey I think anyone who watches any reality show will end up a bit judgemental as that is after all the nature of the beast. 

But it could have also have been editing, because the whole section where they went to church was maybe less then five minutes, if I'm being generous. And lets face it, as much as we are different to other churches and organisations we are very much the same in the sense that we have a wide cross section of people from the very good to the need a bit of work.

After all we are not a rest home for saints.

But regardless of what side you fall on, whether they were or were not superficial, I think the program didn't succeed in it's stated goal. 

You only became invested in one of the people and his journey. It was sad that it didn't have a happy ending but it gave it that touch of reality which is why I think it resonated so much with the mid singles on this side of the pond.

So I would say it was brave attempt but a missed goal.