Shiny Happy People: How Many Episodes Are In The Duggar Family Secrets Docuseries?

The latest hit streaming docuseries to get viewers talking is "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets," an expose of the Duggar family, best known as the stars of the once popular and long-running TLC reality series "19 Kids and Counting."

The series touches on the aspects of the Duggar family that weren't caught by TLC's cameras in their mostly cheerful reality TV show. Specifically, the show focuses on the eldest Duggar son, Josh, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence on child pornography charges.

The series is made up of four episodes, between 36 minutes and 51 minutes in length, and promises to be a pretty tough but important watch, especially for those who used to be fans of the Duggars' reality TV antics. It chronicles the rise and fall of the formerly popular family, and dives deep into abuses of various stripes that allegedly happened behind the scenes on their show.

All four episodes of "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets" were released simultaneously on Amazon Prime Video on June 1, 2023. The first episode introduces viewers to the Duggar clan and their controversial religious beliefs, much of which were minimized or excised entirely from "19 Kids and Counting."

The second episode's official Amazon listing reads that it deals with the "patriarchal, abusive authority [that] is at the core of Bill Gothard and Jim Bob Duggar's power." The third episode outlines labor abuses and other alleged crimes on the part of the Duggar empire, while the fourth covers the implications of what remains of the Duggar movement for the political environment of today.

Not exactly light entertainment, but "Shiny Happy People" is generating a lot of buzz online. Series executive producer Blye Pagon Faust told Vanity Fair that the show "is not a takedown of TLC" despite its lack of on-the-record figures involved with the original show's production. "We did a very strong outreach to numerous people who work on the different seasons of the shows, and we just didn't have anybody who was willing to speak on the record," Faust said.

Faust also revealed that there is plenty of material for a second season of the series, going deeper into the alleged abuses of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, an organization of which the Duggars' are some of the most prominent members.

For now, all four episodes of "Shiny Happy People" are available on Amazon Video.