A look at the rise of Latter-day Saint stories on TV!
Source: AXIOS Salt Lake City
Story By Kim Bojórquez, July 1, 2022
Television series and documentaries featuring Mormonism and Latter-day Saints — real and fictional — have exploded on networks and streaming services.
Driving the news: "Under the Banner of Heaven" on Hulu, "Tokyo Vice" on HBO Max, "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey" and "Murder Among the Mormons" on Netflix have all been released in the last two years.
- UTBOH centers around a fictional Latter-day Saint detective investigating the real-life murders of Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter.
- A former Latter-day Saint missionary is portrayed in "Tokyo Vice."
- The mini-series "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey" dives into the crimes committed by Warren Jeffs, the former president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamous Mormon sect that's not affiliated with the church.
Between the lines: Troy Williams, who worked as a consultant for UTBOH, said the surge of Latter-day Saint stories is a ripple effect from Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign and the Tony award-winning musical "The Book of Mormon."
What they're saying: "I think the Latter-day Saints have finally saturated American pop culture," Williams said. "We're seeing more stories and characters enter into the mainstream."
David Scott, a professor who teaches a course called "Mormons, media and popular culture" at Utah Valley University, said more Americans turned to streaming services amid the pandemic.
- Meanwhile, a rising number of Americans are shifting their trust away from religious institutions, he said.
- "These stories aren't new," Scott said. "These stories resonate more with popular culture now than they would have before."...
