''Surviving America's Most Hated Family'' is a 2019

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documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

presented and written by

Louis Theroux Louis Sebastian Theroux (; born 20 May 1970) is a British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author. He has received two British Academy Television Awards and a Royal Television Society Television Award. After graduating fro ...

. The programme follows as Theroux revisits the family at the core of the

Westboro Baptist Church The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is a small American, unaffiliated Primitive Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, founded in 1955 by pastor Fred Phelps. Labeled a hate group, WBC is known for engaging in homophobic and anti-American pickets, as ...

and observes how its members have changed since the 2014 death of the church's founder,

Fred Phelps Fred Waldron Phelps Sr. (November 13, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American minister who served as the pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church, worked as a civil rights attorney, and ran for statewide election in Kansas. He gained nation ...

. The documentary first aired on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

in the United Kingdom on 14 July 2019, and is the third in a

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

of documentaries Theroux has made about the church. It was preceded by 2007's '' The Most Hated Family in America'', and 2011's ''

America's Most Hated Family in Crisis ''America's Most Hated Family in Crisis'' (also known as ''The Return of America's Most Hated Family'' in some markets) is a 2011 BBC documentary film presented and written by Louis Theroux, who revisits the family at the core of the Westboro Bapt ...

''. While the first two documentaries focused on the controversial doctrine, cult-like atmosphere and extensive protest activities of the church, the third documentary concerns itself primarily with the lives of former members. It also covers the impact of the death of lead Pastor Fred Phelps on the church, as well as his rumored death-bed

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

for softening his anti-homosexual rhetoric. Megan Phelps's defection from the church, from devoted follower to critic, as well as her attempts to stay in contact with her family (in particular with her mother

Shirley Shirley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Shirley'' (novel), an 1849 novel by Charlotte Brontë * ''Shirley'' (1922 film), a British silent film * ''Shirley'' (2020 film), an American film * ''Shirley'' (album), a 1961 album by Shirley Bas ...

) is covered in detail.

Reception

''Surviving America's Most Hated Family'' garnered a mixed reception from critics. Gerard O'Donovan of ''The Telegraph'' gave it two out of five stars, deeming it "a rare misstep from this normally pin-sharp documentarian." Brian Donaldson of ''The List'' gave the special three out of five stars, calling it "a road to nowhere." Lucy Mangan of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' rated it four out of five stars, while admitting it was "a deeply uncomfortable watch." Both O'Donovan and Mangan accused the documentary of veering into exploitation. O'Donovan wrote, "Theroux went wrong, withholding some potentially distressing news from (

Megan Phelps-Roper Megan Phelps-Roper is an American political activist who is formerly a member of, and spokesperson for, the Westboro Baptist Church, a Calvinist Christian sect categorized as a hate group. Her mother is Shirley Phelps-Roper, and her grandfath ...

) until a moment of maximum emotional impact, and lingering long on her shocked and tearful reaction." Mangan agreed, saying "It is profoundly uncomfortable to watch and, for me, errs firmly on the side of exploitation – which is not, generally, Theroux's stock-in-trade." Phelps-Roper personally defended Theroux's decision to reveal this information in this manner, stating in a Twitter post that she knows her family will watch the documentary and will see how devastated she was.

References

External links

* * {{Louis Theroux Louis Theroux's BBC Two specials 2019 television films 2019 films BBC television documentaries Westboro Baptist Church Documentary films about Christianity in the United States Documentary films about families Television episodes set in Kansas BBC travel television series 2019 documentary films 2010s British films